Roman Castleford - A Brief History

 In the fifties, long before computer games, tablets and round-the-clock TV, children of Castleford amused themselves by playing cowboys and cowgirls, games of taws, and digging deep holes. Digging deep holes?

Yes, because there were looking for treasure in their back gardens and those of neighbours’ or even public spaces. The treasure being a Roman artifact, usually a piece of pottery. They didn’t find any, but was that chipped piece of brick a remnant of a Roman villa?

Teachers and parents told them about modern Castleford being on the site of a Roman fort. This was a spark to the imagination of young Castlefordians. But why did the people of a far-off country decide to come to this area?

The Roman Emperor Claudius ordered the invasion of Britain, partly to restore the full power of the emperor, which had suffered under his predecessor, Caligula. The expansion of Roman power in Britain began in 43 CE. As the Romans moved northwards, they met fierce resistance.

The expansion of the Roman Empire wasn’t sustainable. About 410 CE the Romans left, with Emperor Honorius telling the British: “You’re on your own now.”

The major Roman city in the north was Eboracum (York) but the nearby Roman Castleford, referred to as “Lagentium”, served an important purpose. It was on an important road and was the site of what was then a ford across the river. Without Lagentium, Eboracum would not have been a powerful city.

While “Lagentium”, which comes from medieval interpretations of Roman documents, is the commonly used name for Roman Britain, we aren’t sure what its Roman name was. Another possibility is Legeolium, which appears in a listing of towns as being between Danum (Doncaster) and Eboracum.

“The Great North Road’ ran along Beancroft Road and Welbeck Street to the ford at the River Aire. In 71 CE, the Romans founded Eboracum; this is likely the date when they began building the military fort to protect the ford for troops traveling to the city.

What appears to be important to Roman Castleford was that while its military importance was relatively short, the accompanying civilian settlement, the vicus, lasted much longer.

Many of us remember the archaeological digs of the 70s and later, where 30 trenches recovered artifacts from two Roman forts and the vicus. I wonder if any of those archaeologists used to dig holes in their back garden when there were children.

The military left in about 180 CE; the civilians remained until about 400 CE. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 948 CE mentions “Ceaster Forda” (”the crossing near the fort”) but no village or town was important enough to be mentioned in the “Domesday Book”. From 1130 CE, Castleford emerged as a small village with a church and a water wheel.