Early Man in the District of Huddersfield
By James A. Petch

THE COMING OF THE ROMANS

The invasions of Julius Caesar made little real impression upon the Britons. Technically, as a result Southern England paid tribute to Rome, and at various times internal trouble caused an appeal to be made to Rome by one or other of the factions. Caesar apparently crossed the Thames, but got little further north, and the Midlands and N. England were in no way affected by him. He states however that while the people of the south grew corn those further north for the most part did not do so but subsisted mainly on flesh and milk. When in 43 A.D. the Emperor Claudius decided definitely to join Britain to his empire, the Romans easily overran everything as far north as Lincoln and as far west as the borders of Wales – they advanced to the hill country. The Ninth Legion was stationed at Lincoln about 48 A.D. and until about 70 A.D. no further advance was made in England, the conquest of Wales being undertaken and completed. The tribes to the north were however not unaffected. The northern counties were occupied by the Brigantes, a powerful tribe so far as extent of territory was concerned, though allowance must be made for the large waste tracts of hill-country. The tribe may be racially connected with the Brigantes who lived on the eastern shore of Lake Constance (compare the Parisii of the Humber with the people who have given their name to Paris). At this time the Brigantes were ruled by a woman – Cartimandua. Caratacus, the leader of the Welsh in their struggles with the Romans, was defeated in 51 A.D. and fled to the court of Cartimandua. The queen decided for friendship with Rome, threw him into chains and handed him over to Ostorius Scapula, then Roman Governor of the province. This did not end the war in Wales and, to add to the troubles of the Romans, Cartimandua found herself threatened by civil war. She had married a chieftain Venutius but had quarreled with him, and in the cheerful fashion of the times had murdered some of his relatives. Supported by the anti-Roman party, Venutius took up arms and his wife appealed to the new Roman Governor, Aulus Didius. A detachment of the Ninth Legion was dispatched to assist her and the pro-Romans. After desultory fighting, apparently a truce was patched up, for fifteen years later Cartimandua and Venutius were still reigning conjointly.

Figure 29. Gold Brigantian Coins
Nos. 1 to 9 from Castle Hill, Almondbury; No. 10 from Lightcliffe

In 1829 there was found at Castle Hill, Almondbury, a hoard of coins, comprising about two hundred Roman coins, and sixteen or eighteen British gold coins (see Figure 39. above). Of the Roman coins most belonged to the time of the Republic; many were worn smooth by long usage while others were not greatly used. The more important for us are the British coins. They are described by Evans as the rudest, and therefore the latest, of their type, and the baseness of the metal of which they are made points to the same conclusion. Of them most are not now traceable: one was in Sir John Evan’s collection, eight were sent to York Museum and five still remain there, three possibly having been duplicates and so having been exchanged, and two or three are in the British Museum. "Of the five remaining in the Museum, two bear on the convex side between three lines CO LI SIO, and on the concave side DVMNOCOVEROS. The other three coins have on the convex side a peculiarly formed wreath with a large beaded ring at each end and on the other side an intertwined figure which may represent a horse, and the letters VEP. COR. F." – (Benson). The interpretation of the inscription in uncertain. Professor Rhys believed that the coins give "the title granted to the person in whose name they were issued." Thus DVMNOCOVEROS or the variant DVMNOVEROS may mean "guardian of the state" or "man of the people." "At any rate," he wrote "it has been observed that the same term occurs on a coin of Dumnorix the Aeduan, whose great popularity with the common people Caesar dwells upon more than once." The same scholar has also suggested that though Brigantian coins generally have their superscription in Gaulish, VEP. COR. F. may be Latin for "Vepogenos, son of Correos." Professor Oman gives a totally different meaning to DVMNOCOVEROS. He suggests that Volisios, a name unknown before these coins were found, was "a king of the Brigantes who associated with himself first a colleague, perhaps his son, named Dumnocoveros, and, after the death of the latter, Cartimandua, who must surely have been his daughter and heiress." The point of the latter part of this interpretation lies in the meaning of one of a hoard of coins found in 1893 at Honley ( see Figure 40 below).

Figure 40. The Honley Hoard

It comprised five British silver coins and eighteen Roman coins, thirteen of which were also of silver. The former are the more important from the present point of view, and details are here given:-

In each case these coins have on the reverse, in addition to the superscription, a horse with a pellet beneath the tail.

