Wakefield Museums and Castles

Made for the military

Roman Castleford began in about 71 AD as a fort built as part of the violent invasion and conquest of northern England. A garrison of 600 soldiers was based in the fort. Very quickly their money attracted local traders. This usually happened at Roman forts. A small settlement grew up nearby that provided the troops with food, drink, entertainment and so on. 

When the civilian area outside the Castleford fort was excavated, it revealed a number of hearths, lots of remains from smelting, and bits of military kit. This clearly suggests that there were workshops making and repairing equipment for soldiers. They would certainly have been doing this for the local garrison. They may also have been providing for the army supply network more widely.

Illustration showing how the inside of a Roman military workshop or 'fabrica' might have looked.

Mass production

One specialist industry in Roman Castleford was spoon-making. Hundreds of bits of moulds made from local clay have been found. These moulds would have been bundled together so that up to 16 spoons could be made at once by pouring molten bronze into them. Once the metal had cooled, the clay moulds were broken open to get at the spoons. The broken pieces of the moulds were thrown away. Castleford is the only place in Britain where this kind of complex mould has been found. It is the only known spoon-making centre in the Western Roman Empire.

Castleford was also a centre for making enamelled metal objects. These objects were often connected to the army. The bronze objects were cast in distinctive clay moulds which left depressions in the metal. These depressions were then filled with a special paste which turned into a glassy enamel when heated. The things made were a fusion of Roman metalwork with British decoration. This produced a striking, colourful look.

Fragments of spoon moulds found in Castleford

Souvenir shopping

A half-finished brooch found by archaeologists gives us evidence about some of the objects made in Castleford. For the Romans brooches were functional. They were used by everyone, including soldiers, to fasten clothing before buttons and zips were invented.

Brooches were also decorative and some were even souvenirs. The bright colours of the enamel would have been very striking.

Another brooch found in Lincolnshire had an inscription on it saying it came from Lagentium, the Roman name for Castleford.

A bronze fibula brooch, found in excavations in Castleford

The Romans liked these sort of souvenirs. We know of some unusual cups and bowls with the names of forts on Hadrian’s Wall on them.

One example found recently was the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan.

The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, uploaded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme to Wikimedia Commons