The Hall of Waltheof/Chapter XXXIV

ROMAN road went through Hallamshire in the direction of east to west. I propose in this chapter to trace the course of this road, which has been called the Port-way, Bathum-gate, Giants' Causey, and Long Causey, from Buxton to Templeborough, near Rotherham. It would seem more desirable to trace it from Templeborough to Buxton, because the road was, as one of its names implies, the highway leading to the hot springs or baths there. But, as the part of the road which is near Buxton has been more fully examined than the part near Templeborough, and at an earlier time, it will be better to begin with the known and then proceed to that which is less known.

The earliest mention of this Roman road which I have seen is that which occurs in a book written by Dr. John Jones, and printed in 1572. The writer was at one time Reclor of Treeton near Sheffield, and, as he wrote a book about Buxton, he was probably well acquainted with the country between Sheffield and Buxton. He is of opinion that "Buckstones Bathes," as he calls them, are "of great antiquitie," and he tells us that for "many yeares past" the town of Buxton "was frequented for the health of thousandes, by bathing them: as well as it is in these our dayes. For, betweene Burghe and it, there is an high way forced ouer the moores, all paued, of such antiquity as none can express, called Bathgate." A few years later Camden says "that these hote waters were knowne in old time, the Port-way or High paved street named Bath-gate, reaching for seven miles together from hence unto Burgh a little village doth manifestly show." Burgh is the place now called Brough, near Hope. Pegge speaks of the road as "the lesser Roman road called the Bath-way." "It is now," he says, "commonly stiled by the natives of the country Bathom-gate." The natives were quite right in using this name, for they thereby preserved correctly the ancient form of the word. Bathom stands for baðum, the dative plural of the Old English bæð, bath. The German Baden is the dative plural of the cognate word bad. It appears from an ancient charter printed in Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus that the city of Bath was called æt baðum, which, though meaning literally "at the baths," is simply, according to the Old English idiom, Bath. It follows, then, that Buxton, like Bath in Somersetshire, was formerly called æet baðum, or Bath. A recent discovery has shown that Buxton is probably the Aquæ of the Ravenna geographer, and that Burgh or Brough was probably known as Navio, a word with which we may compare the stream at Brough known as Noo or Nooa, though the resemblance is but slight. The order of the iter given by the geographer is "Lindum colonia (Lincoln?), Bannovallum, Navione, Aquis." Bannovallum may, or may not, be Templeborough, for that point has not been settled, but Mr. W. Thompson Watkin of Liverpool has shown "from the evidence of an inscription on a Roman milestone found near Buxton, and marking eleven miles from Navio, that the station bearing that name was probably at Brough, near Castleton, Derbyshire; whilst as to the name of the next station, Aquæ (The Waters), there is but one place in the neighbourhood to which it would apply, Buxton." The Romans knew the virtues of its hot springs, and thought so highly of them that they made a great paved road thereto from the towns to the east and north right across the high moors. The road doubtless extended further to the west of Buxton, as it extended to the east of Templeborough, but we are here dealing with the part extending between Templeborough and Buxton.

Though few Roman remains have, up to the present day, been found at Buxton, it was, in the words of Pegge, "indisputably a Roman station." Few places in the north of England were more likely to attract the eye of the bath-loving Roman than this. Wherever the Romans went they never forgot the hot baths to which they were accustomed, and the hot springs of Buxton would make the labour and cost of building hypocausts unnecessary. But they would not have made this great paved road for the mere sake of travelling to water which was naturally heated. They believed, as many of us believe, in the healing virtues of such springs, and they doubtless intended Buxton to be a resort of health and pleasure, like the city of Bath itself, or like the Baiæ of their own country.

The springs at Baiæ, we are told, were of very different ingredients, and their sanatory powers manifold. They contained sulphur, alum, salt, soda, and other chemical properties. The baths which promoted perspiration seem to have been valued highest, and hot streams of vapour were conducted from the springs by means of pipes into the buildings. Strabo tells us that Baiæ and its warm springs were serviceable both for pleasure and the healing of diseases. Now the warm springs of Buxton were just as serviceable to the Roman settlers living in the north of this island as the baths of Baiæ were to those who remained at home. Wherever the Romans went they took their manners, customs, and habits of life with them. That they should have made a costly paved road to Buxton, right over the barren and heath-clad moors, is a proof not only of their energy and of their love of health and pleasure, but also of the firm hold which they obtained in this country. The walls of their villas and the pavements of their roads have been used as quarries for more than a thousand years. But still hardly a year goes by which does not disclose fresh evidence of their power in England. We know not how many remains of great villas yet lie buried in the ground. Even when we find them, or know about them already, we do not always explore them. It is only on a few rare occasions that some zealous antiquary succeeds in kindling enough enthusiasm to raise a few pounds for exploring, for instance, such a place as Templeborough.

