The People's History of Manchester

Front matter

DR. JLÆ^JR-ISJ'S GREAT NATIONAL INSTITUTION, BRIDGE STREET, MANCHESTER. THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC, for the Education of Young Gentlemen, who will receive appointments, as soon as competent, as Masters of Conservatoires of Music, to be established throughout the United Kingdom, and the MANCHESTER CONSER VATOIRE OF MUSIC, for the encouragement of Music amongst the Tittle Maids and Little Men and Adults of Manchester, both established in Bridge Street, and now open for the admission of Pupils. Prospectuses may bo had, either on personal application or by forwarding a stamped envelope. Ladies and Gentlemen wishful to join the classes can only be admitted on a Saturday, betweoa the hours of Four and Six o'clock in tbe Afternoon. . 77*LIZA HODGSON, authorises GAS FITTER for Manchester, Salsoi -L^ Broughton, and surrounding districts, 62, King-street, Four Doors below Cross-st., Manchester.

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John Barratt Esq. Thomas Barbara Foster, Esq I josrah Peel Esq Samuel Brooks, Esq. llavjd Harrison, Esq. Samuel pS in TL George Faulkner, Esq. James Collier Harder, Esq. | Ab"a\om Watkin Esq. George Withington, Esq * Board of Directors in London : Thomas Quested Finiiis, Esq., Alderman, Chairman. J2h^,,V'lnIiff,f Pickersgill, Esq., Deputy Chain Henry C. Ch.lton, Esq. I inrtrew Johnson E Patriok D. Hadow, Esq. William Mallalicu, Esq Bankers : The Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company, Manchester The City Bank, London. rT'HE Manchester Fire Assurance Company was established in i«"jl „„™ • • , 8 Oi.UKG.E jUIHEELON, Secretary m London. pbiofjr cf $jf8nt|[fljter.

Chapter I

Ethnological Views — The Britons as described hy Cæsar, Xiphiline, Herodian, Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo — Manners and Customs of the Britons — The Druids — Mancenion Founded by the Sistuntii — Roman Invasions — Agricola Captures Mancenion, and Founds a Camp or Station there — The Garrison of Mancunium — Roman Roads — Supporting Camps or Stations — Agriculture, &c, introduced by the Roman Legionaries — Decline of the Roman Power, and Withdrawal of the Legions — Invasions of the Picts and Scots — The Anglo-Saxons called in — Roman Remains Found at Manchester. A dense obscurity veils the early history of Britain. Of its primitive condition we are almost entirely ignorant ; and we possess no certain knowledge as to the time when, or the race by whom, the island was originally peopled. The result of the researches of modern antiquaries and ethnologists seems to be that the British islands, when they were first known to the Romans, were inhabited by numerous tribes, which were by no means all of the same race.

The question of what may have been the original stock can now only be a subject of conjecture and speculation, but it is very probable that it was represented by the Celts of Ireland and the Northern Gael. The most powerful of these tribes, both in regard to its numbers and the extent of its territory, was that of the Brigantes, who held the entire country extending from sea to sea, having for its southern limit the Mersey and the Humber, and stretching northwards to the district now called Northumberland, which was held by a tribe called the Ottadeni, and to the Lowlands of Scotland. Two divisions, apparently of_the stock of the Brigantes, the HISTOEY OF MANCHESTER. Voluntii and the Sistuntii, occupied the western part of this extensive territory, and to the latter of these the first foundation of a town in this neighbourhood is generally ascribed. ' It is remarkable,' observes Thomas Wright, ' that the same tribes are found under the same names, Brigantes, Voluntii, &c, occupying territories in the opposite island of Hibernia (Ireland) ; and according to different ethnological theories, they had either come from Ireland into Britain, or had gone from Britain into Ireland.

