AMOUNDERNESS ' : A REGIONAL SURVEY OF THE FYLDE 9 



have corroborative evidence for the position as the site of ' Port us Setantorium.' 

 If there is a massive masonry wall there, no one but the Romans could have 

 built it. If, on the other hand, before the sea encroached beyond it the rock 

 foundation provided an almost perfect natural wharf, with deep water 

 approaches and, at its eastern extremity, safe anchorage, in the (then) estuary 

 of the River Wyre, what more likely than that it would be seized upon by such 

 eminently practical colonists as the Romans, especially in view of their policy 

 of conquest and colonisation of Ireland. 



Dane's Pad and Kate's Pad. 



I have dwelt at some length on the point of the position of the Roman port 

 because, if it existed, it solves so many problems as to the nature and meaning 

 of other features. The chief of these is that artificial ridge elevated above the 

 surrounding moss, of which little remains to-day, but which was undoubtedly 

 used by the Danes in their incursions on the coast as a highway, and which 

 to this day is known as Danes Pad 1 . The late John Just, in a paper read before 

 the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire in 1850 said : ' Within a mile 

 of the town of Poulton-on-Fylde are seen the first indications of the Roman 

 road, connected with an occupation road from a farmhouse which stands 

 south-east of the town down in the valley . . . But having got on to the 

 high ground and to a part of the flats of the Fylde district, we meet the striking 

 remains of a road on the turfy ground, where it has been piled up in an 

 immense bank or agger, and serves, as it has done for years past, as a gravel 

 bank for getting materials to mend and keep in repair the common road of the 

 country. Across this mossy flat the line is very distinct, and as therein ditches 

 separate the fields in lieu of fences, frequent sections of the road are made, 

 particularly by the water cuts made for the drainage of the district years ago. 



' On the higher ground the whole line has long been obliterated and we are 

 not favoured with any other evidence of the course it has taken until we again 

 detect it in a low hollow towards Weeton Moss, which has not come within the 

 influence of the general drainage just mentioned. Here is an immense 

 embankment of several yards in height, its base standing in the water, which 

 cannot get off from the isolation of its position. 



' Then over the higher ground, which is dry, we can observe but slight traces 

 of the road in the gravelly substratum it has left upon the ground until we 

 reach Weeton Moss, where again we have a good specimen. Here too, modern 

 plunder is fast despoiling the laborious workmanship of the Romans. The 

 gravel seems to have been brought from the debris of some river. The line 

 hence directs itself up the rising ground to Plumpton, and as usual in this 

 part, the line has been mainly obliterated by the cart and plough of the 

 modern. From Plumpton, it directs its course to the windmill on the high 

 ground between Weeton Moss and Kirkham, which there opens to the view. 

 Slight tracings all along verify the track the road has taken. Near the wind- 

 mill the road forms an angle, and thence joins the public road in a long, 

 continuous straight line towards Kirkham. Numerous Roman remains may 

 be detected in walking along the side of the modern road. The modern 

 road diverges to the right at the foot of the hill, and the Roman road continues 



1 See Map on page 59. 



