![Buxton_Thermal_Baths](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Buxton_Thermal_Baths.jpg)
Aquae Arnemetiae was a small
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
in the
Roman province
The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...
of
Britannia
Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...
. The settlement was based around its natural warm springs. Today it is the town of
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level. ,
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
in England.
Aquae Arnemetiae means 'Waters of Arnemetia'.
Arnemetia
Arnemetia was a goddess in Romano-British religion. Her shrine was at Aquae Arnemetiae ("waters of Arnemetia"), which is now Buxton in Derbyshire, England.Miranda J. Green. ''Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend.'' Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, ...
was the
Romano-British
The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...
goddess of the sacred grove (the name Arnemetia was derived from the Celtic for beside the sacred grove). The town was recorded as ''Aquis Arnemeza'' in the
Ravenna Cosmography
The ''Ravenna Cosmography'' ( la, Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia, "The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese") is a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland, compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around 700 AD. Text ...
's list of all known places in the world in about 700 AD. The entry is between places with which the town had road connections: ''Nauione'' (
Navio Roman fort
Navio Roman fort overlooks a tight bend of the River Noe at Brough-on-Noe near Hope, Derbyshire, in England. Navio fort and vicus (civilian settlement) is a Scheduled Monument.
The town was recorded as ''Nauione'' in the Ravenna Cosmography's ...
at
Brough)'','' ''Zerdotalia'' (
Ardotalia
Ardotalia (also known as Melandra, or Melandra Castle) is a Roman fort in Gamesley, near Glossop in Derbyshire, England.
Ardotalia was constructed by Cohors Primae Frisiavonum—The First Cohort of Frisiavones. Evidence for the existence of ...
, later called Melandra fort, near
Glossop) and ''Mantio'' (
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
).
Roman settlement
Baths
![Roman coins from the Buxton Hoard found in 1979](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Roman_coins_from_the_Buxton_Hoard_found_in_1979.jpg)
Aquae Arnemetiae and
Aquae Sulis
Aquae Sulis (Latin for ''Waters of Sulis'') was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is the English city of Bath, Somerset. The Antonine Itinerary register of Roman roads lists the town as ''Aquis Sulis.'' Ptolemy records ...
(modern town of
Bath in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
) were the only two Roman bath towns in Britain. The Romans built a bath at the location of the main thermal spring. In the late 17th-century Cornelius White operated bathing facilities at the hot spring at the site of the
Buxton Old Hall. In 1695 he discovered an ancient smooth stone bath (20m long by 7m wide) as well as a lead cistern (2m square) on an oak timber frame. When the
Crescent
A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself.
In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...
hotel was built on the site in 1780, a Roman bath was identified and described as ‘a leaden cistern'. The bath is now buried beneath the Crescent, next to the
Natural Mineral Baths building that was constructed next to the hotel. Near to the site of the main spring, excavations in 2005 revealed the entry passage and doorways to the Roman baths. During this construction work, a wall believed to be the side of a
palaestra
A palaestra ( or ;
also (chiefly British) palestra; grc-gre, παλαίστρα) was any site of an ancient Greek wrestling school. Events requiring little space, such as boxing and wrestling, took place there. Palaestrae functioned both indep ...
(exercise hall) was also uncovered. Between 2009 and 2012 further underground cisterns and a large iron cauldron were revealed.
The main spring was excavated in the 1970s and a hoard of 232 Roman coins was found, spanning 300 years of the Roman occupation of Britain. Coins would have been thrown into the
sacred waters
Sacred waters are sacred natural sites characterized by tangible topographical land formations such as rivers, lakes, springs, reservoirs, and oceans, as opposed to holy water which is water elevated with the sacramental blessing of a cleric. T ...
to seek the favour of the Gods. The coins and pieces of bronze jewellery found with them are on display in the
Buxton Museum.
The geothermal spring rises from about 1 km below ground and about a million litres of water flow out per day. The mineral water emerges at a steady 27 °C. Analysis of the water has indicated that it has a high magnesium content and that it originated around 5,000 years ago.
Town
Emperor Hadrian visited the town in 122 AD on his way to
Wroxeter
Wroxeter is a village in Shropshire, England, which forms part of the civil parish of Wroxeter and Uppington, beside the River Severn, south-east of Shrewsbury.