Pegge has already traced the Bath-gate from Brough to Buxton, and we cannot do better than quote his account:

"Brough," he says, "was certainly once a place of consequence, and probably very populous. But now from hence to Buxton, the road is very capable of being traced, as we found by experience, for the materials of which the stratum is composed, are totally different from the natural ground on each side. The stratum, or causey, is not much raised anywhere (indeed there was but little occasion for that, the ground being in general hard and sound) but is the most so at the first setting out; however, in several places upon Tideswell moor you may distinguish the sides of it for many yards together, so as to form a good judgment of its breadth, which we found to be seven or eight yards.

"I shall take it at Brough, and proceed from thence to Buxton. As soon as you are over the second water flash, commonly called the Burghwash, which is made by Bradwell brook, it appears in the lane, much raised, but broken into fragments. Then it enters Bull-meadow, running up by the left hand hedge which stands upon it. From thence it turns into that strait lane that leads to Smaldale, where it turns up to the pastures, called Doctor's Pasture and Bagshaw Pasture, where it is but little to be seen. Afterwards it becomes very visible, and proceeds in a very direcl line to the stone fence that parts Bradwell moor and Tidswell-moor; from whence it goes, in a line equally strait [sic] to the enclosures of the Dam of the Forest, and this seems to be the most perfect and conspicuous portion of it. Here, a few yards within the lane, commonly called Hernstone-Lane, it enters the enclosures on the left hand, where we could discern its course, in the month of June, very plainly, by the different colour of the grass, till it entered that straight lane that goes to Fairfield. Afterwards, it winds to the left hand towards Fairfield, and proceeds by that village to Buxton, where it finally ends, for I could not learn that it extended any further. Camden calls the length of it seven miles, but I presume it cannot be less than ten Italian miles."

Pegge believed that the road only ran between Brough and Buxton. "I do not," he says, "find any traces of the road in question, to the North or North East of Brough, whence it may be reasonable to conclude that it extended no further that way, but was meerly intended for a commodious communication between this place and Buxton bath." But in saying this he was mistaken, as will presently be seen.

Having quoted Pegge's account of the road between Brough and Buxton, a few words must be said about Brough itself before we trace the road which goes from that place to Stanage Pole and Redmires, and thence to Templeborough. Here I will once more quote the last-named writer:

"'Brough is a small hamlet in the parish of, and very near, Hope, where remains of antiquity have been frequently and copiously found. And when I was there, anno 1761, in company with Mr. John Mander of Bakewell, they shewed us a rude bust of Apollo, and of another deity, in stone, that had been found in the fields there. There had also been a coarse pavement composed of pieces of tiles and cement discovered, as also urns, bricks, tiles, in short every species of Roman antiquities, but coins, of which we could not hear that any had been found. The two fields called Halsteds, lie at the confluence of Bradwal brook and the Noo or Noa. In the upper one innumerable foundations of hewn stone had been ploughed up, and in the lower, very near to the angle made by the two brooks, are the apparent marks of an oblong square building, the angles of which were of hewn grit stone.'"

In 1778 William Bray published "A Sketch of a Tour into Derbyshire and Yorkshire"—a pleasing and interesting book which is too little known in this district. He thus writes of Brough:

"'In a field at the conflux of the two streams, it is in memory that a double row of pillars crossed the point of land, but they have been entirely destroyed some time. Old people say they were of grit-stone, and that three persons could walk abreast between them. At a gate by the road side, just before coming to the mill, on the left of the gate I saw a base, and part of a column of brown stone.'"

Bray gives an engraving of a portion of one of these pillars, which resembles those lately found at Templeborough. A considerable harvest of Roman remains probably awaits the explorer at this place, which might be written Burgh, as it used to be. This word, which occurs also in Temple-borough, proves that these places were considerable villas or towns whose fortifications were more substantial than simple hedges and ditches. A big Roman villa was a town in itself, just as some great ducal mansions, Welbeck for example, are as big as some towns.

