<< Our Photo Pages >> Hadrian's Wall - Misc. Earthwork in England in Northumberland
Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Sunday, 01 October 2023 Page Views: 26717
Roman, Greek and ClassicalSite Name: Hadrian's Wall Alternative Name: Roman WallCountry: England County: Northumberland Type: Misc. Earthwork
Nearest Town: Newcastle upon Tyne
Map Ref: NY770679
Latitude: 55.005129N Longitude: 2.361121W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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I have visited· I would like to visit
TheCaptain visited on 23rd Sep 2022 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4 A day exploring Hadrians Wall. Drive to Housesteads, bus to The Sill, then walk up to the trig point on Winshield Crag before walking eastwards along Hadrian's wall back to Housesteads Fort, having lunch at Sycamore Gap.
jeffrep visited on 21st Sep 2006 Visited and walked many miles along the wall twice: August 2, 2004 and September 21, 2006.
Jansold visited on 31st May 2005 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 4
nicoladidsbury C_Michael_Hogan whese001 have visited here
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.5 Ambience: 5 Access: 4
Discoveries at the wall include 1900 year old human skeletons, stone ovens, inscribed stones, stone gates and the oldest paper writing remains found in all of Britain. The work herein is based upon my fieldwork of the summer of 2006 in addition to review of archival data.
HISTORY. Begun by Agricola as a massive ditch spanning the width of Britain in the late first century AD, Emperor Hadrian ordered a greatly expanded wall fortification to be built in 122 AD, Hadrian conceived the project as fundamentally a border control function to prevent infiltration of Picts and Scotii from the north. The military strength of the wall was never garrisoned to repel a major invasion force, but sentinel coverage was intended to interdict small bands of men who generally had the intent to disrupt civil settlements and damage crops and property of the settled province of Brittania. (Johnson, 2004)
When the Antonine Wall was built further north, Hadrian's Wall assumed a lesser role, but was revitalised as the major frontier defence under Emperor Severan in the late second century. In the year 367, well after the more northern border was abandoned., an alliance of Scotii, Picts and Saxons overran the wall and roamed northern Britain at will for two years, until Rome sent a legion to push the interlopers back; this event further demonstrates that the wall itself was not intended to repel even a moderate scale attack. In 409 AD the Romans withdrew from Britain, (Brown, 2006) and some of the forts were used thereafter by certain local tribes. In 1987 Hadrian's Wall was inscribed as a World Heritage Site.
DESIGN. The wall spans the entire width of Britain from the Tyne Estuary to the Solway Firth, running about 117 kilometres. Retaining the Agricola ditch as an initial defence, adding an outer glacis and entrapment schemes, a curtain wall is the centrepiece of the design. The natural granitic Whin Sill landform was utilised as the backbone of the eastern range of the wall, while turf and timber were preferred on the Solway plain, where stone is scarce. The wall width varies from 2.2 to 3.1 metres thick and stood 4.6 to 6.2 metres high, including a course of crenellated battlements; (Johnson, 2004) the core of the stone wall was rubble. (Fields, 2003) In a subsequent visit to the Great Wall of China, I was struck by the similarity in styles, both using undulating natural terrain and like scales of construction, with similar battlement geometry, watchtowers and parapets.
West of the River Irthing, turf and timber prevailed, while cut stones with limed mortar interstices were used to the east. There were a total of 16 to 18 major forts along the wall, depending on which source is consulted; furthermore, there were 81 smaller evenly dispersed milecastle forts, as well as about 160 watchtowers, the latter structures holding only eight men. The major forts typically held merely a cohort level troop strength, (Hutton, 1802) while the milecastle stations were garrisoned by roughly 100 defenders. These light troop numbers and use of auxiliaries underscore that the wall was built to inhibit immigration, rather than defend a massive invasion from the north.
SITE SPECIFIC FEATURES. Each reach of the wall holds its own unique features, associated with the local geography, agriculture and civilian settlements. The western fort of Banna, for example, is a good example of a turf fort that was later converted to stone construction; Banna is also noted for its elaborate nearby granaries. (Biggins, 1999). Vindolanda is a large fort immediately south of Hadrian's Wall (photo), which is noted for its extraordinary finds of hundreds of writing tablets and leather items; the written records preserved here by unusual subsurface chemistry are some of the oldest writings known in Britain. (Hogan, 2007) The Vercovicium fort on the Whin Sill is noted for being an integrated structure inside of the wall, whereas most forts extruded into barbarian territory; it also has best preserved Roman latrines Roman Britain. (Biggins, 2004) Cavalry forts were situated at either end of the wall, with Cilurnum at the River Tyne is the best preserved such fort; Cilurnum was dedicated to the goddess Disciplina (per stone inscription) and was manned by the first cohort of the Germanic Vangiones tribe for a time.
Stone inscriptions citing the provincial governor Nepos have been found at several of the forts including Condercum and Cawfields, the latter being another fort protruding south and noted for a very strong stonework south gate, whose foundations are fully in tact. Milecastle 38, Hotbank (photo), is noteworthy for the joint inscription bearing names of Hadrian and Nepos. Lime kiln remains are found at numerous points along the alignment, and their use is recorded specifically at Vindolanda.
REFERENCES
* Stephen Johnson (2004) "Hadrian's Wall", Sterling Publishing Company, Inc, 128 pages, ISBN 0713488409
* Thomas Brown (2006) "Celtic Roots", Trafford Publishing ISBN 1552125858
* Nic Fields (2003) "Hadrians Wall: 122-410 AD", Osprey Publishing, Great Britain, 64 pages ISBN 1841764302
* William Hutton (1802) "The History of the Roman Wall: Which Crosses the Island of Britain", J.Nichols and Son, Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street, London, 350 pages
* Biggins, J. A. and Taylor, D. J. A. (1999) "A Survey of the Roman Fort and Settlement at Birdoswald, Cumbria", Britannia. 30. 91-110.
* C. Michael Hogan (2007) "Vindolanda Roman Fort", The Megalithic Portal ed. Andy Burnham
* Biggins, J. A. and Taylor, D. J. A., (2004) "A Geophysical Survey of Housesteads Roman Fort", Archaeologia Aeliana 33 51- 60.
The above is original work of C. Michael Hogan, prepared for the Megalithic Portal.
Note: A wonderful aerial view of the sycamore tree sadly chopped down by an idiot a few days ago
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