Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/39

 buildings, and how they were planned and assigned, we are thrown upon the researches now made at Melandra, Ribchester, and Wilderspool for completing the lacunae. All these places were erected at periods not much removed from each other, and we know already that in the main features they were much the same in plan and structure. When these excavations are complete we shall be able to realise much better than at present what Mancunium probably looked like.

.—I have already pointed out that the southern, and, probably, also the central part of the castrum, stood on a higher level than the more northern part, and that the ground was therefore levelled up. In May, 1898, a long trench was made in Collier Street, leading to Southern's timber-yard, from the large stone post at the passage of the small coalyard to inside the railway arch, where we are on intra-castral ground. After penetrating the layer of rubbish and modern paving, we come upon a course of paving stones, underlaid by stiff, earthy clay, yellow soil, and stones. This shows that the area, just as at Castleshaw and Ribchester, was levelled with soil and stiff clay, and that it was paved with stones. Mr. Howarth, who tried to watch the excavations in 1849, also mentions the existence of pavements inside the castrum.

.—On the 6th May, 1897, on driving the foundation for the new railway pier on the west side of Collier Street, an arched drain or culvert was found, 12 feet below the surface, and raised on the rock. It was 4 feet high, the arch spanning 3 feet in the centre, the bricks were 6½ inches by 2½ inches by 2½ inches, of "bull nose" shape. At the bottom it was laid on flags