Abstract
THE repair of the bridge carrying the Roman road over the stream at Black Castle Clough, Blackstone Edge, having been completed (see NATURE of Sept. 3, p. 340), the bridge was declared open by Sir Alfred Law on Aug. 20, when members of the Rochdale Literary and Scientific Society and a deputation of Halifax antiquarians were present. Some interesting particulars relating to the Roman road and the bridge were given by Mr. W. H. Crump of Leeds. It would appear that the Roman road, which served the traffic between Yorkshire, Rochdale, and Cheshire, fell into disuse in the year 1740 and had not been repaired since that date. Other old bridges in the neighbourhood are a packhorse bridge which was about ten feet wide, and another, eight feet wide, which carried the road to Oldham. The width of the bridge, now restored to its original seventeen feet, was far greater than anything required to carry the traffic of the district at any tune since Roman days. The course of the packhorse road to Lydgate can still be seen on the adjacent hillside. In places it crosses the Roman road, in others it is some distance away. Its relation to the bridge can be seen from the fact that part of the pack-horse road was destroyed in quarrying the material from which the bridge was built. The bridge now bears the inscription, “Restored 1932, J. H. Price”, to commemorate the fact that the restoration was carried out on the initiative and under the supervision of Mr. Price. As previously mentioned, the workmen were volunteers from the unemployed, and material was given or lent by local contractors.
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Roman Road and Bridge, Rochdale. Nature 130, 501–502 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130501c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130501c0