The dish of the day at Rockliffe (From The Northern Echo)

The dish of the day at Rockliffe

10:53am Saturday 11th December 2010 in Chris Lloyd

THE last time I did a pre-Christmas book-signing, I went toe-to-toe with the Gruffalo and lost. So today I am going equipped with a rare Roman dish.

It was in 2005 when Darlington was, briefly, a battlefield of bookshops. Waterstones, newly-opened in the former Dressers shop, had two queues outside: the Gruffalo, with his knobbly knees, turned-out toes and the poisonous wart at the end of his nose, was drawing in the children, and Eric Sykes, comedy legend, was pulling in the adults.

Opposite in Ottakar’s, on the low side of High Row, I sat a little forlornly behind my draughty table piled high with my local history books.

So today I have enlisted a Roman dish to entice people to Rockliffe Hall, in Hurworth, for the launch of my new book which is about the Backhouses, railways, river gods, dragons and headless hobgoblins of the district.

Last year, a floodplain field near the Tees yielded evidence of a hitherto-unknown Roman settlement in Hurworth in the early 4th Century. It was probably connected with the Roman fort at Piercebridge which was then in its heyday – perhaps Rockliffe was a rural farmstead which supplied food for the centurions guarding the river crossing.

In the field, a heavy piece of a locally-made quernstone, or corn hand-grinder, was found, along with part of a Roman millstone which appears to have come from Derby.

There were two quenching troughs which suggests the presence of a forge, but best of all was the copper alloy dish which had been spun on a lathe and tinned on the inside.

It is quite a posh item. It would take pride of place on a table, holding wine or fruit. The only complete dish like it is in Germany, and only two other similar fragments have been found in this country.

Domestic Roman settlements are very rare in County Durham. The only others are Holme House, near Piercebridge, Old Durham to the east of Durham City and Faverdale to the north-west of Darlington.

But then, on high ground a few hundreds yards south of Rockliffe, over the Tees in Yorkshire, at Dalton, are the remains of two Roman villas and a roadway.

It is tantalising to think that 1,700 years ago, Romans strolled across what is now Europe’s longest golf course. They may have waded over the river, scrambled up the Raw Cliff – so named because the soil was always tumbling down it, preventing plants from getting a roothold – and gone visiting their neighbours in Yorkshire.

All the other settlements were more substantial than Rockliffe and left deeper marks on our countryside. This suggests that the Romans didn’t stay long.

Watching the snow melt yesterday and the river levels rise, it is not hard to guess why.

The postholes and stone floors were found beneath a thick layer of silt, so it seems that, fearing a flood, the Romans of Rockliffe collected all their belongings and fled.

As they hurried to higher ground, a dish dropped. The water lapped over it and it was lost to human sight for many centuries.

Today, from 11am to 1.30pm, it’ll take pride of place at Rockliffe Hall hotel, beside mulled wine and festive treats, photographs and documents, and, of course, books. All are welcome to come and have a look at it.

● The Road to Rockliffe by Chris Lloyd costs £12.50 in softback and £25 in hardback. The softback will also be available next week from The Northern Echo’s office in Priestgate, Darlington.