Watkin holds—and I think truly so—that the new road was not made until a considerably later period than that from Manchester viâ Wigan and Walton. It is one of the roads not mentioned in Antonine's Itinerary, and may fall within the middle or end of the second century. When that new road was laid out, the stone-walled castrum at Ribchester, a complement of the station at Walton, was already built, and thus connected it direct, viâ Ribchester, with the northern wall. Agricola had no share in the construction of this road.
Not much of this road is known in our locality. It has been visible at Spen Moor, near Ainsworth, composed of hard gravel, 7 to 8 yards broad and ½ a yard in thickness, and beyond that, near Harwood, as a pavement of large stones, and portions at Cunliffe Moss, 12 yards wide (see Watkin, pp. 54 and 55). On this road the latest Roman coins have been found, 491–518, near Higher Broughton.
We have seen that at Chetham College a large mass of mortar, consisting of large pieces of rubble stone and gravel and lime, has been found, which in all probability comes from the walls of a massive tower which must have been in existence close to the junction of the Irwell and Irk to guard the river passage at Hunt's Bank Bridge, to further protect the Castlefield station and hold the newly-made road.
The circular area of Hunt's Bank is curiously divided into two parts and bisected in the centre (see map of Hunt's Bank). The series of Roman buildings on the southern half, forming the site of the Cathedral, seems to point to a closer occupation of this more elevated area.
I think I have succeeded in showing that Hunt's Bank was the Roman starting-point; as a corollary it follows also that from here probably issued forth the road on which they first advanced into Yorkshire, namely, the
