Roman Britain in 1914 | Page 6

fort is only just 3 acres, and one would
expect a smaller garrison; when excavations have advanced, we may
perhaps find that the garrison was really a cohors quingenaria with six
barracks, as at Gellygaer. Close against the east rampart, and indeed
cutting somewhat into it, was a long thin building (K), 12-16 feet wide,

which yielded much charcoal and potsherds and seemed an addition to
the original plan of the fort.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. PART OF SLACK FORT
(I. Granaries; II. Doubtful; III. Head-quarters; A. Shrine in III; B, C, D,
E. Wooden buildings in western part of fort; F, G, H, K. Stone
buildings in eastern part)]
The few small finds included Samian of the late first and early second
centuries (but no '29'), and a denarius of Trajan. In respect of date, they
agree with the finds of last year and of 1865, and suggest that the fort
was established under Domitian or Trajan, and abandoned under
Hadrian or Pius; as an inscription of the Sixth Legion was found here in
1744, apparently in the baths, the evacuation cannot have been earlier
than about A.D. 130. The occupation of Slack must therefore have
resembled that of Castleshaw, which stands at the western end of the
pass through the Pennine Hills, which Slack guards on the east. If this
be so, an explanation must be discovered for two altars generally
assigned to Slack. One of these, found three miles north of Slack at
Greetland in 1597 among traces of buildings, is dated to A.D. 205 (CIL.
vii. 200). The other, found two miles eastwards, at Longwood, in 1880
(Eph. Epigr. vii. 920), bears no date; but it was erected by an Aurelius
Quintus to the Numina Augustorum, and neither item quite suits so
early a date as the reign of Trajan. The dedication of the first is to the
goddess Victoria--Vic(toria) Brig(antia)--that of the second deo
Berganti (as well as the Numina Aug.); so that in each case a local
shrine to a native deity may be concerned. It is also possible that a fort
was built near Greetland, after the abandonment of Slack, to guard
another pass over the Pennine, that by way of Blackstone Edge.
It is to be hoped that these interesting excavations may be continued
and completed.
(xii) Holt. At Holt, eight miles south of Chester on the Denbighshire
bank of the Dee, Mr. Arthur Acton has further explored the very
interesting tile and pottery works of the Twentieth Legion, of which I
spoke in my Report for 1913 (p. 15). The site is not even yet exhausted.

But enough has been discovered to give a definite picture of it, and as it
may perhaps not be possible to continue the excavations at present, and
as the detailed report which Mr. Acton projects may take time to issue,
I shall try here, with his permission, to summarize very briefly his most
noteworthy results. I have to thank him for supplying me with much
information and material for illustrations.
Holt combines the advantages of excellent clay for pottery and tile
making,[3] good building stone (the Bunter red sandstone), and an easy
waterway to Chester. Here the legion garrisoning Chester established,
in the latter part of the first century, tile and pottery works for its own
use and presumably also for the use of other neighbouring garrisons.
Traces of these works were noted early in the seventeenth century,
though they were not then properly understood.[4] In 1905 the late Mr.
A. N. Palmer, of Wrexham, identified the site in two fields called Wall
Lock and Hilly Field, just outside the village of Holt, and here, since
1906, Mr. Acton has, at his own cost, carefully and systematically
carried out excavations.
[Footnote 3: A Bronze Age burial (fig. 6, D) suggests that the clay may
have been worked long before the Romans.]
[Footnote 4: References are given by Watkin, Cheshire, p. 305, and
Palmer, Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1906, pp. 225 foll.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5. ROMAN SITE NEAR HOLT
(1. Barracks?; 2. Dwelling and Bath-house; 3. Kiln; 4. Drying-room,
&c. 5. Kilns; 6. Work-rooms?; 7. Clay-pits)]
The discoveries show a group of structures scattered along a bank about
a quarter of a mile in length which stands slightly above the Dee and
the often flooded meadows beside it (fig. 5). At the west end of this
area (fig. 5, no. 1, and fig. 6) was a large rectangular enclosure of about
62 × 123 yards (rather over 1-1/2 acres), girt with a strong wall 7 feet
thick. Within it were five various rows of rooms mostly 15 feet square,
with drains; some complicated masonry (? latrines) filled the east end.
This enclosure was not wholly explored; it may have served for

workmen's barracks; the contents of two rubbish-pits (fig. 6,
AA)--bones of