RIBCHESTER

'Ribchester' is a village in the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Blackburn and Preston. The village stands on the banks of the River Ribble.
The main access road into Ribchester is the B6245. From the north, this is the Preston Road, which merges into Church Street. From the east, it is the Blackburn Road, which, at its westernmost extremity, also links up with Church Street, albeit closer to the centre of the village.

Contents

Roman Ribchester

Roman remains

Post-Roman Ribchester

Gallery

References

External links

Image links

Roman Ribchester

The village was originally established as a Roman auxiliary fort named 'Bremetennacum' or 'Bremetenacum Veteranorum'. The first fort was built in timber in AD 72/73. The fort was renovated in the late 1st century AD and was rebuilt in stone in the early 2nd century. During the life of the fort, a village grew up around it. A fort remained at Ribchester until the 4th century AD and its remains can still be seen around the present village.

Roman remains

A report on Roman remains at Ribchester was published in ''Roman Britain in 1914'' (Haverfield, 1915):
:"In the spring of 1913 a small school-building was pulled down at Ribchester, and the Manchester Classical Association was able to resume its examination of the Principia (praetorium) of the Roman fort, above a part of which this building had stood. The work was carried out by Prof. W. B. Anderson, of Manchester University, and Mr. D. Atkinson, Research Fellow of Reading College, and, though limited in extent, was very successful.
:"The first discovery of the Principia is due to Miss Greenall, who about 1905 was building a house close to the school and took care that certain remains found by her builders should be duly noted: excavations in 1906-7, however, left the size and extent of these remains somewhat uncertain and resulted in what we now know to be an incorrect plan. The work done last spring (1913) makes it plain (see illustration) that the Principia fronted — in normal fashion — the main street of the fort (gravel laid on cobbles) running from the north to the south gate. But, abnormally, the frontage was formed by a verandah or colonnade: the only parallel which I can quote is from Caersws, where excavations in 1909 revealed a similar verandah in front of the Principia. Next to the verandah stood the usual Outer Court with a colonnade round it and two wells in it (one is the usual provision): the colonnade seemed to have been twice rebuilt. Beyond that are fainter traces of the Inner Court which, however, lies mostly underneath a churchyard: the only fairly clear feature is a room (A on plan) which seems to have stood on the right side of the Inner Court, as at Chesters and Ambleside. Behind this, probably, stood the usual five office rooms. If we carry the Principia about twenty feet further back, which would be a full allowance for these rooms with their walling, the end of the whole structure will line with the ends of the granaries found some years ago. This, or something very like it, is what we should naturally expect. We then obtain a structure measuring 81 × 112 feet, the latter dimension including a verandah 8 feet wide. This again seems a reasonable result. Ribchester was a large fort, about 6 acres, garrisoned by cavalry; in a similar fort at Chesters, on Hadrian's Wall, the Principia measured 85 × 125 feet: in the 'North Camp' at Camelon, another fort of much the same size (nearly 6 acres), they measured 92 × 120 feet."
The most famous artifact discoverd in Ribchester, and dating from the Roman period, is the elaborate cavalry helmet found in Church Street in the 1700's and now held in the British Museum as the gift of Charles Towneley.

Post-Roman Ribchester

Little is known about post Roman Ribchester although the presence of Saint Wilfrid's Church indicates that it retained some significance. When Henry VIIIs antiquary visited Ribchester in the 1540s he described it thus: 'Ribchestre ...hath been an auncient towne. Great squarid stones, voultes and antique coynes be found there...' When, a short while later, William Camden, author of ''Britannia'' (1586), visited the village, he recorded the saying that starts this section.
That the site of the Roman fort remained the focus of the village is indicated by the later building of Saint Wilfrid's Church very nearly over the Principia. The church's website provides a detailed history of both Saint Wilfrid's and Saint Saviour's Church, which stands in the nearby settlement of Stydd and which is perhaps a remnant of a Knights Templar or Knights Hospitallers establishment.
In the 17th and 18th Centuries the village became, like many in East Lancashire, a centre for cotton weaving. Initially in the homes of the weavers and latterly in two mills (Bee Mill and Corporation Mill) built on the Preston Road on the northern edge of the village.
In 1838 William Howitt published his ''Rural Life of England'' in which he described the conditions of the weaving districts of East Lancashire. 'Everywhere extend wild, naked hills, in many places totally un-reclaimed, in others enclosed, but exhibiting all the signs of neglected spiritless husbandry ...Over these naked and desolate hills are scattered to their very tops, in all directions, the habitations of a swarming population of weavers... In Ribchester our chaise was pursued by swarms of [these] wooden-shod lads like swarms of flies and were only beaten off for a moment to close in upon you again, and their sisters showed equally the extravagance of rudeness in which they were suffered to grow up, by running out of the houses as we passed and poking mops and brushes at the horses heads. No one attempted to restrain or rebuke them; yet no one of the adult population offered you the least insult; and if you asked the way, gave you the most ready directions, and if you went into their houses, treated you with perfect civility and showed an affection for these little brats that was honourable to their hearts and wanted only directing by a better intelligence. The uncouthness of these poor people is not that of evil disposition, but of pressing poverty and continued neglect'
The weaving of cotton and other textiles continued in Ribchester until the 1980's when the last weaving business closed in Bee Mill. The village is now mostly a dormitory settlement for Preston, Blackburn, and Longridge commuters although Bee Mill has now been converted into units for light industry and retail. The village retains an active community with three churches, a village school (ages 5 to 11), three pubs, and a sports and social club.
Ribchester is also the home of the Ribchester Music Festival that takes place in Saint Wilfrid's Church and other venues every Summer.
There are many clubs and societies in the village such as the RATS (Ribchester Amateur Threatrical Society), RADAC (Ribchester and District Angling Club) and a newly formed Ribchester Local History Society .
A field site and a residence in the village featured in the first series of ''Time Team'' in 1994.

Gallery

References

★ Buxton, K. and Howard-Davis, C. (2000) ''Bremetenacum: excavations at Roman Ribchester 1980, 1989-1990'', Lancaster imprints, no. 9, Lancaster University Archaeological Unit, ISBN 1-86220-083-1

★ Haverfield, F. (1915) ''Roman Britain in 1914'', British Academy supplimental papers III, Oxford University Press, (Online Text,Project Gutenburg)

★ Smith, T. C. and Shortt, J (1890) ''The history of the parish of Ribchester, in the county of Lancaster'', London: Bemrose & sons, 283p

★ Edwards, B.J.N. (2000) ''The Romans in Ribchester, Discovery and Excavation'', Centre for North-West Regional Studies, University of Lancaster, ISBN 1-86220-085-8

External links

★ Vindolanda Tablets mentioning Ribchester Vindolanda Tablets Online

★ Ribchester Museum

★ Saint Wilfrid's Church

★ Ribchester Parish Council

★ Ribchester Local History Society

★ Ribchester and District Angling Club

Image links

★ The Ribchester Cavalry Sports Helmet

★ The Ribchester Hoard