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Hadrians Wall
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report by Valerie Reilly
In its early days the Scottish Forum Friends put forward the idea of a trip to Hadrian’s Wall, but it didn’t prove possible to organise it during 2001. So we were determined that it would go ahead this year. Initial thoughts were discussed on our own thread, but it was decided that this trip might be of interest to a wider audience, so eventually a date was set and a notice was posted on every single regional thread inviting expressions of interest. There was an immediate response with, at one time, as many as 20 people hoping to make the trip.
The choice of May 25th did not initially appear to have been an auspicious one since the weather forecast that morning was unpromising (ironic use of understatement!). And indeed, when 10 Forum Friends gathered at Housesteads fort at 10am it looked as though the forecasters might have it right. The intrepid participants were myself, Dougal and his nephew Steven, Cally, fish, Andy T and his mum Marion, Chris “Awkward” McKenna, Nicholas and Yvonne. Having waited a few minutes to let any stragglers turn up, we moved off towards the fort. At this point I was asked why I had chosen to start the day’s itinerary with a half-mile uphill hike? I was able (between gasps for breath) to blame Corinne, especially as she had reluctantly had to cry off for the trip!
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But the effort proved to be well worthwhile. The remains at Housesteads (Roman name Vercovicium – which translates as ‘hilly place‘!!!) are truly spectacular. These are some of the best-preserved Roman remains in Britain, as well as boasting stupendous views over the surrounding countryside.
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The fort was originally built in AD128 but the surviving masonry is mostly from the third and fourth centuries. As well as the headquarters building, commander’s house, baths and barrack buildings there is a magnificent multi-seat latrine with virtually its entire water system intact.
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| A small but interesting museum also took some of our time before we headed back down the hill. So far the weather had been kind to us with just a smattering of raindrops, but as we neared the entrance, passing a coach load heading up the hill, the heavens decided to open and we felt very sorry for those going in the other direction. |
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Our descent was followed by an obligatory stop in the cafe and gift shop, before moving on in convoy to our next destination.
At Chesterholm, Roman Vindolanda (White Cross) our first dilemma was at the ticket office, where we had to decide whether to stick with the original itinerary or to take advantage of the special offer joint entry price to Vindolanda and the Roman Army Museum. In the end, after much embarrassed sideways glancing and shrugging of shoulders it was decided that time was too tight to add the museum into our day. Beyond the ticket desk we were confronted by a Roman soldier who gave Steven the day’s password – “subliguria” as far as I can remember, which meant underwear (!) – and a quiz sheet to fill in as he went round the site. We went through the door onto the site, where construction had begun as early as AD90 as part of the pre -Wall defence line. Again there were extensive Roman remains to be seen, this time dating mostly from the second century. Some of the group immediately gravitated to a large hole in the ground – part of this year’s ongoing excavations. They stood for ages peering into the pit while fish and I wandered off to see the reconstructed fortlet and milecastle, where I promptly fell up the stairs! Fortunately, the others were so interested in the excavation that they failed to notice – and I’m pretty sure no one photographed me sprawled all over the steps!!!
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Having looked at the bathhouse and its attendant latrines (anyone notice a theme developing here?) fish and I headed on down the hill, along with Steven, to find the museum where he hoped that he would find the remaining answers to his quiz. The remains displayed in the museum are amazing, with all sorts of leather goods, tools, weaponry, domestic items, the wooden writing tablets that Vindolanda is so famous for and, ludicrously, a black wig woven from moss that was thought to be a midge deterrent!
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| By this time the delicious smells wafting through from the cafe were a siren call to fish and I, and we were not surprised to be closely followed by the rest of the group. The cafe was also in use by yet another Roman soldier, on his lunch break. Have you ever seen a legionary delicately sipping coffee from a china cup and saucer? |
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| After lunch there was time for a gentle walk back through the site, trying to avoid a school party with a singularly uninformed leader, before rendezvousing back in the car park for the last leg of the trip. We nearly left without Dougal because his car was hidden in the corner and we assumed he had gone on in front! This time the convoy was led by Cally and Richard (who spent the whole day in the car reading his landrover magazines – there’s devotion for you – though whether it’s to Cally or landrovers I’m not quite sure!). |
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Within a few minutes we had arrived at the Birdoswald car park where a notice board promised us that “Jefficus” would be doing presentations on the weaponry of the Roman soldier. We walked up to the site entrance where there was an impressive stretch of the wall disappearing eastwards and having paid our entrance fees the first part of the visit was an audio-visual presentation on the history of the area. From there we went into a small museum which not only had a reconstructed latrine and a model Roman, it also had a model archaeologist! On inspection though, we all agreed he couldn’t be a real archaeologist – his boots were too clean!
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After the museum we went out to the fort where the entire outline of the defensive outer wall could be seen. Near the museum some of the excavated buildings had been laid out with coloured gravels to differentiate between periods.