The reading of the obverse is clear – VOLISIOS; on the concave four of the coins have DVMNOVEROS, but one can refer only to Cartimandua, for Keltic names in Cart- are rare. This is the first coin of that queen that has been found. The find is also noteworthy in that these are the first Brigantian silver coins that have occurred. Others are of gold, and it has been suggestion that the restriction of the currency to silver was due to the Roman influence.

The Roman coins range in date from 209 B.C. to 72 or 73 A.D. This hoard well illustrates the habit which Tacitus noted as existing among the native tribes on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, that of employing and of hoarding the earlier types of Roman coins. The reason for their preference for these was simply that the history of the Roman coinage is largely an account of the debasement of the currency. Only the earlier coins were of intrinsic worth at all corresponding to their face value. The Roman coins in the Honley hoard were as follows: -

LARGE BRASS
Vespasian, Cos. III. (71 A.D.)
Obv. S.P.Q.R.P.P OB CIVES SERVATOS.
Rev. ROMA

MIDDLE BRASS
Nero (54-68 A.D.)
Rev. VICTORIA AVGVSTI.
Vespanian, Cos. III (72 or 73 A.D.)
Obv. SECVRITAS AVGVSTI
Rev. PAX AVG.

Figure 41. Part of the Honley Hoard
Nos. 1 to 5 Silver Brigantian Coins; No. 6 Brooch or Fibula
Nos. 7, 8 and 9 Seal Box; No. 10 Bronze Ring

The Honley hoard included other objects than coins (See Figure 41 above). This hoard was found in a cavity behind a piece of rock, together with a hollow bone (six inches long), probably that of an ox, a bronze brooch, a bronze box with a hinged lid, and two small bronze rings (Fig. 41, 6 to 10). The coins and small objects may have originally been placed inside the hollow bone. The bronze box is cylindrical in shape, and has on the lid a "thin plate of silver pierced with a graceful design" (Fig. 41. 7, 8, 9). Round the edge is a decoration of rings "peculiar to this specimen." The box has two holes in the side and three in the base. There is little doubt that these boxes were used to protect seals. The cord fastening the package or folding writing-tablet was passed through the holes in the side of the box, and the seal was placed upon the portion of the cord inside the box, the lid protecting the seal from accidental breakage (See Figure 42 below). "Seal-boxes" are Roman and it is interesting to note that Brigantian natives were employing Roman usages before the era of conquest was definitely begun. The Romans did not encounter absolute barbarians in these islands. The fibula or brooch is of a common first century A.D. type. The evolution of this type of ornament is traced by Evans from a type originating in Central and S.E. Europe and not unlike the modern safety pin. These brooches were worn in pairs, one on each breast, by the native women, the two being connected by a chain, and the chain-loop, present on the Honley example is peculiar to British types. The bronze rings are miniatures of a type of large rings common on native sites and may have been used as horse-trappings. These from Honley were "probably sewn on to a strap or garment, a loop coming over the shorter parts of the circumference between the two projections and keeping the ring in position" - (Hill).

Figure 42. Diagram Showing How The Seal Box Was Used

One other local coin-hoard is to be recorded. Between 1828 and 1831 there were found at Lightcliffe gold British coins and Roman silver consular and imperial coins. The hoard was at once dispersed by the finder, some coins it is said finally reaching the British Museum and the museums at York and Leeds.*

* I am informed (April, 1924) by Mr. G.F. Hill, of the British Museum and Mr. Hy. Crowther of the Leeds Museum, that no British coins known to have come from Lightcliffe are in their collections.

A copy of one of the coins at York is now in the Tolson Museum. Mr. Turner secured four of the British coins two of which have on the obverse VO. LISI..A – i.e., they are of COLISIOS, on the reverse a horse. He states that two of the coins are of Boadicea’s currency, but the third coin has on the obverse the last stages of Apollo’s wreath, and on the reverse AEL together with a horse and chariot. The fourth has a similar obverse, but the reverse is blank. None of the four coins can therefore be correctly ascribed to Boadicea or, to give that queen her correct name, Boudicca. The Roman coins ranged from Republican times to the Emperor Caligula (37-41 A.D.). this hoard therefore appears to have been buried at a somewhat earlier time than the Honley hoard, as the latest-dated coin in a hoard furnishes an approximate date for the concealment of the hoard. The hiding of the Lightcliffe hoard was therefore due either to civil strife within the tribe or else to the lack of banks. The Honley hoard is to be ascribed to other causes. As the latest of the Roman coins are fresh from the mint and the British coins are little worn, we can see in the way they were hidden and the date of their concealment (soon after 72-3 A.D.), evidence of the troubles of those years – the invasion of the Brigantian territory by the Romans and the commencement of their subjection. In the course of the struggle, or else when it was seen to be imminent, some native hid his wealth, hoping to recover it when peace was again restored. We can briefly trace in Tacitus the origin and result of this war.