From what we know of the general current of migration of the western races, the latter was probably the case. The language of the Brigantes has long disappeared from England, but the same reasons for its early disappearance in Ireland never existed, and had the Irish Brigantes and kindred tribes belonged to that branch of the Celtic race which is known by the name of Cymri, we can hardly doubt that we should have found some traces of it in the Celtic dialects of modern Ireland. It appears to me that probability, at least, is in favour of the Brigantes being Gaels, and not Cymri.' The notions generally current respecting the state of Britain at the time of its invasion by the Romans, are almost exclusively derived from the statements of Cæsar, but it should excite no surprise that many of them are at variance with the truth, when it is remembered that his stay here was but brief, and that but a very small part of the country fell under his own observation.

His account may be given in a few words. The people on the coast where he landed much resembled the Gauls, though they had no coinage, but used instead brass or iron rings as money ; and the rest of the natives, who were reputed aborigines, were mere savages, clad in skins, and dyeing then bodies with woad, which gave them a terrible appearance ; they had large herds of cattle, and lived on milk and flesh, not cultivating corn ; they wore their hair long, and shaved their beards ; and they dwelt together in parties of ten or twelve, who had wives in common. Some of these statements are confirmed by Xiphiline and Herodian, when speaking of the unsubdued tribes in the time of Severus ; but others are quite contrary to fact, as a great number of British coins exist, some of which are of gold, and bear an ear of corn on the reverse, thus testifying both knowledge and esteem of agriculture, and Diodorus Siculus says, ' They who dwell near the promontory of Britain, which is called Bele rium (now Land's End,) are singularly fond of strangers, and from their intercourse with foreign merchants, civilised hi their habit's.' Strabo too says, ' The Cassiterides are inhabited by men in black cloaks, clad in tunics reaching to the feet, and girt about the breasts, walking with staves, and bearded like goats.' Cæsar tells us that the inland regions produced tin, and the maritime iron ; but other writers more accurately inform us that tin was produced near the sea-shore, and that it was skilfully worked and fused by the natives.

Besides tin, lead and skins are mentioned as being exchanged with foreign merchants for glass beads, earthenware, salt, and brazen vessels. The British exports were afterwards increased by the addition of slaves and fierce hunting-dogs, and subsequently by wheat in large quantities. To all the natives of Britain the praise of desperate valour is due. Cæsar acknowledges that their horsemen and charioteers con tended vigorously with him ; and to the last period of the Roman occupation there were numerous tribes that had never been subdued. Previous to Cæsar's arrival the kingly form of government prevailed among the Britons, and it was continued long after, though in subordination to the authority of the Roman governors, but the most truly influential persons were the Druids. These men seem to have been the depositaries of all the learning that then was, and they had numerous and well-attended schools, where they taught ' many tilings respecting the stars and their motions, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods.' But the Druids were not merely teachers ; they imposed ordinances upon all classes, and enforced them by terrible penalties.

They were the arbiters of peace and war. They had sacred groves, and rude stone temples, in which they offered human sacrifices; and so powerful was the influence which they exercised over their countrymen, that the Romans disre garded their usual policy of non-interference with the superstitions and priesthoods of the nations they conquered, and laboured zealously to destroy both the priests and the altars of Britain. The dwellings of the aboriginal Britons consisted of slight cabins of reeds and wattles, and in some places of caverns in the earth, many sets of which, arranged with an approach to symmetry, antiquaries have recognised ; but Cæsar informs us that the mari time tribes had houses built after the fashion prevalent in Gaul, that is, of wood, of a circular figure, and thatched. These houses were generally raised on a foundation of stone.

They had, how ever, public edifices for the purposes of religion, of which we have examples in the stupendous fabric of Stonehenge, and in the numerous Druidical circles scattered over the various counties of England, particularly those in the north. Such towns as they had were clusters of huts erected upon a cleared portion of the forests which covered the greater part of the island, and they were invariably surrounded by a rampart constructed of felled trees strongly interlaced and wattled, and a deep fosse, which together constituted a fortification that we may believe even the veteran legions of Rome often found it difficult to storm. Such were the manners and customs of the Britons when they first became known to the Romans, and such no doubt prevailed among the Sistuntii, the men who founded the town of Mancenion,1 the ' Place of Tents', as Whitaker renders it, the precursor of the Manchester of to-day, the ' Metropolis of Manu factures,' and as it has not unfrequently been termed the ' "Work shop of the World.' This ancient town was situated on the piece of land near the confluence of the Irwell and Medlock, now and long known by the name of Castlefield, and appears to have covered an area of about twelve acres.