''Viroconium Cornoviorum'', the fourth largest city in Roman Britain, was sited ...
(
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...
). In 1787 Major
Hayman Rooke
Major Hayman Rooke (20 February 1723 – 18 September 1806) was a British soldier and antiquarian who became an antiquary on his retirement from the Army. The Major Oak is named after him.
Biography
Rooke was born on 20 February 1723 and baptis ...
uncovered a long section of the Roman town wall, which is now beneath the landscaped hillside of
The Slopes. At the same time Rooke also documented details of the base of a temple in the same area, overlooking the site of the baths and springs. The temple was dedicated to the water deity Arnemetia. It had a shrine room set on a rectangular podium, with a columned
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
at the front. The Roman floor plan of a
macellum
A macellum (plural: ''macella''; ''makellon'') is an ancient Roman indoor market building that sold mostly provisions (especially meat and fish). The building normally sat alongside the forum and basilica, providing a place in which a market cou ...
(covered market with a central atrium) and floor mosaics were documented in 1860, on the west side of Buxton's market place near Fountain Street.
![Octagonal base of Temple of Apona](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Octagonal_base_of_Temple_of_Apona.jpg)
An ancient Celtic temple, at the site of the Bath Gardens, was described in 1755 as having an octagonal base and a feint inscription appearing as 'Aeona'. It was concluded that the temple was dedicated to either Epona (goddess of horses) or more appropriately Apona (goddess of healing waters). When
Edward Milner remodelled the
Pavilion Gardens in 1871 the 2,000 year-old temple was demolished and only the base now remains. Note: the octagonal structure in the pavilion Gardens is not Roman in date; it is in fact the old bandstand.
One mile south of the town there was a Roman farm at
Staden
Staden (; vls, Stoan) is a village and rural municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality has around 11 000 inhabitants.
In the local West-Flemish dialect, the ''d'' is not pronounced, which results in ''Stoan'' as pr ...
. Excavations in the 1980s found the platforms of several buildings, walls, enclosure banks,
quern
Quern ( da, Kværn) is a former municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populo ...
grinding stones, pottery, animal bones and jewellery. The potter's stamp of Sepuminus dates the pottery to 100-130 AD. A
hypocaust
A hypocaust ( la, hypocaustum) is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm th ...
tile found in the farm house demonstrates that it had an underfloor heating system.
Remains
![Roman Milestone to Navio from Buxton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Roman_Milestone_to_Navio_from_Buxton.jpg)
A Roman milestone was discovered in 1862 in the Silverlands district of Buxton. It is the oldest inscribed milestone found in Derbyshire. The inscription is ‘TRIB POT COS II P P A NAVIONE M P XI’ which means ‘With the
tribune
Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...
's power, twice
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...
, father of this country. From Navio 11 miles.' The site of the
Navio Roman fort
Navio Roman fort overlooks a tight bend of the River Noe at Brough-on-Noe near Hope, Derbyshire, in England. Navio fort and vicus (civilian settlement) is a Scheduled Monument.
The town was recorded as ''Nauione'' in the Ravenna Cosmography's ...
is by the present day village of Brough. In 1903, excavations by local archaeologist
Micah Salt in the Silverlands area found various Roman artefacts including a silver coin, tiles, leather sandals, gritstone hearths, glassware and many fragments of fine
Samian pottery. Pottery inscriptions indicate that they were made in 60-100 AD and from
Verulamium
Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon ...
(modern St Albans). The milestone and the other Roman items are on display in the Buxton Museum.
Numerous Roman remains were also discovered in 1811 on the site of Buxton's Town Hall, when it was built at the north end of the market place. Close to the Town Hall, Roman floor slabs were found in the cellar of 3 Hall Bank in 2006 and large Roman masonry is exposed in 8A Hall Bank.
Roman coins and Romano-British bronze jewellery were also found in nearby
Poole's Cavern in 1865.
A gritstone altar dedicated to Arnemetia (Arnomecta) was found in 1903 in the strong room of Navio fort's Principia (headquarters building). The inscription on the altar says "To the goddess Arnomecta, Aelius Motio gladly, willingly, and deservedly fulfilled his vow." The altar is also on display in the Buxton Museum.
