A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



Regis, of over a thousand silver coins, covering the ' whole period ' of the 

 Roman occupation ; one at Madeley of late copper coins, from A.D. 235 to 

 340 ; and one at Mayfield, which was dispersed and the coins unidentified. 

 Three gold coins were found at Alton dating from A.D. 70 to A.D. 96. No 

 very definite information can be deduced from these particular finds beyond 

 the fact that the Romans probably occupied this part of the country from an 

 early period. 



A reference should perhaps be made to the theory which has been put 

 forward 15 that a line of forts was built between the Dove and the Severn by 

 Ostorius Scapula after the campaign of A.D. 50, which line formed the Limes 

 Britannicus of the Notitia. This limes consisted of a supposed chain of stations 

 with a connecting road, and an occasional raised earthwork or wall for further 

 defence. The most important evidence of the link between the various 

 stations is the Grey Ditch at Bradwell in Derbyshire, considerable traces of a 

 vallum on a hill called Gun above Leek in Staffordshire, and of a vallum or 

 raised road in the neighbourhood of Ranton Abbey. Leek is identified as the 

 Concangios of the Notifia, Stone as Lavatres, Gnosall as Veterum or Veteris, 

 and Shifnal as Braboniacum. Professor Haverfield, however, states that the 

 Grey Ditch is not Roman, 17 and it is plain that Lavatres, Veteris, and 

 Braboniacum probably represent Lavatris, Verteris, and Bravonacis, three 

 stations in the second Iter of Antoninus which lay between Isurium (Aid- 

 borough in Yorkshire) and Carlisle, and must have been far removed from 

 Staffordshire. Professor Haverfield has further shown that the whole theory 

 of the Ostorian forts has been founded upon a corrupt text and bad translation 

 of Tacitus. The passage referred to does not relate to a line of forts, but 

 probably to a consolidation of the Roman dominion within the frontiers of 

 the Severn and Trent. 18 



THE ROADS 



There are two sources from which evidence of Roman roads can be 

 obtained, namely, archaeological and literary. The first of these is supplied 

 by the actual remains, such as Roman milestones or ancient metalling, and 

 occasionally by the persistent straightness with which a road runs from one 

 Roman site to another. The written evidence is principally obtained from the 

 Itinerarium Antonini, a Roman road-book which gives the distances between the 

 'stations' on the various routes in the empire. The date of this work is uncer- 

 tain. Only one of the routes mentioned in this itinerary passes through Stafford- 

 shire, and that is the well-known Roman road called, since the Saxon period, 

 Watling Street. There are also portions of the Rycknield or Icknield Street, 

 and a road running from Derby possibly to Chester. Besides these there are 

 certain roads which have been suggested as Roman, some of which are prob- 

 able, but there appears to be insufficient evidence for the others. 



i. Watling Street. This road forms a part of the second Iter of the 

 Antonine itineraries. It starts from the Roman port of Richborough in Kent 

 and runs in a north-westerly direction through London and the Midlands to 



15 The Rev. T. Barns in Antiq. xxiviii, 337 et seq. 



16 Netitia Dignitatem (ed. O. Seeck, 1876). 17 y.C.H. Deri, i, 255. 



18 Tacitus, Ann. xii, 31 ; H. Bradley, Academy, April, July, 1883; V.C.H. Somert. i, 217; V.C.H. 

 Northanti, i, 213. 



186 



