A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



family, a few of the late fourth century down to Valens and Arcadius, 

 and some minims. 1 Nor are the discoveries limited to the ' station ' and 

 its neighbourhood. A hoard of eighty or ninety much worn coins, some 

 silver, some bronze, was met with in 1887 on the west side of 

 the Derwent, when a road was being carried across the lower part 

 of Strutt's Park. It included a Republican denarius of B.C. 81 (Papia), a 

 denarius of Tiberius, and First or Second Bronze of Nero, Vitellius, 

 Vespasian. But it was dispersed immediately on discovery, and the five 

 or six coins recorded from it give us no trustworthy idea of its range.* 

 Stray coins have also been noted in North Street (i Faustina, i Gallienus), 

 Penny Long Lane, Nun's Green, Duffield Road (these three, third- 

 century coins) and Kedleston Road (Constantine I.). In short, the 

 list is substantially continuous from the later years of the first century 

 till the end of the Roman dominion in Britain. It may be taken 

 to indicate occupation of one kind or another for some three hun- 

 dred years, but especially during the first three quarters of the second 

 century. 



It remains to add that several Roman roads met at Little Chester. 

 The so-called Rycknield Street which ran from Gloucestershire past 

 Alcester and Wall near Lichfield (the Romano-British Letocetum) to 

 Yorkshire descended Darley Slade, crossed the river by a bridge of 

 which traces are said still to be sometimes visible, and skirted the 

 northern rampart. Another probably important road branched here 

 and went on northwards to Buxton and Manchester. A shorter and 

 more puzzling road seems to have run south-eastward to Sawley, and 

 may possibly be connected with water carriage down the river Trent. 

 A fourth road may have led westward to Rocester on the Stafford- 

 shire border. 8 



Such are the details of Roman Little Chester. We have now to 

 determine its character. Previous writers have in general contented 

 themselves with calling it a ' station,' and in order not to prejudice the 

 question, I have used that vague and convenient term in the preceding 

 paragraphs. But it seems highly probable, 4 in view of our survey, 

 that the place was a permanent fort, held by an auxiliary regiment. 

 Its size of seven acres and its regular oblong area girt with a stone wall 

 suit that hypothesis and no other. Its position in an open valley close to 

 water is such as the Romans usually chose for forts and fortresses, and the 



1 Soc. of Antiquaries, Minutes, i. 86 (1723 A.D.) and 199 (1727), hence Cough's Camden, ii. 307 ; 

 Stukeley, Iter Boreale, p. 25 ; Pilkington, View, ii. 198, 200 (coin of A.D. 14), followed by Glover, 

 History of Derbyshire, i. 293 (ed. 1829) ; Hutton, Hist, of Derby, p. 206 (coin of Vespasian) ; Bateman 

 Vestiges, p. 145 ; Brit. Arch. Assec. vii. 365 ; Intellectual Observer, xii. 347; Watkin, Derb. Arch. 

 Journ. x. 159, Ward, Derb. Arch. Journ. xi. 91 ; Refiquary, i. 178, iii. 73 ; Antiquary, xxii. 44, 94 ; 

 Bailey, Derb. Arch. Journ. xiii. 108 and xv. 20. British Mus. MS. Add. 6707, fo. 6 (Reynolds records 

 I Domitian and I Constantine Junior). The coins of Alexander and Tolemy (tic), mentioned in Derb. 

 Arch. Journ. xiii. 1 1 1 , are not adequately attested and must be considered as not found at Little Chester. 



* Derb. Arch. Journ. xiii. 1 1 6, xv. 20 ; Antiquary, xxii. (1890), 44. 

 See further, pp. 243-247. 



* This assumes that Stukeley's plan and details are correct. I do not think the assumption very 

 rash. But I may note one little inaccuracy, the squareness of the angles, which should be rounded. 

 This, however, is merely draughtsmanship. The earlier plans of Melandra equally show squared angles. 



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