Roman history The village was originally established as a
Roman auxiliary fort named
Bremetennacum or Bremetennacum Veteranorum. The first fort was built in timber in AD 72/73 by the 20th legion. The fort was renovated in the late 1st century AD and was rebuilt in stone in the early 2nd century. During the life of the fort, a village grew up around it. A fort remained at Ribchester until the 4th century AD and its remains can still be seen around the present village. A report on Roman remains at Ribchester was published by
Francis J. Haverfield in
Roman Britain in 1914: :"In the spring of 1913 a small school-building was pulled down at Ribchester, and the Manchester Classical Association was able to resume its examination of the
Principia (praetorium) of the Roman fort, above a part of which this building had stood. The work was carried out by Prof. W. B. Anderson, of
Manchester University, and Mr. D. Atkinson, Research Fellow of Reading College, and, though limited in extent, was very successful. :"The first discovery of the Principia is due to Miss Greenall, who about 1905 was building a house close to the school and took care that certain remains found by her builders should be duly noted: excavations in 1906-07, however, left the size and extent of these remains somewhat uncertain and resulted in what we now know to be an incorrect plan. The work done last spring (1913) makes it plain (see illustration) that the Principia fronted — in normal fashion — the main street of the fort (gravel laid on cobbles) running from the north to the south gate. But, abnormally, the frontage was formed by a verandah or colonnade: the only parallel which I can quote is from
Caersws, where excavations in 1909 revealed a similar verandah in front of the Principia. Next to the verandah stood the usual Outer Court with a colonnade round it and two wells in it (one is the usual provision): the colonnade seemed to have been twice rebuilt. Beyond that are fainter traces of the Inner Court which, however, lies mostly underneath a churchyard: the only fairly clear feature is a room (A on plan) which seems to have stood on the right side of the Inner Court, as at
Chesters and
Ambleside. Behind this, probably, stood the usual five office rooms. If we carry the Principia about twenty feet further back, which would be a full allowance for these rooms with their walling, the end of the whole structure will line with the ends of the granaries found some years ago. This, or something very like it, is what we should naturally expect. We then obtain a structure measuring 81 × , the latter dimension including a verandah wide. This again seems a reasonable result. Ribchester was a large fort, about , garrisoned by cavalry; in a similar fort at
Chesters, on
Hadrian's Wall, the Principia measured 85 × : in the 'North Camp' at
Camelon, another fort of much the same size (nearly 6 acres), they measured 92 × ." The most famous artifact discovered in Ribchester, and dating from the Roman period, is the
Ribchester Helmet. The helmet, part of the Ribchester Hoard, was uncovered in 1796. The items had been buried in a hollow, about 10 feet below the surface, by the side of a road leading to
Ribchester Church. In addition to the helmet, the hoard included a number of
patera, fragments of a vas and two basins, a bust of
Minerva, several plates and some other items thought to have had religious uses. The finds were thought to have survived so well because they were covered in sand. In 1974, the parish became part of Ribble Valley. ==Geography==