Se 
THE ROMAN STATIONS OF DERBYSHIRE, 75 
so plainly the Roman cas¢rum on the eastern bank of the Derwent, 
about half-a-mile from Derby, and from which that town took its 
name, that little or no doubt has ever been expressed on the 
subject. It is now much obliterated, but in 1721, Dr. Stukeley 
“traced the track of the wall all round, and in some places saw 
underground the foundations of it in the pastures, and some vaults 
along the sides.” He describes it as being “‘ of a square form, 
and the castrum five hundred feet by six hundred.” (This would 
be a parallelogram, with an area of close upon seven acres.—W. 
T. W.) “ Within the walls are foundations of houses, and in the 
fields round the castle may be seen tracts of streets laid with 
gravel.” By 1829, when Mr. Glover wrote his “ History and 
Gazetteer of Derbyshire,” these streets had disappeared, though 
he says that a way laid with gravel still divided the station into 
nearly two equal parts, running east and west, whilst a second ran 
from the north-east corner in a direct line across the pastures 
towards Breadsall. He adds in a note (vol.-i. p. 293), ‘‘ When 
Darley Grove was broken up in the year 1820, skeletons, coins, 
and various Roman relics were discovered.” ‘lhe site of the 
station appears to be called Cestve in Domesday, and in the Ash- 
mole MSS. in the Bodleian Library, fo. 201 b., there is (in a MS. 
“ Historie of Darbyshire,” by Philip Kinder, written circa 1663), 
the following passage: “‘ Little Chester . . . by ye Roman 
monies there found seems to be a colonie of ye Roman souldjers, 
for soe ye name may import from Castrum.” Formerly (if not 
now) the remains of the piers of a bridge across the Derwent, 
might, it was said, be seen, when the water was clear, but I have 
not been able to ascertain its exact position. The station is placed 
between the Derwent and the Ryknield Street (which latter runs 
nearly north and south through the county), whilst another road 
from Rocester, in Staffordshire, comes to it on the west ; another 
leads from it east into Notts. ; and another leads north-west to 
Buxton.* 
This station has been very prolific of coins—Mr. Glover 
* Dr. Pegge states that a fragment of the wall of the station, 5 feet thick, 
was remaining in 1759, and that a Roman road ran from E. to W., just out- 
side the northern wall. 
