Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/74

 Whitaker's minute description, which will be found in his Appendix. It is due to the co-operation and ability of our esteemed member, Mr. J. J. Phelps, that I can add a plan of reconstruction of these buildings which he has worked out in scale from the measurements and details put on record by the former writer. In referring to the plan we notice that in front of the first building a pedestal was placed on a flooring 7 to 8 inches thick, made with pieces of soft red rock and bedded in clay; 8 feet immediately to the east was

, 20 feet long and 10 feet wide, floored with Roman cement (mortar and pounded brick), the floor, 9 inches thick, "resting on a body of marl about as many in depth; at the further end from the pedestal were found human and animal bones lying under a decayed arch of Roman bricks, and fragments of urns." Nine feet away to the east followed

, 30 feet long and 10 feet wide, made of the same cement, and lying 2 or 3 feet lower in the ground, and covered with flags. Below this came a second floor, composed of pilæ of millstone grit blocks and square tubular tiles, 16 inches high, resting on a cake of cement, 2 feet thick; this, again, lay on a third flooring of pure mortar, 3 inches thick, on which was erected a series of pilæ of flat square tiles and flags, and 3 feet high, the whole built on a subsoil of red sand. The exterior wall of Building I. had a thickness of 2 feet 3 inches, Building II. of 4 feet, formed of regularly dressed stones. The space between the pilæ of floor iii. was closely filled on every side with loose earth. Three feet to the east occurred

, but all a mere mass of confusion. In the rubbish were found a couple of Roman coins, and three round tile tubes, 16 inches in height, inserted into each other. It is clear from the description that the three buildings formed the hypocaust of the station,