A Busy Crossroads
Why did the Romans come to Glossop? On a cold wet winter’s night, the troops from Braga in sunny Portugal, once stationed at Melandra, probably wished they hadn’t. There was a good reason, though – In AD 69 Brigantia, the powerful kingdom which controlled most of northern England, had revolted against its Roman overlords.
The discovery, in 2017, of a road from the fort running up Longdendale towards the Brigantian heartland in North Yorkshire suggests that it was first built as part of a military supply route through the centre of the Peak District, from Derby via Buxton. Forts were built along the roads at about 20-mile intervals to protect them and to ensure that marching troops and supply trains had somewhere safe to rest for the night. Later, it also became a stop on an east-west road from Manchester to Templeborough (near Rotherham) via Brough in the Hope Valley, running along the southern edge of Brigantian territory.
The centre of the fort would then have become a busy crossroads. However, being sensible, to avoid chaos they almost certainly built a bypass, or at least a spur road. They didn’t have to bother with Environmental Impact Assessments, or consult with local residents.
As we know of at least two, and possibly three Iron Age settlements in the area, including the large hillfort on Mouselow, there probably were local residents when they arrived. Whether they caused any trouble, though, we have no idea – romantic legends of battles are just that. Trouble was more likely to come from Yorkshire down Longdendale, so they built a small secondary fort at Highstones, at the furthest point up the valley visible from Melandra.
The original fort was probably thrown up quickly around AD75-80 and was made of earth and wood, but within about 40 years new walls were built in stone. Since then, two sides of the hill have either collapsed or been quarried away, and part of the bath-house, outside the ramparts, has gone down the slope – see pic, early 1970s before the trees which now hide the panoramic view which would have been a major reason for building there.
It could hold up to 500 troops, and they, the travellers on the roads, and their horses would have to eat, and would need the services of tradesmen like blacksmiths and cobblers, so a civil settlement or “vicus” grew up around it, including a “mansio”, a Roman Travelodge (or Premier Inn, as you prefer).
It took many decades to contain and then pacify the Brigantes, during which time the fort would have been, if not in hostile territory, at least on the edge of it. By around AD 140, though, it was redundant, and the troops made it unusable then marched away. What happened to the inhabitants of the vicus isn’t clear, but there would still have been traffic on the roads, and Roman rule in the north continued for at least another 240 years, so it’s quite possible that many of them stayed on.
Eventually, the roads were also abandoned – the Anglo-Saxons had different travel priorities – and for the next 1200 years the fort slumbered. When the Rev John Watson visited in 1771 he found the walls still partly standing. “The people” he said “call it Melandra Castle” and so it has remained, although “Melandra” appears to be a local invention, by somebody with a knowledge of Greek (such as the Reverend Watson!). The most likely Roman name is “Ardotalia” or something like it, although even that’s far from certain.
Whatever the locals called it, they didn’t appreciate it. In the century after Watson’s visit, the cotton industry grew, mills and houses were built, and most of the stone was carted off. Then in the 1890s, Robert Hamnett, Glossop’s first historian, began to take an interest……
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