Important as the town of Brough or Burgh must have been, it is not à priori likely that a costly Roman road, "all paved," as Dr. Jones described it in 1572, would have been made for the sole use of that town only. Nor was this the case. The straight course which Roman roads usually took has often been noticed, and if we draw a straight line from Buxton to Templeborough we shall find that it will pass through, or nearly through, Burgh. We shall also find that this line will pass by, or very near, Stanage Pole, Redmires, Hallam Head, and Sandygate. I do not say that we can trace the road through all its course from Burgh to Stanage Pole, or from Stanage Pole to Templeborough, for the cultivation of land and the growth of Sheffield have destroyed most of the traces of it. But there is no doubt as to its general direction. In a little map of Derbyshire, made so recently as 1805, only two roads from Burgh leading eastward are marked; one is the turnpike passing through Hathersage to Sheffield; the other is an old road which goes up to Stanage Pole. Now this is the Roman road, though its course from Burgh to Stanage Pole is not so apparent to-day. It is, however, very apparent for a mile or two to the north-west of Stanage Pole, where great paving stones may still be seen. Here it is popularly known as Giants' Causey, a name which is in harmony with the well-known belief which attributed old works to the giants. Under the name of Long Causey the course of the road from Stanage Pole to Hallamgate near the Crookes Dam is clearly marked in an engraved map of Sheffield and its environs, made by W. Fairbank and Son in 1795. The course of the Long Causey has been since interrupted by the making of the reservoir at Redmires, and its ancient name has lately been changed to the meaningless "Lodge Moor Road."

Happily the surveyor has preserved the true name, for "long causey" means long paved way, this being a very neat and appropriate description of a Roman road. A Roman road near Chesterholm on Hadrian's wall is known as Stanegate (stone way), the name being identical in meaning with "causey."

Excavations would of course have to be made before the actual construction of the road could be determined. But "part of a magnificent Roman road is still to be seen on a hill-side at Blackstone Edge in Lancashire." This has been partly laid bare, and the view of it given in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities shows that it was paved with small rectangular stones like our modern metalled streets,, but with a row of much larger paving stones running down the middle; these larger stones being raised at the edges, and apparently intended for a central foot-way. The paving stones on the middle of the Roman road which goes by Stanage Pole, and upon that part of the same road which leads to Mytham Bridge near Hope, appear to have been employed for the same purpose as the central stones or paved foot-way of the Lancashire road. One cannot, however, be sure, after the lapse of so many centuries, that these are the original Roman paving stones. They are hollow in the middle. A drawing of the road leading to Mytham Bridge is given on the preceding page. With the termination of the Long Causey, as shown in Fairbank's map, at the south side of the dam in Crookes known as "Pisgah Dam," or "Hadfield Service Reservoir," positive knowledge of the actual eastward course of the road ends. Assuming, as we safely may, that the road still pursued an eastward course, it would pass either directly through, or very near to, the old town of Sheffield, and probably strike the great north road which passed through Stretton, Chesterfield, Eckington, Beighton, and Treeton at or near Templeborough. The Long Causey may have continued along Western Bank, "Brook Hill," Broad Lane, and West-bar Green, crossing the Don at Bridgehouses, or more probably it may have kept further to the south and passed along "Portobello Street," Trippet Lane, and High Street till it crossed the Don at Lady's Bridge. If the term High Street could be shown to be an ancient name, and not a mere substitute for an older Prior Gate, it would possibly mark the site of the Roman road in the city of Sheffield. The course of the road from Sheffield to Templeborough is uncertain, but I think it is most likely that the present road to Rotherham, passing through Attercliffe and Carbrook, stands upon its site.

It is by no means certain that the road crossed the river either at Bridgehouses or Lady's Bridge, and we may dismiss the possibility of its having crossed at the former place as most unlikely. Lady's Bridge is of great antiquity—it was rebuilt in 1485 —but we do not know that it stands upon the site of a bridge built by the Romans, though it is not likely that they would have left this river without a bridge. If the road crossed the Don at Lady's Bridge, it would cross that river again at Washford Bridge, in the direction of Attercliffe. But the road may have gone forward to Templeborough on the south side of the Don, without crossing the river at all. For the present we must regard its actual course to the east or north-east as a matter of conjecture, though we may be confident that it led straight to Templeborough, or very near to that town. The present road through Attercliffe is so straight, and points so directly towards Templeborough and Rotherham, that we may, with no little probability, take it to be the site of the Roman road. Positive evidence as to its direction is not now forthcoming, but it might be found in field-names such as Causey Meadow, or Street-field, or in old plans. I have not attempted to trace the road to the east of Templeborough, or through Rotherham.

Templeborough has been so well and fully described by Mr. Leader, who has paid great attention to the traces of the Romans in this neighbourhood, that it is unnecessary for me to say anything about that interesting Roman town. It has only, however, been partly explored, and one may hope that the time is not far distant when the people of this neighbourhood will see more clearly than they see now the importance of examining their past history, and of enabling the antiquary to pursue the researches without which no good history can be written.