Surroundings
![Route_of_Batham_Gate_Road_near_Peak_Forest](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Route_of_Batham_Gate_Road_near_Peak_Forest.jpg)
Aquae Arnemetiae was at the intersection of two main
Roman roads
Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...
: Batham Gate and The Street.
Batham Gate
Batham Gate is the medieval name for a Roman road in Derbyshire, England, which ran south-west from Templebrough on the River Don in South Yorkshire to Brough-on-Noe (Latin '' Navio'') and the spa town of Buxton (Latin ''Aquae Arnemetiae'') i ...
(Old English for "road to the bath town") is a Roman road from
Templebrough
Templeborough (historically Templebrough) is a suburb of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The suburb falls within the Brinsworth and Catcliffe ward of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. The area takes its name from the remains of the ...
Roman fort in
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
past
Navio Roman Fort
Navio Roman fort overlooks a tight bend of the River Noe at Brough-on-Noe near Hope, Derbyshire, in England. Navio fort and vicus (civilian settlement) is a Scheduled Monument.
The town was recorded as ''Nauione'' in the Ravenna Cosmography's ...
and onto Buxton. Part of the route of this old Roman road on
Tideswell
Tideswell is a village and civil parish in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England. It lies east of Buxton on the B6049, in a wide valley on a limestone plateau, at an altitude of above sea level, and is within the District of Derbyshire Da ...
Moor is a protected Scheduled Monument. This was an important route for access to sites of lead production in the
Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...
. There is still a road called Batham Gate road heading east out of Buxton.
The Street The Street may refer to:
Geographical
*Wall Street in New York City's Financial District
* The Street, Lawshall, Suffolk, England
* The Street (Heath Charnock), a building and bridleway in Rivington, Lancashire, England
Film and television
* ''The ...
road (
Margary Number
Margary numbers are the numbering scheme developed by the historian Ivan Margary to catalogue known and suspected Roman roads in Britain in his 1955 work ''The Roman Roads of Britain''. They remain the standard system used by archaeologists and h ...
71a) from
Derventio (
Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
) ran to Aquae Arnemetiae, followed in places today by the modern A515 road to the south of Buxton. The Street is still the name of the road in the Upper Goyt Valley that may have connected Buxton with
Condate (Roman
Northwich
{{Infobox UK place
, static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg
, static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church
, official_name = Northwich
, country ...
). There is plaque in a stone wall by The Street road near Arbor Low (at OS map location SK 1649 6232). It is marked "Aquae Armentiae Derventio" indicating the Buxton to
Little Chester
Little Chester, also known as Chester Green after the area of open parkland at its centre, is a suburb of the city of Derby, in Derbyshire, England. It is located approximately north of the city centre, on the east bank of the River Derwent. It ...
(Derby) Roman road. It is further inscribed: "Huius viae curam curatores viarum non susceperunt". This translates as "The road menders have not taken care of this road". Roman roads also led north to
Mamucium
Mamucium, also known as Mancunium, is a former Roman fort in the Castlefield area of Manchester in North West England. The ''castrum'', which was founded c. AD 79 within the Roman province of Roman Britain, was garrisoned by a cohort ...
(Manchester) and to
Melandra fort, near Glossop (Margary Number 71b). Sections of
agger from these two northbound rounds have been identified and excavated. There was also a Roman Road (Margary Number 713) between Buxton and Leek (which may be the Roman town of Chesterton) whose course joins the present A53 road towards Leek at Morridge Top.
The convergence of roads upon Aquae Armetiae, led Edward Tristram in 1916 to deduce the possible location of a fort in the town to the south of the market place by the current Bath Road.
![Plaque on The Street (Buxton to Derby Roman Road)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Plaque_on_The_Street_%28Buxton_to_Derby_Roman_Road%29.jpg)
Navio fort guarded the route northwest to the larger fort of Melandra. The large inscribed Centurial stone found at Navio in 1903 dates from the rebuilding of the fort in 154 BC by occupying soldiers from southwest France. The Centurial stone is on display in the Buxton Museum.
OS maps still mark Buxton with its Roman name of Aquae Arnemetiae.
[{{cite map, publisher=Ordnance Survey, title=OL24 White Peak area, at=West sheet, scale=1:25000, series=Explorer]
References
Ancient Roman baths in England
Hot springs of the United Kingdom
Roman towns and cities in England
Buxton
History of Derbyshire
Roman sites in Derbyshire