It was protected on the east and north by a deep fosse, on the west by a precipi tous bank easily defended, and on the south by the Medlock, access to which was gained by a path hewn out of the rock. The stone required in the construction of the town is stated by Whitaker to have been brought from a large quarry near the Irk, at the place now known as Collyhurst. The first invasion of the Romans under Cæsar had little or no effect upon the tribes inhabiting the northern and western parts of Britain, removed as they were from the scene of his 1 Mancenion has been variously interpreted ' The Place of Tents,' ' The Camp near the Quarries,' and 'The Plain of Lamentation ;' the latter is derived from the Celtic Mayh-an-Cliaoine, operations; they continued to possess their territories in peace, savage but free, idolatrous but as yet untainted with the vices of Rome.

The time however was at hand when this state of things was to end, and it was reserved for Agricola to carry the Roman arms to those parts of the country which had not as yet been brought into subjection to the imperial rule. This general was appointed to the command in Britain in the autumn of a. d. 78. In spite of the advanced season of the year, he immediately assembled the legions and a small number of auxiliaries, and march ing into the territories of the Ordovices (North Wales), who had surprised and cut to pieces a squadron of Roman horse, put to the sword the greater part of that people. He then passed over to Mona (Anglesey) and entirely conquered that island. As the time of the year was past for further military operations, and the slaughter of the Ordovices had struck terror into the other cities, Agricola spent the winter in regulating and reforming the government of Britain, and correcting the innumerable abuses which had crept into the administration.

As the summer of the year 79 approached, Agricola set out with his legions, and leaving Deva (Chester), marched through the district now known as Cheshire, and entered Lancashire by the ford over the Mersey at Stretford. From this latter place the distance to Mancenion was but short. The town was soon reached, attacked, and taken, despite the determined resistance offered by the Britons, who were driven out to find a shelter in the surrounding woods as best they could, and so ended the British period of Mancenion's history. The only British remains that have as yet been discovered on the site of this ancient town are few in number, and even these are conjectural. Amongst them we may mention a well, undoubtedly of great antiquity, opened in Castlefield in 1830, and supposed by all to be British, and a Celt or axe-head of stone, also found at the same place, and now in the Chetham Library.

No sooner had Agricola obtained possession of Mancenion than he saw its importance in a military point of view, and at once erected a station there, placing in it a garrison, which, as we learn from the inscriptions that have been found upon its site, was composed of Frisians. These appear to have experienced some difficulty in expressing the name of their country in the language of their conquerors, for they occur as Frisingi, Frisones, and Frisavi. The designation given to the station, Mancunium, is evidently nothing more than the Latin form of the ancient Celtic name. Mancunium occupied about half the site of the British town, and was in form a parallelogram of 500 feet in length by 400 hi breadth. It was enclosed by a wall, many re mains of which were visible till a comparatively recent period.

This station protected at once the district adjacent to the higher portion of the Mersey and the junction of the Irwell with its tributary streams. Connected with the station of Mancunium were several subordinate ones, generally supposed to have been erected for the protection of cattle in the districts in which they were situated. Traces of these inferior camps have been found at Littleborough, Castlehill (near Delph), Stockport, Didsbury, Stretford, Hyle-wood, (near Castle Irwell), Rainsough (near Ker sal Moor), Castle Hill, at Singleton Brook, in the first field in the parish of Prestwich as you proceed from Manchester, on the old road to Bury, and on a spot a little above the Grove Inn, on the Bury New Road, where the site is still recalled by the name of Camp -street. That Mancunium was a place of great importance during the time that Britain remained under the imperial rule, we have ample evidence in the many roads by which it was united to the other parts of the country.

