ROMAN MINOR SETTLEMENTS, ETC. 209 



middle of Sir Henry Hunloke's avenue, and probably went from 

 hence to Tupton hill, near Chesterfield, which is in the same 

 line, only three miles further, and where several Roman coins 

 have been found * * * The country people have a tradition 

 of the road going on still further to the north, and that after 

 crossing the Rother, near Chesterfield, it proceeded on the east 

 side of that brook, passing on the west of Killamarsh Church, 

 and through the parish of Beighton into Yorkshire ; but I am 

 more inclined to think the Roman road continued exactly in its 

 old bearing, on the west side of the river, leaving Whittington 

 on the left, through West Handley and Ridgeway to the Roman 

 camp on the Banks of the Don, while the old Rykneld Street 

 proceeds on the east side into Yorkshire." 



I think the Bishop of Cloyne is correct in saying that the road 

 went through Ridgeway, as small fragments of it seem still to be 

 used as lanes, and it passes a place called " Ford," where a 

 stream crosses the track north of West Handley. There is no 

 doubt that it went to the Roman station at Templeborough, near 

 Rotherham, but its exact track cannot be indicated unless by a 

 thorough survey. The route indicated by the bishop points 

 direct to Templeborough. On the other hand, there can, I think, 

 be little doubt that another Roman road ran either parallel to it, 

 or fell into it at a somewhat acute angle somewhere near 

 Whittington. 



In Glover's History of Derbyshire, vol. i., p. 289, there is a 

 letter from Mr. W. Askham, an old resident of Eckington, who 

 had been tracing what he calls the road, from a point a few miles 

 north of Eckington, and he says that it went " through what is yet 

 called the Street-field, to the slope close under Mosborough Hall, 

 where was a large square entrenchment, now very nearly ob- 

 literated by the plough, and crossed by the turnpike road to 

 Sheffield. Its course would then be down the hill and across the 

 rivulet, and a faint trace yet remains of the oblique ascent to a 

 square entrenchment, yet beautifully perfect, on the brow of the 

 hill west of Eckington Church." This was written about 1829, 

 and there are further slight vestiges of this road at Stratfield, near 

 17 



