Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/45

 9 inches by 5 inches, others 8 inches by 4 inches by 3 inches, of which I numbered twenty, all in situ, on the right side. (See Plan.)

In 1839, in laying the foundations of the "Hall of Science," in Tonman Street, which is situated immediately on the west side of Ribchester Road, a bronze statuette of Jupiter Stator was found in the ground, with a silver coin of Trajan (98–117). The ornamental bowls of Samian ware which I have collected on the northern area (in Bridgewater Street, Worsley Street, Liverpool Street, &c.), mostly refer to the second century. This would give us an approximate indication of the date when this suburban part was founded. In the later empire the whole force lived outside the forts, when not on duty. Mancunium was only a small station with a garrison of perhaps not more than five hundred soldiers, besides women, traders, artisans, craftsmen, natives, &c., and these probably dwelled mostly on this side of the station.

As we have no records of the discovery of regular foundations between Camp Street and the station, either by Whitaker, who would surely have specially alluded to it, or by subsequent local testimony, we may conclude that no buildings of important character were erected over this area, and that the houses were only of the ordinary or inferior order. The "huge blocks of millstone grit with their mortar adhering to them" found "within the circuit of the area," as Whitaker says, may more likely come from the station itself when dismantled and turned into a "quarry in the middle ages."

But the Romans did not confine themselves, as Whitaker assumes, to the west side of Deansgate only, which he fancies was the proper "Brito-Roman town," but they also occupied the whole of the land on the east side comprised between Great Bridgewater Street