No less than six of these are known to have existed, and the direction of five of them may be distinctly traced even at the present day; the remains of the other are not so very clear, but yet its general direction can be identified. One of these roads connected Mancunium with the stations in the south and west of Britain. Proceeding in the direction of the present old road to Stretford, where it crossed the Mersey and entered Cheshire, it pursued its course by Cross street, and crossing a portion of Dunham Park, arrived at Street Head, from which place the existing road to Knutsford occupies its site till it arrived at Mere Town, and thence inclining to Northwich, proceeded to Condate (Kinderton) near Middlewich, from which several roads branched off in different directions. A continuation of this road connected Mancunium with Coccium (Ribchester), an extensive station, famous for its numerous antiquities.

This road followed the direction of the modern Deansgate, Strangeways, and Bury New Road, till it reached Prestwich, whence it proceeded in a north-north-west direction by the Dales and Radcliffe, and joining the Watling Street at Offside, it continued its course by Edgworth, Blacksnape, Darwen (eastward of Blackburn), Ramsgreave, Longridge Fell, and so on to Ribchester. Another road joined Mancunium to Cambodunum, supposed to be Slack, near Huddersfield, in Yorkshire. This road, evident traces of which may yet be seen in many places, crossed what is now the township of Manchester in a direction of east north-east, and entering Newton township, proceeded by Cheetham Fold, the street in Failsworth, Honey Well-lane, Glodwick, and Lees Brook, in Oldham Below Town, entering Yorkshire near Austerlands, whence it continued its course by Old Delph and Castlehill, and passing over Millstone Edge, near the present Stanedge Tunnel on the Manchester and Huddersfield branch of the London and North Western Railwa}', reached Cambodunum, from which place it proceeded by Legiolum (Castlcford) and Calcaria (Tadcaster) to Eburacuin (York).

A fourth road, leading to Blaekrod, near Wigan, crossed the Irwell at the place known afterwards as Woden's Ford, not far from Old Trafford, and passing by Hope Hall and Chorlton Fold, proceeded by Stanney Street and the present high road to Wigan to the station at Blaekrod, from which it is supposed to have gone on to Lancaster. A fifth road, going from Mancunium in a direction almost north north-east, passed by Street Fold in Moston, Street Bridge in Chadderton, Street Gate in Royton, and so on to Littleborough. Turning from the latter place towards the east north-east it crossed Blackstone Edge, where its course is still very distinct, and proceeded to Olicana (Ilkley). The other road united Mancunium with Buxton, which appears to have been remarkable for the medicinal properties of its waters even at this early period.

This road pursued the course of the present highway to Stockport. Once conquered, the British population of this district seems to have been entirely subdued and to have settled down peacefully under the sovereignty of the Romans. This part of the country was shortly afterwards included in the province of Maxima Cæsariensis, one of the five into which the whole of Britain was divided for the purposes of government and military organisation. A new town was founded to the north of the station of Mancunium, receiving from it its name, and its locality may still be identified by the name of Aldport or Alport, which it received from the Angles in a succeeding age. The foundation of this new town is generally ascribed to the reign of Titus, and we may reasonably infer that it partook somewhat of the character of a Roman town, but how much or how little we can only conjecture.

There can be no doubt that the Roman garrison would exercise great influence on the Britons, and if we may form an opinion from what occurred in other parts of the country, a certain amount of Roman civilisation and refinement would be introduced among them; Roman manners and customs would be more or less followed, and the Roman forms of worship adopted. It is to the Romans that the Britons of this part of the country were indebted for thenknowledge of agricul ture, upon which the conquerors placed especial honour. The soldiers who formed the garrison became the cultivators of the land in the neighbourhood of the station. Their example was not lost upon the Britons, who cleared the ground of its forest trees, and raising upon it large crops of corn, depended no longer upon the precarious produce of the chase for thensupport.

