A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



A sewer or cloaca is supposed to have run from the east gate of Ratae, 

 where a piece of it has been found, 88 across the town to the west gate through 

 the Jewry Wall, then in a due westerly direction almost to Talbot Lane, where 

 it is thought to have turned in a north-westerly direction to the River Soar. 

 Remains of it were discovered in Talbot Lane in 1793 at a depth of 

 5 ft. from the surface. Some very large blocks of freestone, half a ton in 

 weight, having been removed, a kind of tunnel, 2 ft. across and 4 ft. deep, was 

 found. It was made of the same materials as the Jewry Wall, the bottom of 

 the tunnel being also of freestone. Throsby stated that the commencement, 

 as far as could be discovered at the time, was in the cellar of a house near the 

 south end of the Jewry Wall, and continued with a considerable descent north- 

 westwardly to the river. This house stood in St. Nicholas Square, where 

 the south-east end of Messrs. Rust's factory now is, but later discoveries 

 tend to prove that the sewer turned slightly towards the centre of the wall. 

 The contents of this passage seem to have been earth, light on the surface, 



heavier lower, and gravelly at the bot- 

 tom, mixed with broken pottery, some 

 Samian ware with potter's marks, a 

 few bones of animals, a fragment or 

 two of glass vessels, and a coin of the 

 Augustine age (B.C. ag-A.D. 14), the 

 earliest coin yet found in Leicester. 



A yard from the sewer (at the end 

 near the Jewry Wall) lay the columns 

 already described in St. Nicholas Street. 83 

 In 1887 the sewer was again opened 

 and found to be entirely filled with 

 earth. The direction towards the river, 

 if carried straight, would show that it 

 emptied itself where the old Soar joins 

 the present canal, which increases the 

 doubt whether the stream now used as 

 a canal existed in the time of the 

 Roman occupation. Throsby thought 

 that it was a new cut made by the 

 Romans themselves. It seems more 

 probable that it was mediaeval, con- 

 temporary with the mill and the castle, 

 the space between the bottom of the 

 hill (from Talbot Lane) to the old Soar 

 being probably a swamp. By sinking 

 shafts to ascertain the upward direction, 

 it appeared that the sewer bent towards 

 the Jewry Wall, and apparently passed 

 through it. 8 * 



In 1890, at a different part of Tal- 

 bot Lane, the sewer was again opened, 



SECTION OF ROMAN WELL FOUND AT LEICESTER, 

 SHOWING BASKET 



1 Thompson, Hist. Leu. App. A 447. 



84 Leic. Arch. Soc. vi, 312. 

 198 



Throsby, Hist. Leic. 388. 