The advance of the Romans against the Brigantes was due to internal strife within the tribe providing an opportunity for that subjection of the northern parts of England which was absolutely necessary if the south was to be retained. Cartimunda and her consort were against quarreling. Finally, Cartimunda repudiated her husband and married his armour-bearer Vellocatus (69-70 A.D). The insulted chieftain took up arms; once again Cartimunda appealed to Rome. This happed either in the last days of the governmanship of Bolanus or else in the early days of that of Petillius Cerealis. At all events the Governor seized his opportunity and sent a few cohorts to the aid of the pro-Roman faction. They were overwhelmed by numbers and could only manage to carry the queen off to a place of security, and thenceforward she drops out of history. Venutius was left on the throne, and for some years, though the Romans were distracted by the conquest of Wales, the Brigantes and the Romans waged open warfare. This was not concluded until Cnaeus Julius Agricola came to Britain as a governor in 78 A.D. He finally subdued the Welsh and then found himself free to deal with the Brigantes, only half of whose territory at the most had as yet been conquered. Tacitus does not give detailed information of his campaigns but he must have vanquished the Brigantes before he set out to subdue southern Scotland (80 A.D.). from that date until some time after 100 A.D. Northern England was under Roman rule. Then rebellion burst out, the Ninth Legion then stationed at York was wiped out as a result of some unknown disaster which lost to Rome everything north of the Tyne-Solway line, and necessitated the consolidation of the six northern counties by means of Hadrian’s Wall. In this revolt the Brigantes most probably played a leading part, but with the subsequent Roman victory Huddersfield has entered upon its period of Roman History.

It remains to enquire if there are still existent any traces of those days other than earthworks and implements. The centuries have caused intermingling of any Neolithic and Goidelic blood in the local population. Perhaps a more permanent record may be sought in Place-names. Some local names appear to have traces of Keltic origin, and, though this is highly debatable ground, various writers have derived local names from the Keltic. Thus Calder is derivable from Celldwyer, "the river of the wooded waters," Marsden is supposed to contain the Keltic den, "a deep wooded valley." Lud is traced in Ludwell, Luddenden, perhaps in Lud Hill, Rib in Ribble and Ribbleden. Cowmes, Cheginedge, Rose Hills, Krumlin, Balin, Cartworth, and the debated Almondbury, are all by some ascribed to a Keltic origin. As to the name Brigantes, Professor Rhys derives it from brigant, "noble, free, privileged," others from the Welsh Bryn or Bre (hill), thus translating it as "Hillmen." Sykes in his History of Huddersfield, gives a list of local dialect words to which ascribes a Keltic origin, but this highly debatable ground is better left free for the battles of specialists. Some of the suggestions may be correct, but the most certain relics of long-past days consist not in matters of speech nor in physical characteristics, for these vary from century to century, but in the archaeological evidence collected in the Museum and from the evidence that may be hoped for when the local earthworks have been excavated. As yet we owe far more of our knowledge of early local history to such men as the late George Marsden and the many others who have worked and are still working in the field than we do to the studies of philologists.

In conclusion, thanks for help received are owed to many. Without the original inspiration of Dr. Woodhead this Handbook would not have been undertaken; without his ever ready help and sympathy it would not have been completed. Mr. Francis Buckley has generously provided information gained by his own intensive researches of the flint sites of the Southern Pennines. The account of the local pygmy flint industry is based almost entirely on his work and information given by him. To Mr. Ammon Wrigley, Mr. F.C.P. Cole, Chief Librarian, and others the writer wishes to express his thanks for help received, and also to those who so hospitably entertained him while surveying the district in 1921. To Mr. W.H. Sikes special thanks are due for his valuable assistance with the illustrations.

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