Huddersfield in Roman Times
By Ian A. Richmond
SOCIAL CONDITIONS, A.D. 80-125.
LIFE IN THE ROMAN FORTS: GROWTH OF CIVILISATION
During the next century folk in the Huddersfield District
were reaching a higher level of civilisation, but the evidence
for this remains indirect owing to a lack of excavation.
A tombstone of a Brigantian auxiliary trooper named Nectovelius,
found on the Wall of Pius in Scotland, belongs to the years
A.D. 140-180, and shows that the natives of northern Britain
were thought fit by then at least to take service in the
less civilised part of the Roman army. Also the Huddersfield
district has produced a surprisingly large number of coin-hoards
which were deposited after a disaster about A.D. 300. While
in some of the dales further east, and especially in the
Vale of York, civilisation began to develop apace after
the building of Hadrian’s Wall in A.D. 122-125; large
country houses, belonging of course, to native Britons,
became not uncommon. This story, however, belongs to a later
chapter.
Roman Britain A.D. 80-125
Evidence up to the reign of Hadrian shows only that the
natives of the Huddersfield District were growing used to
the peace of Rome, and that no serious attempt was made
to shake off Roman rule when the great rebellion took place
further north just before A.D. 117. It is probable also
that the people had been numbered and their property registered
for purposed of taxation and military service about this
time. For a tombstone from Foligno, in central Italy, tells
of a district census officer at work in the heart of the
Peak District not long before A.D. 114-117. Thus the basis
was laid upon which native prosperity reached greater heights
a century later; but we shall see that the district never
became rich owing to physical conditions; nor was there
any dense population to develop its resources.
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