Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/41

 to form the cellar of the house a hole appeared in the rock about six feet in the square and filled with rubbish; three coins of brass were found in it and a piece of thick, short gold wire.

—In the rectangular piece of ground, bounded on the north by the Roman road to Buxton (which struck off from the Ribchester road a little north of the northern gate) on one side, and the east gate and the stem of the roads to Slack and Chester on the other side (see diagram), a number of sepulchral urns have been unearthed at different periods.

1762. Whitaker records the discovery of an urn with bones on the eastern boundary of the field (vol. i., p. 59).

1765. Another sepulchral urn, same field, lower down the slope, 7 feet deep, and resting on the rock.

1849. Numerous urns were discovered again here, also a grave of a vertical form, cylindrical, cut in the rock, charred bones were found in it (Corbett).

1832. A tile tomb was found on the opposite side (south side) of the Medlock. This is evidently near Great Jackson Street, close by the Roman road to Chester, where many other Roman sepulchral stones have been secured. The coffin was of oak, and enclosed in a casing of flanged tiles, 20 inches long, 16 inches broad, and 2½ inches thick.

We see that all the sepulchral urns and tombs are situated at the sides and along the Roman roads which issue from the north-eastern side of the station, following in this respect the usual practice of the Romans.

—While the more northern part was thus appropriated for sepulchral purposes the