Huddersfield in Roman Times
By Ian A. Richmond

THE PENNINES IN AND AFTER THE FOURTH CENTURY

THE DISTURBANCE IN A.D. 300-306
About A.D. 300 buildings within the Roman fort at Ilkley passed out of use through violence, and this event seems to coincide with other happenings in the Pennines whose meaning is not easy to mistake. In northern Yorkshire two country houses at least were burnt down suddenly. The fort at Elslack seems to have been re-occupied, and, perhaps a year or two later, the road between York and Carlisle was fitted with new milestones. Further south the garrison of the fort at Manchester was largely increased, and for a short time troops seem to have been placed in the Peak District, in the old forts at Melandra Castle, Brough, and Templebrough. These measures indicate trouble all over the northern hills, from Stainmore to the Peak; but the causes of the turmoil are easy to define. Perhaps they may be connected with the fact that Britain had just come under continental control once more, after the independent rule of Carausius and Allectus (A.D. 287-296), and consequent changes in officialdom may have unsettled the hill-folk. At all events their uprising was severe and unexpected; the Emperor Constantius I. Journeyed northwards to York where he died A.D. 306, and it was thought wise to garrison the hills afresh for a short time after he had dealt with the trouble.

The alarm which was felt by more settled folk is reflected in the Huddersfield District by seven hoards which belong to about A.D. 300. A gold coin of Carinus from Holmfirth (A.D. 283-385); bronze and silver coins found together at Cleckheaton (A.D. 218-268), and also at Wistance in Thurstonland (A.D. 222-293); and bronze coins from Clifton (A.D. 253-270), from Hove Edge (A.D. 287-305), from near Bierley (A.D. 287-305), and from Elland Hall Wood (A.D. 253-293), all point to real nervousness among the natives. Those from Cleckheaton, from near Bierley, and from Thurstonland seem to come from inhabited sites. Near Bierley they were found in association with iron slag; at Cleckheaton they occurred not far from Roman foundations of stone; and at Thurstonland near a spot whence Dr. Morehouse procured a millstone of Roman type. Thus here and elsewhere folk did not recover the hoards which they had buried in alarm, and the hoards of later date which the district has yielded are few and far between. It looks as if settled folk in the Huddersfield District did not feel safe after A.D. 300, and the writer has shown that this sense of insecurity was widespread among the Pennines. On the other hand these hoards are additional evidence for existence of a prosperous country-side before they were buried. Not only was money circulating freely and plentifully, but folk seem to have adopted a definitely settled life. In and about the Spen Valley iron-mining on a small scale was becoming locally important, and where the main road from York to Chester crossed the vale it passed at Cleckheaton through a place which appears to have been growing into something more than a small village.

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