Early Discoveries:
1900
Evidence for a cemetery in Beancroft Road
In 1904 local historian Lorenzo Padgett reported the discovery of two cremation urns on Beancroft Road, one of them containing burnt human bones. One was found when digging the foundations of a new house at the corner of Beancroft Road and Smawthorne Lane, and the other was found when digging the foundations of a shop on the opposite corner.
The Romans did not allow burials within a town. Instead they were placed outside settlements, often along the roads into town. So these urns show that the vicus (settlement) did not extend as far south as Smawthorne Lane.
Finds from the town centre
At about the same time, pieces of Samian pottery were being found and recognised as Roman in the town centre. Some fragments from about 1900 were saved and much later presented to the museum collection in Castleford Library.