Huddersfield in Roman Times
By Ian A. Richmond
THE PENNINES IN AND AFTER THE FOURTH CENTURY
THE DISTURBANCE IN A.D. 300-306 - AFTERMATH
But the restoration of security after A.D. 306 brought with
it no return of prosperity in the north. During the next
thirty years so many coins of Constantine (A.D. 306-337)
were minted throughout the Roman world that henceforward
they are very common on Romano-British sites. But the Huddersfield
District has produced only two hoards of this period, the
first from “the Rocks” at Halifax (A.D. 270-345),
and the second from Stainland (after A.D. 304). Not far
outside the district, however, later hoards of coins have
been found at Mereclough, between Burnley and Todmorden
(A.D. 306-361). But this evidence is very scattered, and
the coins from Halifax were found on an uninhabitable site.
West of the Pennines, in the Lancashire uplands, comparative
scarcity of remains which may be dated after A.D. 306 tells
precisely the same tale, that settled life except in its
rudest forms seems to have ceased in the open country at
the beginning of the fourth century. Even the large village
at Wilderspool, near Warrington, has yielded only one coin
of Constantine (A.D. 306-337), and neither coins nor pottery
of a later date. Yet if civilisation had died out in the
remoter wilds of Yorkshire sooner than elsewhere it need
not be supposed that the Roman government had ceased to
be interested in the district’s fate. Somehow the
great “trunk road” between York and Chester,
strategically one of the most important routes in Britain,
must have been kept open during the greater part of the
century, when both fortresses seem to have been garrisoned
by legions. Again at Manchester, one of the largest forts
in Britain, coins found actually within the fort begin afresh,
after a long gap, with issues of Constantine (A.D. 306-337),
and go down at least until A.D. 375. At Ilkley and at Ribchester
coins of Valens (A.D. 364-378) denote activity, presumably
in connection with the war of A.D. 367 against the Picts
from Scotland. Thus until late in the fourth century the
Roman government clearly had the preservation of order in
the uplands well within its power, and there can be do doubt
that civilised life of some sort continued under the shelter
of its forts, even after central control had ceased.
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