coincide with the superstructure of the cathedral tower. But he has more to say. He wrote me on the 23rd May, 1899, on my enquiry: "The old tower was pulled down and the Roman mortar [which he also had found in addition at the same place] was found here. I noticed the mortar being broken up by one of the men. I went to look. It was made of broken brick or tile and lime. [I showed him since, on 8th September, 1900, a piece of Roman mortar of pounded brick and lime from Chester, which he at once recognised as the same material.] I had previously found some of it at the east side of the tower—this came from the west side, which I also showed to Mr. Bowers, the dean, who likewise said it was Roman. The lump, I should think, would be a couple of hundredweights." At Deansgate we find only mortar, made of pounded brick or tile and lime, used for the flooring of the second (super-constructed) hypocaust, erected much later than the original and older hypocaust. The former probably built after 121 a.d. No mortar of brick or tile and lime was found by me then at any part of the castrum, either at the walls or in the remaining remnant of the wall existing in the timber yard, and its employment must have been introduced at a later stage. It is clear that here at the north tower we have to deal with an older Roman[1] foundation, pointing to a substantial structure which had a cement flooring.
- ↑ Although scarcely necessary, I may say that the assumption of the mortar having been carried here from Castlefield is absurd, considering the circumstances I have described. Leland, a casual visitor of Manchester in 1538, by the by, only speaks of the stones of the ruins of Man (Castle having been translated towards making of bridges for the toune." Salford Bridge chapel was repaired in 1505. The other small bridges were at Hunt's Bank, Millbrow, and Scotland. The dressed red sandstones may have been used for the foundations of the Deanery. Hanging Bridge, Chetham College, which are all made up of stones of mixed sizes, but no blocks of millstone grit can be discovered amongst them; they may have been used for Salford Bridge particularly.
