Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/203

f 7* 'TflE'HI S:T O R Y , : ;Bodkr!;. Another ftation wW'featbd equally upon the courfe o£ i Rb~, man road and upon the margi n of the Merfey, It was fettled at Stockport This 1 town appears evidently the one* commo» ten-, tfer to thrfee or four very variously directed rpads bf the Romans*; The High-ftreet advances to it from Marichefter, and the Pepper* ftreet haftens to it from Hanford '. And in the pariih of Afhe- ton and near the foot of Staley-bridge is a third road, commonly, denominated Staley-ftreet for a mile together. A branch of; this muft have been the above-mentioned road to Stretford. And the main line lies pointing clearly from. Caft left aw to Stockport* Thefe are fure lignatures of a Roman ftation at Stockport* And. the general famenefs in the pofition of this and the former fort* this being placed, like that, upon the limits of the two provinces and the banks of the limitary ftream, ami thus beiiig planted* Eke that, in the road betwixt two confiderable ftatioris, dahcai* ftrates a famenefs in the defign and requires a ixmilarity in thd nature of both; This muft have been fixed upon the fee* of the; caftle and the area of the caflle hill at Stockport. That is ex- a£Hy fuch a fite as the Romans muft have inftantiy felcStedfbr fuch a ftation. That is a fmall area detached from the leve> ground of the market-place, and comiefted with.it bnily by. i afa ifthmus. And that is a fmall fquare knoll which projefts from the foutherh fide of the river, looks down upon the long fteep flope of the rocky bank* zp& has the young Merfey frequently" rolling its rumbling torrents zX the foot of it. The a^ea muft have been the afifcual fite of a caftle in the earlieft pferipd of the Saxon refidence among us, as the caflle knnft have origklfclfy communicated its name to the town, and as both were deno* miriated Stock-port becauie the former was a port or caftle in a wo6d 9 % The are* is about half a ftatute-aere in extent, the fite is ftilUncom^para'Wy ft rang in itfelf,and th? pofition is happily fitted for the ford* The ftation muft have had a fteep of an hundred - f>r an hundred and- twenty yards in defcent upon three (ides of it, and muft h$ve bf en guarded by a fofle acrofs the ifthmus* And the Roman road into Eaft-Chefhire muft have been effec* tualiy : commanded by it, that road being obliged by the circling current