Editing Lancaster, Lancashire (section)

===Roman and Saxon eras===
[[File:Roman bath house, Lancaster 2.JPG|thumb|Roman bath house on Castle Hill]]
[[Lancaster Roman Fort|A Roman fort]] was built by the end of the 1st century CE on the hill where [[Lancaster Castle]] now stands, possibly as early as the 60s, based on Roman coin evidence.<ref>Shotter, p. 5.</ref><ref>I. A. Richmond: Excavations on the Site of the Roman Fort at Lancaster (1950) [https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/105-2-Richmond.pdf.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606073436/https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/105-2-Richmond.pdf|date=6 June 2021}}</ref> Coin evidence also suggests that the fort was not continuously inhabited in its early years.<ref>Shotter, p. 9.</ref> It was rebuilt in stone about 102.<ref>Shotter, p. 10.</ref> The fort name is known only in a shortened form; the only evidence is a Roman milestone found {{Convert|4|mi|km}} outside Lancaster, with an inscription ending L MP IIII, meaning "from L – 4 miles,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rivet |first1=A. L. F. |last2=Smith |first2=Colin |year=1979 |title=The Place-Names of Roman Britain |location=London |publisher=B. T. Batsford |page=382 |isbn=0713420774}}</ref> and that its name began with an L. The fort was perhaps named Calunium.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://vici.org/vici/12173/ |title=Map, etc. Retrieved 11 July 2020. |access-date=11 July 2020 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713062633/https://vici.org/vici/12173/ |url-status=live}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|reason=It's a wiki-site.|sure=yes|date=July 2020}}

Roman baths were found in 1812 and can be seen near the junction of Bridge Lane and Church Street. There was presumably a bath-house with the 4th-century fort. The Roman baths incorporated a reused inscription of the Gallic Emperor [[Postumus]], dating from 262 to 266. The 3rd-century fort was garrisoned by the ''ala Sebosiana'' and ''numerus Barcariorum Tigrisiensium''.<ref>Birley, CW- XXXIX, p. 222. {{full citation needed|date=October 2020}}</ref>

The ancient ''Wery Wall'' was identified in 1950 as the north wall of the 4th-century fort, which was a drastic remodelling of the 3rd-century one, while retaining the same orientation. The later fort is the only example in north-west Britain of a 4th-century type, with massive curtain-wall and projecting bastions typical of the ''Saxon Shore'' or Wales. Extension of the technique as far north as Lancaster shows that the coast between Cumberland and North Wales was not left defenceless after the west-coast attacks and the disaster in the [[Carausian Revolt]] of 296, which followed from those under [[Clodius Albinus|Albinus]] in 197.

The fort at its largest extent covered {{cvt|9|-|10|acres|0}}.<ref>Shotter, p. 14.</ref> Evidence suggests that it stayed in use until the end of [[Roman occupation of Britain]].<ref>Shotter, p. 27.</ref> Church Street and some of St Leonard's Gate probably mark the initial course of the Roman road up the valley to [[Over Burrow Roman Fort|the fort at Over Burrow]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ratledge |first=David |title=The Roman Road from Lancaster to Burrow (in Lonsdale) |url=http://www.romanroads.org/gazetteer/M705.htm |website=Roman Roads Research Association |access-date=26 March 2021 |archive-date=13 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113120849/http://www.romanroads.org/gazetteer/M705.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

Little is known of Lancaster from the end of Roman rule to the early 5th century and the Norman Conquest of the late 11th century. Despite a lack of documentation for the period, it is thought that Lancaster remained inhabited. It lay on the fringes of the kingdoms of [[Mercia]] and [[Northumbria]] and over time may have passed from one to the other.<ref>{{harvnb |White |2001 |p=33}}</ref> Archaeological evidence suggests there was a monastery on or near the site of today's [[Lancaster Priory]] by the 700s or 800s. The Anglo-Saxon [[Runes|runic]] "Cynibald's cross" found at the Priory in 1807 is thought to date from the late 9th century. Lancaster was probably one of several abbeys founded under [[Wilfrid]].<ref>White, p. 34.</ref>