Peak Experience

People have taken baths in Bradwell ever since the Romans built a fort at nearby Brough.  They called their fort Navio, meaning ‘place by the river’.  You can visit the riverside fort and wonder what the garrison thought of the surrounding hills as they kept lookout.

 

When the Romans left, Bradwell became a tribal border.  Its people built Grey Ditch across the dale to protect the route on to the limestone plateau from the north.  Today, Bradwell is a historic village of narrow streets and traditional buildings.

You can easily explore Bradwell on foot. Navio is just 200 metres from the road at Brough.

For a longer stroll, gentle footpaths connect Hope, Navio, Bradwell and Grey Ditch (a 4 km circular route).

 

The Romans built Navio fort at Brough, on the southern side of the River Noe, when they arrived in the Peak District.  The first Romans arrived locally 30 years after they invaded Britain in 43 AD.

 

The fort originally had a defensive timber wall built on top of an earthen bank behind a deep ditch.  Probably these ‘Romans’ were not Romans at all, but an auxiliary unit from elsewhere in the Empire, rather than Roman legionaries.  Their job was to govern the northern Peak District and protect valuable lead mines in the vicinity.

 

A small village grew up outside the fort’s gates.  It was full of civilians who followed the army to provide services. Metalworkers, blacksmiths, shopkeepers and prostitutes would have lived there.

 

By the time Hadrian’s Wall was built in 125 AD, the fort was abandoned.  Perhaps the men were needed more urgently to build the new wall than in the Peak District.

 

Thirty years later, the garrison returned and rebuilt the fort in stone.  An inscription carved in stone shows that the soldiers came from Aquitaine, in southwest France.

 

Archaeologists found the inscription smashed and buried amongst debris dating from about 196 AD.  Is this evidence that Navio was attacked?  The Roman Empire was in turmoil at this time. Septimius Severus had taken control in Rome three years earlier.  The Roman governor of Britain rebelled to claim power for himself.  Forts across northern Britain were damaged and abandoned.  Some were probably caught up in civil war as garrisons chose sides.  Many units joined the governor’s march on Rome.  He was defeated before he got there by Severus who reclaimed Britain for the Empire.  Somehow, Navio was caught up in this imperial power play.

 

Bradwell lies on the line of the Roman road from Navio to Buxton, then a spa town to rival Bath.  Present-day Smalldale Street follows the course of the road.  A Roman bath house was found on the site of a thermal spring in Bradwell.  It was discovered when the New Bath Inn was built in the 1800s.

 

When the Roman Empire fell, just after 400 AD, somebody built a barrier across this main road. Known as Grey Ditch, the boundary is a massive embankment that runs from Bradwell Edge to Mick Low to protect the limestone plateau from the north.  We still don’t know who built it or when.

 

A picture of Grey Ditch

 

Most buildings in Bradwell date from the 1800s.  Built in 1549, Hazelbadge Hall is one of the oldest houses in the area.  Bradwell was also home of Samuel Fox, the inventor of the modern umbrella.  His house is marked with a plaque and lies just off the main street.

 

Three Forts Trail

 

Public transport information for all locations can be found by calling Traveline on 0871 200 2233.

To plan your journey to Brough or Bradwell, which have direct bus services from places including Sheffield and Buxton, visit Traveline.