Other arts, such as dyeing, wearing, &c, were also introduced, as well as the various trades required for the necessities and comforts of the inhabitants ; a corn-mill was erected on the banks of the Medlock a little below the station, and a bakery was established, which for many succeeding ages possessed the exclusive privilege of baking the bread of the population. Mancunium continued to be held by the Romans as long as Britain was connected with the empire, and during the whole of that period there is every reason to believe that its garrison was composed of the Frisians mentioned above ; but there is also little doubt that there were natives of the other countries subject to the imperial rule intermingled with the population, as these foreign admixtures were common in Britain at the time.

From this we may safely assume that the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood were no longer exclusively British, though that people may have constituted the great bulk of the population. Pagans they were undoubtedly ; yet here and there might have been found one who had embraced the doctrines of Christianity, and as far as possible, though in secret, carried out its precepts and practices. Of the state of religion in Britain during the Roman period of its history little is known that can be relied on, but one fact may be stated, and that is, that among all the remains of the conquerors of the world which the labours of antiquaries and others have brought to light hi this country, nothing decidedly Christian, with one single exception, has as yet been discovered, and it cannot but excite surprise that such should be the case, if the accounts given of the ancient British chinch be at all worthy of credit.1 Beyond the names of persons commemorated on the inscribed stones which have been found here, and the light which they and the other monuments of antiquity throw upon the condition as the country, the history of this town and district, under the Ro mans, is almost a blank.

As the hostilities in this part of Britain for a long period were confined to the northern borders, the troops stationed here must have been in a constant state of movement and agitation, which increased as the attacks of what were now called the Picts of the north and then allies the Gaelic Scots of Ireland became more frequent and formidable. The original population of the country must have been diminished, not only by the ordinary causes which lead to the diminution of a conquered race under such circumstances, but because the Romans were very unlikely to leave in such a position a con quered race strong enough to rise and cooperate with foreign invaders. Moreover, we know that the process of extermination had commenced as early as the middle of the second century, for we learn from the contemporary writer, Pausanias, that under Antoninus Pius more than one half of the tribe of the Brigantes were cut off for an act of turbulent insubordination in making war on the Genuni, another British tribe.

To these causes also we must add the continual drawing away of the British youth to serve as Roman auxiliaries in foreign countries. Though the British population suffered this diminution, we cannot go so far as some writers who state that the population of Britain, during the latter portion of the Roman period, possessed very little of i The exception alluded to in the text has been found on the principal tasselated pavement of the Roman villa discovered atFrampton, in Dorsetshire, where the Christian monogram (the X and P) appears in the midst of figures and emblems, all of which are purely pagan. Celtic element; nor do we believe, as some do, that the Latin language was ever the language of this country, — that is, spoken by the great mass of the people; but of this more hereafter, when we come to speak of the state of this part of Britain during the early part of the Anglo-Saxon period of our history.

All that can be said of the greater part of Britain at this period must be founded upon conjecture, not a good guide at the best of times, but in the present case a guide upon which very little reliance can be placed. We have stated above all that we have been able to glean from the records of the past relating to Mancunium, and its founders and inhabitants. The town had enjoyed comparative peace and prosperity under the protection of its Frisian garrison, but the time had at length arrived when a great change was to take place in the history of Britain, and in this change Mancunium was to have its full share. Rome had performed its part in the world's history. Effeminacy and luxury had sapped the foundations of the empire, and the clays of its existence were numbered. Hordes of barbarians under different names, issuing from the unknown regions of the north and east had depopulated the fairest pro vinces of the empire, and a torrent of Goths, Vandals, and Alans, under the celebrated Alaric, had inundated the plains of sunny Italy.

It became necessary to recall the troops from the ex tremities to defend the heart of the empire, and the soldiers who had been stationed in Britain, fought and triumphed at the battle of Pollentia. After the retreat of Alaric the British forces seem to have returned to the island, and to have driven back the Picts, who had taken advantage of thenabsence to plunder the northern parts of Britain. But within a few years, the German nations bursting into Gaul spread devastation from one extremity to another ; and the legions in Britain, being cut off from all com munication with the emperor Honorius, determined to elect an emperor for themselves. The purple was bestowed upon Marcius, one of their officers, who soon lost his life in a sedition of the soldiery. Gratian, the next object of their choice, only reigned four months, when he fell like his predecessor.

