LIST OF OFFICERS FOR 1898. President. EDMUND WILSON, F.S.A., Red Hall, Leeds. Vice-Presidents. JOHN RAWLINSON FORD, Quarrydene, Weetwood. Council. W. PALEY BAILDON, F.S.A., Lincoln's Inn, London, W.C. W. BRAITHWAITE, St. George's Terrace, Headingley. W. S. CAMERON, 57, Caledonian Road, Leeds. The Rev. C. HARGROVE, M.A., 10, De Grey Terrace, Leeds. A. E. KIRK, 13, Bond Street, Leeds. W. T. LANCASTER, Yorkshire Banking Co., Leeds. S. MARGERISON, The Lodge, Calverley. C. S. ROOKE, Newton Hill, Leeds. W. H. WITHERBY, M.A., 2, Woodsley Terrace, Leeds. bon. Librarian and Curator. S. DENISON, 32, Clarendon Road, Leeds. Bon. Treasurer. EDMUND WILSON, Red Hall, Leeds. bon. Secretaries. G. D. LUMB, 65, Albion Street, Leeds. E. KITSON CLARK, M.A., F.S.A., 9, Hyde Terrace, Leeds. The Roman Milestone, found at Castleford, NOW IN THE MUSEUM OF THE LEEDS PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY SOCIETY. T BY F. HAVERFIELD, M.A., F.S.A. 'HE Roman Milestone, which is the subject of the following note, was found in or about 1880 at Castleford. The place of the discovery was near the south end of Beancroft Road; the occasion was the laying of a public drain four or five feet below the surface. Beancroft Road almost exactly overlies a piece of Roman road, a part, namely, of the great highway often but erroneously called Watling Street, which led from York past the "stations" of Tadcaster, Castleford, and Doncaster to Lincoln. The milestone must, therefore, have been found very close to a Roman road, and in all probability, very close to its original position. The "station" at Castleford occupied the site of the present All Saints' Church and Rectory and Castle-house, close to the river Aire, just half a mile north of the place where the milestone was found. The stone came into the possession of Mr. Joseph Brewerton, formerly town-surveyor of Castleford, now of Argyle Road, Boscomb, and was set up by him in the garden of a house which he was then building between Beancroft Street and Love Lane. This house he called Storrsville,-the ordnance map calls it Storesvilla, and it is now known as Landsdown Villa. It is about one hundred yards from the spot where the stone was unearthed. Here I found it in September, 1897, purchased it, and presented it to the Leeds Museum. I have to thank Mr. W. E. Garforth, of Halesfield, Normanton; Mr. R. Birdsall, of Northampton, and Mr. Brewerton, for information concerning the stone, communicated to me at various times before 1897. The stone is a block of sandstone, about five feet long and ten inches in diameter. It bears two inscriptions, one at each end. When first erected, in the reign of the Emperor Decius Traianus (A.D. 249251), it was inscribed with his name and titles. After his death it was H inverted, and reinscribed at the other end with the names and titles of his successors, the conjoint emperors, Vibius Gallus and Vibius Volusianus (A.D. 251-253). The inscriptions were first published from an imperfect copy by the late Mr. W. T. Walkin, of Liverpool, in the Academy for February 28th, 1885, and in the Archæological Journal, xlii. (1885), p. 154. I reprinted his readings in the Ephemeris Epigraphica" (vii., Nos. 1104, 1105). I have now been able to examine the stone myself, and have been aided by squeezes which Mr. H. Crowther, curator of the Leeds Museum, has made for me. The inscriptions appear to be as follows: (a) Imperatore) C(aesare) C. M(essio) Quinto) Decio p(io) f(elici) Aug (usto), et C. M(essio) Q(uinto) Etru[s]co. (b) Imperatoribus) C(aesaribus) C. Vibio Gallo et C. V(ibio) Volusiano p(iis) f(elicibus) Aug(ustis), Eb(uraco) m(illia) p(assuum) XX. The indication of distance from Eburācum (York) is interesting. By the line of the Roman road through Tadcaster to Aberford, the distance from York to Castleford is about twenty English miles. The Itinerary gives twenty-one Roman miles (pp. 475, 478 Wess.). The Roman mile was a trifle shorter than the English mile, so that the agreement is fairly close. It will be even closer, if we assume that our milestone was the twenty-second, and that the twenty-first milestone stood half a mile north of Castleford "station," just as this stands half a mile south. In that case, the actual distance from York to Castleford would have been, by the Roman road, twenty-one and a half Roman miles. The streets and sites in Castleford mentioned above may be conveniently seen on the twenty-five inch maps of the Ordnance Survey for the West Riding of Yorkshire, No. CCXXXIV., 7 and 11. |