90 



iHelautrta d^astlr. 



By John Garstang, B.A., Oxon. 



5^mHE Roman station which has become known tO' us by 



9 emH the curious name of Melandra Castle, is to be found 



9" ^" i marked on the Ordnance Map No. II., ii, for the 



County of Derbyshire. It is on the confines of that 



county, at its extreme north-west, near to Dinting, and some 



thirteen miles from Manchester. 



Archaeological research in the surrounding districts, particu- 

 larly with regard to the Roman works, has not yet been 

 sufficiently advanced to enable the exact military or strategic 

 local situation of this outpost to be realized. A mass of 

 material exists for the history of the vicinity, though scattered 

 through a hundred volumes, and requiring to be stripped of 

 many superstitions ; but the district is one that has naturally 

 attracted chief attention to itself on account of other and earlier 

 archaeological and geological interests. The Roman remains 

 have, therefore, been for the most part overlooked, or examined 

 only in cursory fashion. 



From information that may be accepted without serious 

 questioning, the site selected for this fortress would seem to have 

 been, as usual, a knot in the network of military roads that 

 formed a chief feature in the defences employed by the Romans 

 throughout the north of Britain. Its situation with reference 

 to its surroundings is more remarkable. To the north-west 

 rises War Hill, now occupied by Mottram Church, and on 

 which traces of early earthworks are still to be seen ; to the 



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