This dangerous preeminence was, however, still an object of competition. Con stantme, a soldier in the ranks, with no other pretensions than his name, offered himself to their suffrages. He was elected, led legions to Boulogne, and with the assistance of some Roman troops, which lay dispersed in the neighbourhood, cleared the province of the barbarians. He was, however, subsequently be headed at Aries, by the command of Constantius, who commanded the forces of Honorius. While Constantine was in Gaul, Britain had been the theatre of an important revolt. The legions having been removed the country was left defenceless, and as it had been no part of the Roman policy to train the Britons to habits of self-defence and self-government, they were foimd lamentably wanting in both. The Picts and Scots rushed into the country from the north and west, and meeting with little or no opposition spread ruin and desolation on every side ; many of the Roman towns and stations being completely destroyed.

Mancunium is thought to have suffered severely during these inroads. By degrees, however, the old courage of the Britons seemed to return. They determined to reject an authority that could afford them no protection. They deposed the Roman magistrates, proclaimed their independence, took up arms, and with the spirit of freemen drove the barbarians from their territories. When the intelligence 'reached Ravenna, Honorius, the legitimate emperor, wrote to the states of Britian to provide for their own defence, and by this he is thought to have released them from their allegiance. Britain was thus free once more, but jealousy and mistrust soon threw the country into a state of anarchy, and all traces of popular government speedily disappeared. To add to their misfortunes the Picts and Scots resumed their inroads, and the country soon became one scene of war and tiunult.

Several battles were fought; but it seems hopeless to identify their sites or the dates at which they took place. At this time the Britons solicited, but in vain, the protection of Ætius, the Roman general in Gaul ; others, under Vortigern, one of thenkings, had recourse to an expedient, which, however promising it might appear in the outset, proved in the result most fatal to the liberties of their country. They called in the Saxons to aid them in fighting their battles, and with the landing of these adventurers the Roman period *of our history terminates. The Roman remains which have been discovered from time to time on the site occupied by the ancient Mancunium, though not numerous, are by no means few, and consist, as in other places, of altars, inscribed stones, coins, dishes, pieces of pottery, lachrymatories, portions of weapons of warfare, and other articles, more or less mutilated.

The first on record is an inscribed stone, which Camden informs us was, in his day, in the Earl of Derby's park at Aldport, and bore the following inscription : — o candidi fides, xx. hh., which has been read, ' Centurionis Candidi Fi desii annorum viginti mensium quatuor.' He also gives us another inscription, which he states was copied for him by Dr. Dee, the celebrated mathematician, &c; it is to the following effect: — coho. i. frisin o masavonis p. xxm., which Horsley renders, " Cohors prima Frisengensium centwrioni Marco Savonii stipendiomm viginti trium." Speaking of these two inscriptions, Horsley says, ' If these copies be rightly taken, the former looks like a sepulchral inscription for a centurion. The xx most pro bably expresses the number of years he lived ; the iiii either the number of months or else of days, — the number of months being quite effaced.

The other also refers to a centurion, and seems to be an honorary monument erected to him by the whole cohort. Hollingworth, in his Mancuniensis, states that, in 1612, an inscribed stone was found under the root of an oak in the river Medlock, near Knott Mill, whence it was removed to the garden at Hulme Hall. The inscription is as follows : — fortvnae CONSERVATRICI L. SENECIANIVS MARTIVS LEG VI VICT, which may be read, 'Fortunæ conservatriei Lucius Senccianus Martins Ccnturio Legionis Sextœ Victricis,' — To Fortune the Conservator Lucius Senecianus Martius, Centurion of the Sixth Legion, the Victorious. The sixth legion here mentioned was stationed at Eburacum (York) for a long period. Dr. Stukeley mentions a gold Otho and a large Roman ring of gold as found at Castlefield. In 1765, a number of antiquities of various kinds was found on the banks of the Roman castrum, consisting of urns, wrought earthen vessels, a fibula, or brooch, several coins, and a lachrymatory of black glass.