Huddersfield in Roman Times
By Ian A. Richmond

SOCIAL CONDITIONS, A.D. 80-125.

LIFE IN THE ROMAN FORTS: FOOD AND CUISINE
Some aspects of life may be considered in more detail. What was the men’s food and drink, and how was it prepared? The basic diet was wheat, which was stored in great granaries like those at Slack; thence it was distributed among the soldiers, who ground it for themselves, using large and rather flat millstones, by turning the upper stone with a wooden handle in its side as they fed the corn through a hopper in its centre. These stones were often made of Niedermendig lava, and imported from Andematunnum (Andernack) on the Rhine. But they were copied locally in millstone grit, as an example from the native site at Thurstonland shows. Side by side with these however, existed the older British type, conical like an old fashioned bee-hive, a broken example of which was built into the rampart of the Roman fort at Meltham. The flour thus produced was rather gritty, and was converted in the camp-oven, of which a magnificent example existed at Castleshaw, into biscuits or flat cakes, corresponding to our “hard tack.”

Leaden Lampstand from the Fort at Slack

Traces of other food are somewhat scanty. Shell of the hazel nut were found in the fort’s ditch at Slack, and at Castleshaw the rectangular pit beneath the rampart of the inner fort produced these and stones of the sloe. We may infer also that a good deal of food was mashed, since mortaria, wide-rimmed vessels, dusted inside with quartz, which were used for grinding, occur in numbers. Animal remains were not common, but included horses’ teeth and bones of the ox. We are led, therefore, to believe that the principal dishes were vegetarian, as might be expected in an army governed by southern rules. Thus the soldiers, if their biscuit was unappetising, at least were spared from bully beef!

Hand Corn Mills or Querns

For drinking, water seems to have been mostly used, but those who could afford it bought wine. Many fragments of the large amphorae, jars in which wine or oil were imported, came from the officers’ quarters in the barracks at Slack. Two handles belonging to different vessels still bear their maker’s name, Quintos Verio and Agricola; and fragments of the body still show in the dark stains left by the lees. Whether the Celtic barley-beer (cervesa) was made in the district is not known; if it was, it was probably sold in some booth outside the fort’s gate.

Hand Corn Mills from the Forts at Castleshaw

With such ingredients the men’s cuisine was simple. Cooking was done mostly by baking or boiling, and the types of cooking dishes bear this out, for most of them resemble modern pie-dishes or dishes with lids for stewing. Earthenware often was used, as in modern France and eighteenth-century Yorkshire, when we should use metal. But metal pans existed, and bronze and iron cauldrons, or camp-kettles, have been discovered elsewhere in Britain, both in native and Roman types of dwelling. The commandant had his own kitchen and a more varied fare, as a metal handle belonging to a small saucepan or ladle and a strainer or cheese press of fine white ware, both from Slack, suffice to show. After hunting there might be venison; and a wine-cooler at Melandra Castle, or part of a bronze hot-water urn at Ilkley, show that in these forts officers at least had an amount of solid comfort. The men, like modern soldiers, were well cared for, but lived roughly.

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