Roman Military Supply Depot at Walton le Dale
The Roman site at Walton-le-Dale, which is now mostly covered by the Capitol Centre retail park, once served as a major military supply depot and distribution hub. It was strategically located at the confluence of the River Ribble and River Darwen, offering excellent access to the rest of Lancashire. Past excavations at Walton le Dale have revealed evidence of workshops for pottery, blacksmiths, silver and lead refining, and the processing of imported goods like Samian ware, oil, and possibly wine.
Charles Hardwick’s own account makes clear that he discovered the Roman remains at Walton‑le‑Dale in the mid‑19th century, specifically leading up to the summer of 1856, just before his ‘History of the borough of Preston and its Environs in the county of Lancaster‘ was published in 1857. His discovery of a Roman station there was one of the main reasons the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society held their annual visit to Preston in June 1856, prompting him to revise and delay the publication of his book to incorporate his new findings.
The site wasn’t excavated again until the mid twentieth century. The ‘Roman Walton-Le-Dale Excavation Report for The Years 1947-1957’ was an original article from The Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1957, that was written by E. E. Pickering. Here Wrote:
THE Roman station at Walton-le-Dale, near Preston in Lancashire, was discovered and reported just over a hundred years ago by Charles Hardwick, who visited the site on hearing that workmen digging gravel for road-making had found “Scotch pennies” at a spot reputed to be the burial place of Scots killed in a skirmish with Cromwell’s forces in 1648.
Discovering that the “pennies” were actually Roman coins, Hardwick examined what features could be seen, collected Samian pottery and other finds from gardens as much as 100 yards apart, and soon afterwards, digging on “Mr. Crozier’s land 150 yards to the south”, came upon further remains. Apparently there was no very extensive or systematic excavation, and there is no record of any further work on the site since then.
The Hardwick report describes pottery and other finds well enough in the manner of the day, but the account of the structural remains is less satisfactory, and even the major conclusions are not always justified. For example, a wall foundation of dressed stones “nearly a foot in depth” is said to be pre-Roman or “native” simply because it was not mortared.
Incidentally, it is quite impossible to locate this wall from the description given. Again, a ridge of land 150 feet broad at the base and four or five feet high is described as a “rampire” without any supporting evidence at all, and a rectangle about 150 yards by 300 yards enclosing the lower ground between the “rampire” and the raised bank of the Ribble is labelled “Roman Station” in spite of the fact that many of the finds occurred outside this area up to 150 yards away, in the digging on Crozier’s land. Here a layer of charcoal was taken to prove that the site was destroyed by fire during the insurrection under Commodus in A.D. 180, whereas one of the first facts to emerge from the present work was that this destruction was followed by rebuilding in the early second century, putting back the date of the disaster by about sixty years. In short, whilst due allowance must be made for the state of archaeological knowledge and techniques in Hardwick’s time, a more careful exploration of Roman Walton-le-Dale has long been overdue.
In Watkin’s Roman Lancashire this site is dismissed as a “minor station” although it is equated with Ptolemy’s Rigodunum. The Antonine Itinerary X makes no mention of any station between Coccium and Bretnetennacwn (Wigan and Ribchester) but Watkin assumes that the route would pass through Walton-le-Dale, follow the main road to the north for about two and a half miles, and then turn due east along the road to Ribchester from the Fylde. The distance by this route is about four miles in excess of the twenty miles given in Iter. X. Such an error would be of little significance save that the route involves something of a detour. If at any time in their histories there was traffic between Walton and Ribchester another and shorter road would surely have been made.
Evidence of the main road to the north, going close by the Walton site was recorded by Hardwick, but nothing is known of any other roads in the vicinity. Admittedly, the Itineraries are not always so accurate, but the hint contained in this particular discrepancy seems to have been overlooked. Roman roads in Lancashire include alternative routes to the north; by Manchester-Ribchester-Overborough; and by Wilderspool-Wigan-Walton-Lancaster. The route from the Pennines by Ribchester out to Kirkham is not obviously integrated with the Wigan-Lancaster road, which is by-passed by another road direct from Ribchester to Lancaster. This is not a single network, but a pattern developed in several stages which may only be discovered by a careful study of such “minor stations” as Walton-le-Dale.
The credit for initiating the present attempt to discover the true nature of the site and its place in the history of the Roman occupation of Lancashire must go to Mr. Richard Livesey, now of Preston, who was brought up in the village of Walton-le-Dale. In 1947 he organised a working party to cut trial trenches on Site I. After three seasons his party joined forces with the Preston Historical Society, and, as more of the gardeners who occupy the land became interested, the work was extended, including some digging to test land now covered by factory buildings, and the first trenches on Site II. Eventually it was agreed that the long-term programme of excavations required by the circumstances of the site would best be carried on by a group which could devote itself exclusively to this class of work, and the Preston Historical Society’s Council very kindly assisted in the promotion of the Walton-le-Dale Archaeological Society. With Sir Cuthbert de Hoghton, Bart, as honorary president, the Walton Society continues to develop both sites, and under its auspices the present report has been prepared.
The full work can be access at the The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire – under volume 109 (1957) – Roman Walton-le-Dale
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