Castlefield ......... the place without a castle

Now you won’t find a castle at Castlefield.

It is one of those regrettable gaffs that the Normans didn’t reckon Manchester important enough for even one of those oddly named Motte and Bailey ones.

But instead the disappointed tourist will uncover a rich seam of history which will take them from the Romans to the start of the Age of Canals and on to the first passenger railway station in the world, some oddly named hospitals and a shed load of period pubs.

The Romans built a fort here during their push north to subjugate the “blue shield people” who also went under the name of the Brigantes and were not over keen on hypocausts, Latin or the Roman taxation system.

All of which is why with minor modification the fort continued the business of protecting the important link between Chester and York for 300 years.

In the process it also attracted a small band of civilians who lived in the township outside its walls and they have left a mix of everyday objects offering up an insight to how they lived.

As for the fort bits of its walls survived into the 18th century which despite the usual cries from the heritage lobby were destroyed in the construction of the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal which as everyone knows was constructed to bring coal from the Duke’s mines at Worsely into Manchester, thereby providing cheap fuel and further contributing to the grime of the city.

But in recognition of what was destroyed the area became known as Castlefield, a name which continues to confuse the tourist, especially when confronted with sections of replica Roman wall built in the 1980s by apprentice bricklayers employed by Manchester Corporation.

Sadly the mural painted by the artist David Vaughan on the side of a nearby railway viaduct showing a group of Roman soldiers entering the fort was left to fade and peel and was finally painted over.

Still one of those viaducts was built to resemble the towers of a castle so perhaps all turns out for the best in this best of all historical worlds.

Location; Castlefield

Pictures; the Roman fort, 2002 and the canal, 2006 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Beaufort Street and the mural by David Vughan coutresy of http://www.davidvaughanart.com/