Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Crowdundle Quarries, Newbiggin


	Crowdundle Quarries, Newbiggin
	Crowdundle Quarries
locality:-	Crowdundle Beck
civil parish:-	Newbiggin (formerly Westmorland)
county:-	Cumbria
locality type:-	quarry
locality type:-	roman inscription (gone)
coordinates:-	NY63102956 (?)
1Km square:-	NY6329
10Km square:-	NY62
references:-	Camden 1789

evidence:-	old map:- OS County Series (Wmd 5 9) placename:- Crowdundle Quarries
source data:-	Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.

evidence:-	old text:- Camden 1789 item:- roman inscription; inscription, roman
source data:-	Book, Britannia, or A Chorographical Description of the Flourishing Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, by William Camden, 1586, translated from the 1607 Latin edition by Richard Gough, published London, 1789. goto source Page 148:- "..." "... at Crawdun dale-warth, are to be seen ditches, ramparts, and hills thrown up, and among them this Roman inscription copied for me by the aforementioed Reginald Bainbrig, schoolmaster of Appleby, and cut on a rough rock, the beginning effaced by time:" ".... V[A]RRONIUS ... ECTVS LEG. XXV. V. .. [A]EL. LVCANUS .. P. LEG. II. [A]VG. C" "which I read ... Varronius praefectus legionis vicesimae Valentis Victricis... Elius Lucanus praefectus legionis secundae Augustae castra metati sunt, or to some such effect. For the Legion Vicesima Valens Victrix, which was stationed at DEVA, or West Chester, and the Legio secunda Augusta stationed at ISCA, or Caerleon in Wales, being called to service here against the enemy, seem to have been quartered and have had their castra stativa here for some time, in memory of which their officers cut this inscription on to the rock. I cannot easily fix the date: but for this purpose these larger letters seem to have been cut on a neighbouring rock CN. OCT. COT. COSS. though we find no such names together among the consuls in the Fasti Cunsulares. I have observed, however, from the time of Severus to Gordian, and afterwards, the letter A in all the inscriptions of that age wants the transverse stroke, and is formed thus [inverted V]"

evidence:-	old text:- Camden 1789 (Gough Additions) item:- roman inscription; inscription, roman
source data:-	Book, Britannia, or A Chorographical Description of the Flourishing Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, by William Camden, 1586, translated from the 1607 Latin edition by Richard Gough, published London, 1789. goto source Page 160:- "..." "The inscriptions at Crawdendale were copied by Mr. Bainbridge on another stone as one single inscription, whereas in fact they are cut with a common pick on two pieces of rock that have fallen off from the grand one. Some liberties have been taken in the copy, and the words underneath are now almost effaced in the rock, where Mr. Camden places them distinct. Mr. Bainbridge added Q.S.S.S. AP. CRAWDUNDALE; quae suprascripta sunt apud Crawdundale. The C in the first line is now scarce legible: the word in the second is plainly ESSUS, perhaps Lessus; a name in Gruter 661. 10. The fourth line begins with TR for tribunus. Castrametati sunt, or castrametatus est, as Horsley, are not probable. Mr. Machel discovered another inscription here on a rock, not noticed before," "V LEG II. AVG XXVV CO" "and as the evanescent words CO are on this, it may probably be that on which Mr. Camden mentions CN. OCT. COSS. The stones dug up in the foundations at Kirby Thor seem to have come from these quarries; and similar inscriptions occur in others at Helbeck Scar, on the river Gelt, and at Lenge crag near Naworth castle in Gillesland, whence the stones for the Picts wall were taken, and at Shawk."

evidence:-	old text:- Gents Mag placename:- Craw Dun Dale item:- inscription, roman; roman inscription
source data:-	Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922. goto source Gentleman's Magazine 1825 part 1 p.516 "Compendium of County History. - Westmorland." "... Upon the rocks, at a place called Craw-dun-dale, were formerly found characters and inscriptions, now obliterated and mouldered away. Camden mentions one or two, but Burn doubts their authenticity."

:-	NB I have no definite information about which quarry by the Crowdundle had the roman inscriptions. This seems the most likely.

:-	There was a roman inscription in a quarry by the Crowdundle Beck; part is is now in the west wall of a barn at Underwood, the rest is lost.
	Copy by Bainbridge in Chapel Street, Appleby.
	The inscriptions mention the Legio II Augusta and Legio XX Valeria Victrix.
	Collingwood, R G &Wright, P P: 1965: Roman Inscriptions of Britain: Oxford University Press:: nos.998-1000

see:-	Underwood, Milburn

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