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The handout recommended a route across the site that took us to the far side of the fort, known as Banna to the Romans, where there were wonderful views across the valley. By this time the weather gods had decided to smile on us and there was warm sunshine for our perambulation. The route back to the museum took us to the most spectacular upstanding remains on the site – the east gateway where the gate post stand as high as the springers for the arch and the hinge slots can be seen in the stones
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Back at the museum we caught up with Andy and Marion who had arrived before us, Nicholas and Yvonne having left after Vindolanda to tackle their long drive home. We waited for the talk to discover that Jefficus would be replaced by “Martinus”. Eventually Martinus arrived and told us that there were inscriptions from the wall naming a Martinus so the name was not as silly as it seemed. He had an impressive array of weaponry to demonstrate, from the lorica segmentata armour worn by the legionaries and the chain mail of the auxiliaries to the swords, shields, daggers, and spears that were the main weapons. The talk was very entertaining and erudite but was spoiled for most of us by an irritating child called Andrew who reckoned he knew everything and had his hand up in the air for most of the time wanting to show off his knowledge! His poor embarrassed mother kept telling him to pipe down – the rest of us just wanted to strangle him with our bare hands!!!
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The end of the talk left us just enough time to look round the shop before making our way to the car park and saying our goodbyes. We all went our different ways, promising to meet up again soon, and as I had Chris with me we headed eastwards to the station at Gateshead, tracing our way back along the Wall.
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We made a short stop on the way back at Carrawburgh. Little can be seen of the Brocolitia fort itself, but to its south are the excavated remains of one of Britain’s few known Mithraic temples. To quote my guide book:- “It is a typical Mithraeum with a small antechapel, screen and nave flanked by benches leading to a temple sanctuary containing three altars. Each altar is dedicated by a cohort officer who was stationed at the fort sometime in the third or fourth centuries.” One of the altars has an ingenious carved niche at the back to take a lamp, which would shine through and illuminate the rays around Mithras’ head, as Mithras was identified with the sun. Another of the altars really startled us, as the depression on the top to take sacrifices was full of coins! Out there in the middle of nowhere with no security, people were offering coins (including foreign currency such as dollars and euros) to the old gods – and even more remarkably it would appear they don’t get stolen! Chris and I felt that we should also make our offering before leaving. It made a reflective end to a day spent in the Roman world.
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| Having stayed the night in Gateshead, I was reluctant to leave the ambiance of the Wall, and being employed by seemingly the only local authority in Britain that decided not to grant the two day Jubilee weekend and to stick to the normal Bank Holiday Monday, I had no particular reason to hurry home. So I decided to spend my Sunday exploring some more of the sites. It seemed logical to start at the easternmost end of the Wall and see how far I could trace its path across the country. Accordingly my first stop was Wallsend, known to the Romans as Segedunum (Strong Fort). Here Tyne and Wear Museum’s Service have taken over the site and opened a museum. There are marvellous interactive displays on the history of the Wall and explaining the concepts of archaeology. After the exhibitions you can go out onto the site of the fort which is well laid out. |
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| The various buildings (including the latrines in the hospital!) are explained by sign boards, as well as smaller signs marking the points at which various important exhibits in the museum were actually found – a nice touch I thought. There is also a stretch of wall reconstructed to what is postulated to be its original height. From what I could see it looked most impressive, but it was temporarily fenced off when I was there. |
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| But the piece de resistance of the site is that it has the only reconstructed Roman bathhouse in Britain! It works too but, on the day of my visit, the boiler was out of action. We were still allowed to explore the building though, to walk through the cold, warm and hot rooms, and to see what all those latrine remains we had seen the previous day would have looked like at the time. |
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Back at the museum the final part of the visit was to ascend the Viewing Tower from which you could see the whole site laid out beneath you like a map. There was also an interesting computer presentation taking a trip through the centuries showing what you would have seen from the same point as the years rolled by.
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After a bite of lunch it was time to move on. It is difficult to trace the Wall through the middle of Newcastle so I picked it up at Heddon on the Wall and drove alongside the obvious Roman remains. When I got to Chesters fort (Cilurnum = The Cauldron Pool) which I had planned as my next stop, the rain which had been a tolerable few drops as I wandered around Segedunum had turned to a veritable downpour. So I drove on past vowing to come back on some future occasion. Plan B was to investigate the place we had rejected the previous day – The Roman Army Museum, as I figured that “museum” ought to equal “undercover” – no flies on this girl! The museum is owned by the trust that looks after Vindolanda and has yet more interesting displays on the life and work of the soldiers stationed on the Wall, including a full-sized model of a Syrian archer, as they are one of the cohorts known to have been at the adjacent fort of Carvoran or Magnis (The Rocks). Little survives of the fort here, but excavation shows it to have been pre-Hadrianic in origin.
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| On leaving the Museum the rain had abated somewhat allowing brief jumps out of the car to glimpse some of the less publicised sites. At Walltown Crags I decided the grass was too wet attempt a solo hill climb and I contented myself with a photo from the roadside. Retracing my route of the previous day to Birdoswald, this time I ventured beyond it to discover that one of the best-preserved stretches of the Wall runs westwards right beside the road for more than a mile, to a metre or more high. At the end of this stretch there is one of the milecastles (Banks East – Turret 53a) with walls standing to over a metre above ground. |
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| At this point I reluctantly decided that my route home and the Wall now pointed in different directions, so I followed the road down to Brampton. It took me past the Augustinian priory of Lanercost, built in 1166 using a very large number of red and grey stones from the Wall. Ironically they include altars dedicated to Jupiter and other pagan deities! It seemed an apt farewell to a two-day odyssey |
| Dougals photos |
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| report and top photos by Valerie Reilly
2nd set photos by Dougal
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