Bremetenacum Veteranorum

“It is written on a wall in Rome that Ribchester was as rich as any town in Christendom”

The Bremetennacum Veteranorum, or ‘hilltop settlement of the veterans’, was a Roman fort founded by the governor of the British isles, Julius Agricola, in AD78. It was largely garrisoned by Asturians from Spain and Sarmartians from Hungary, both Cavalry specialists, and was called a veteranorum as it was a place where veterans could settle and farm, being given parcels of land and allowed to continue training new troops.

The fort is by the River Ribble and on prime agricultural land so many of the veterans grew very rich, profiting enormously from their farms and also from breeding horses, hence the famous saying.

Tempora mutantur

As well as the fort and the surrounding farms a small village grew, this became the village of Ribchester, there was also bathhouses, excavated in 1837, granaries, and a temple, four columns of which now adorn the White Bull hotel in the village. Supposedly two capitals (the top bits of pillars) from the temple adorn the front of the North Euston hotel in Fleetwood, a gift from the landlord of the White bull.

Over the centuries the river Ribble has meandered and changed its course many times, and through doing so has exposed many Roman treasures and artefacts. These include combs, drinking vessels, a statue of a cavalryman in battle, coins, inscribed hearthstones, a bust of the goddess minerva and the famous ‘Ribchester hoard’.

The Ribchester Hoard

The Ribchester hoard is a collection of mostly iron items found by a 13 year old schoolboy, John Walton, in 1796, and amongst the items found in the schoolboy’s garden was the Ribchester helmet.

The Ribchester helmet is an imposing, and heavy (3 pounds!) iron cavalry helmet which, from the accounts of one of emperor Hadrian’s closest friends, Arrian of Nicomedia, who wrote about a cavalry competition called the ‘hippika gymnasia’, we know to have belonged to a very high ranking competitor.

Domus antiquitatem

The ornamentation of the helmets signified the competitors level of horsemanship and as the Ribchester helmet is so ornate it is believed to believed to a very skill cavalryman indeed!. The original helmet is on display in the British Museum in London where it’s been kept since 1814 but there is a very exact replica kept in the Roman museum at Ribchester.

The museum at Ribchester is the only Roman museum in Lancashire and was founded by Margaret Greenall in 1915. Margaret, of the brewery family Greenalls, saw that Roman artefacts found around the village quickly made their way into the hands of private collectors and big museums such as the British museum and decided to rectify the situation.

All Roads lead to Ribchester

Margaret built the museum next her house, which it now incorporates, and today it has a wealth of artefacts and information about the Roman legacy of the area, including Roman roads such as Watling St which runs through the city of Preston nearby (which i grew up on) and the ‘Salter Way’ which runs north-east across the Bowland fells. Another Roman saying was “all roads lead to Ribchester”!.

The museum, ruins and the village itself are well worth visiting and open throughout the year.

A B-H