Quarry Hill Roman Camp

[Si]

While looking for something else on the 1847 OS map of Leeds (Headrow,) I noticed a part of Quarry Hill marked "Wall Flats" with a right-angled dotted line around it with the legend "site of a supposed Roman camp." I'd heard (probably on here!) that there were rumours of a Roman fort in this area, but didn't realise there was an actual known site.Click on the map to enlarge. Wall Flats is halfway down the right hand edge.Does anyone have any more info?Thanks,Si    

[Cardiarms]

Dunno - but just to annoy some Cornish nationalists I've been winding them up about our old Elmet heritage and our right to claim Cornish nationality. however i did read that the Romans left Elmet alone and did'nt impose much on the area, probably due to an agreed pay off everynow and then. It certainly is a defendable position but I would have thought a site close to the Leeds bridge on the other side of LadyBeck would have made more sense.

[Si]

I would have thought it's quite a good position, overlooking the Aire and Lady Beck. Presumably, a Roman road passed this way.When the map was made, or the houses were built, perhaps there were still recognisable earthworks, hence the name?The previous map wasn't as clear as it could be, so I've rescanned this bit.

[chameleon]

Si wrote: While looking for something else on the 1847 OS map of Leeds (Headrow,) I noticed a part of Quarry Hill marked "Wall Flats" with a right-angled dotted line around it with the legend "site of a supposed Roman camp." I'd heard (probably on here!) that there were rumours of a Roman fort in this area, but didn't realise there was an actual known site.Click on the map to enlarge. Wall Flats is halfway down the right hand edge.Does anyone have any more info?Thanks,Si     Yes you did Si, see the last post from LS1 here -http://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Mess ... ighLight=1

[Si]

Thanks Steve. At least we know exactly where it was now. Apart from the supposed Roman/Saxon coffins mentioned in another thread, have any other artefacts been found in the area - during the Georgian/Victorian building spree, the construction of Quarry Hill flats, or more recently, during the building of the Kremlin or Playhouse?A visit to the museum might be in order.

[chameleon]

It's a very 'grey' are Si, we've not even categorically determined where the name came from in the first place - few likely possibilities but....

[tilly]

I dont think there has been any evidence of roman sites in the center of what we call Leeds.Adel of course was a big camp but as for Leeds center nothing to my knowledge has been found. There would have at least been coins there are always coins found on Roman sites.Thorsby says there was evidence of settlement on Quarry Hill its the best place in the area to build a settlement it would have been the highest point in the area with water close by it would have been an ideal place to settle this could have been saxon or from any age in the past we have signs of saxons in the form of crosses in Leeds Parish Church but of the romans nothing.Looking at the area that Quarry Hill covers a settlement could not have been of any great size.

[grumpytramp]

According to the snappliy titled "The civil, ecclesiastical, commercial and miscellaneous history of Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Otley and the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire" by Edward Parsons [1834] Quote: That there was a Roman station at Leeds, on the road from Calcaria to Cambodunum, is unquestionable. On Wallflat near Quarry Hill, a name in its derivation certainly referring to a Roman fortification, [1] the outline of a Castrum was formerly distinctly observable, but every trace of it is now completely obliterated by the great alterations which have been made in the appearance of the ground, and the numerous buildings which have been erected on its site. The fact that Leeds was a Roman settlement, has been confirmed by other circumstances. In 1745, between Wallflat and the principal street of the town, a Roman urn was found containing a British celt; and in digging a cellar,in what a few years ago was called the Back of the Shambles, now a part of Briggate, an ancient pavement strongly cemented was discovered. The conjecture of the learned continuator of Thoresby, that there was a Roman Trajectus nearly on the site of the present bridge at Leeds, has, since the publication of his valuable work, been proved to be well founded. As some workmen in constructing a new basin or dock, were excavating a plot of ground in Dock-street, on the banks of the Aire, and at some distance eastwards of the bridge, they not only discovered appearances which induced the conclusion that the course of the river was formerly a little to the south of its present bed, but they found part of a Roman ford, composed of a substance known only to that people, wonderfully hard and compact, and calculated to resist the destructive action of water for a long series of ages. Further observations demonstrated that this ford crossed the river pretty nearly in a line with the east corner of the new corn warehouses belonging to the Aire and Calder Company, and from thence the road probably proceeded to the south, in a right line by the front of the theatre, and the palisading of Salem Chapel[2][1]The Roman word Vallum is retained in this name Wallflat. The Latins formerly pronounced the consonant V as W. And the Saxon adjunct, by its signification, refers to a plot of ground devoted to the purposes of war. Ducat. 104.[2]At the same time were found three large oak trees, decayed and as black as charcoal, and one quite sound at the heart. The men found also evident traces of a goit, and large quantities of piles or stakes were discovered on each side of the course of the water, inducing the opinion stated in the text that the river formerly flowed in this direction

[Si]

Very interesting. I assume the "substance known only to that people" was concrete?However, what was seen as "proof" of Roman remains in the early 1800s would now be seen as just supposition. With all the archaeological techniques devised since (carbon dating, dendrochronology, computers, geophysics, etc, etc) our knowledge of such things has massively increased.Tantalisingly, the mention of a possible Roman road heading south from the Leeds Bridge area towards Salem Chapel brings to mind Grey Walk........? I wonder...(PS See Grey Walk thread.)    

[Si]

Grey Walk is the narrow ginnel running north-west from Hunslet Lane to Salem Chapel, pointing towards Leeds Bridge. Like many ginnels in Leeds, it's route has been (until more recent times) respected, suggesting it's an ancient right-of-way. Possible Roman origins?