37: King Arthur’s Lake – Martin Mere in Lancashire, Part 2: 4 October 2024

The Romans were fixated on war and killing.  Roman culture taught that the only society of any value was Roman society and the mission of Rome was to civilize the parts of the world it had not yet conquered.  In Roman thought, civilizing people and places meant that the people and places in question had to become replicas of Rome itself.  Anyone who opposed Roman ways was not simply someone who thought differently from the Romans, any such person had to be exterminated.  The Roman mission was very similar to that of Doctor Who’s Daleks - “Exterminate”.

But the Romans did not try and civilize the whole of the world; they only attacked and conquered places where they thought they could get a return on their investment.  It cost money to invade Britain and it cost even more money to maintain a standing army in a country that clearly did not want the Romans there at all.  The return they got on their money was access to the mineral riches of Britain.  Although those mineral riches were produced by slaves who were never paid wages, it did cost money to feed and clothe the slaves.

The cost of the conquest of Britain was undoubtedly higher than the Romans originally expected because of the trouble involved in dealing with the British, Celtic inhabitants.  Queen Boudicca’s revolt was suppressed with extreme difficulty and only after extreme slaughter of the original inhabitants of Britain.

All of this meant that the Romans stayed away from those parts of Britain that did not offer them an easy and quick financial return.  Lancashire was one of the places the Romans stayed away from unless they REALLY had to go there.  The Romans didn’t even have a name for Lancashire – and neither did the French conquerors who arrived under William the Conqueror in 1066.  When William 1 ordered the Domesday Book to be created so he would know how much property was left in England for him to steal, his Domesday assessors did not even have a name for Lancashire.  The name for Lancashire arrived only 200 years after William the Conqueror.  Wiki says this about Lancashire.

Lancashire was founded in the 12th century; in the Domesday Book of 1086 much of what would become the county is treated as part of Yorkshire and Cheshire. Until the Early Modern period the county was a comparatively poor backwater, although in 1351 it became a palatine, with a semi-independent judicial system. This changed during the Industrial Revolution, when the county rapidly industrialised; until 1974 it included both Liverpool, a major port, and Manchester, which with its surrounding towns dominated the manufacture of textiles. The Lancashire coalfield was also exploited, with many collieries opening. By 1971 Lancashire had a population of 5,118,405, which made it the most heavily populated county in the United Kingdom after Greater London.

 

If the Romans were aware there was anything in Lancashire worth mining and stealing, they must have decided it was too expensive – even with slave labour – to be worth stealing.  So instead of embarking on large scale theft as elsewhere, they Romans hurried through the land of the Lancashire flood plains as quickly as they could.  They built some roads to take them to places that mattered to them, but they never really tried to settle and live in Lancashire.

Martin Mere was not disturbed by the Romans and the local Britons – my ancestors – were largely left alone.  The Goddess of Martin Mere – called Vivian in the tales of King Arthur – was unchallenged.  This enabled my ancestors to get on with the job of turning a swamp into one of the most productive food producing areas in the world.  The flood plains were guided into channels and ditches, leaving land that could be used to grow food. 

This diagram shows the network of Roman roads on the western side of Britain.

 

Although Chester, Ribchester, Lancaster and Watercrook were all occupied by Roman troops until the late fourth century, these Roman bases were mostly like islands in the sea of Lancashire swamp – or were they?  

Did all of the Roman cavalry units leave Ribchester when the desperate Emperor in Rome ordered them to all go to Europe and fight the invaders from Germany?  Some of them probably did, but those who had been born in Britain probably saw no point in uprooting their families to defend an Empire that was now unable to defend the place they had called home for the whole of their lives.

So at least some of the Roman heavy cavalry units stayed in Ribchester – and the legends of King Arthur were born.  As the wave of encroaching darkness crept over the whole of Britain, the former Roman cavalry units tried to maintain something that looked like the old Roamn system of law and order.

Martin Mere was the largest freshwater lake in the whole of England.  Magical legends and stories were attracted to it like iron filings to a magnet.

And centuries later, the property developers saw their opportunity and pounced.  Martin Mere is no more, but if the pumps fail at Crossens, it could easily come back.

This is a photo of the pumping station at Crossens.

If and when the pumping station fails, the Goddess of the Lake will resume her place as supreme ruler of this part of Lancashire.  Until that day comes, farms such as Sandyways Farm will continue to provide wholesome food for the people of Britain.

A Confession

Sandyways Farm is operated by Robert and Mandy Gorst and it is one of the ancestral farms operated by my ancestors.  Robert and Mandy are two of the finest people you are ever likely to meet.  If you enlarge the clock face on the phot immediately above, you will be able to read the words "Sandyways Farm".