Walking Hadrian's Wall on Tyneside

Walking Hadrian’s Wall on Tyneside THE ROUTE THROUGH THE URBAN AREAS 1 Dinnington Wideopen Burradon Earsdon PONTELAND Backworth A696 Prestwick HAZLERIGG A186 A1056 ShiremoorShiremoor Newcastle Darras Hall Northumberland Shiremoor Airport KILLINGWORTH Park A189 Medburn High Callerton Callerton Parkway Woolsington A1 Palmersville Black Callerton A19 Kingston Wansbeck LONGBENTON A191 Park Road A696 Benton Bank Fawdon Longbenton Foot Regent Four Lane Ends Centre GOSFORTH South A191 Ilford Gosforth HEDDON-ON- Road Willington THE-WALL Throckley A69 A188 A1058 Howdon A189 Hadrian WALLSEND Road 6 A1 West HEATON Jesmond A193 Wallsend1 A191 A167 Walkergate NEWBURN Chillingham 5 Road WYLAM A187 HEBBURN A6085 NEWCASTLE Byker Walker 4 A193 Hebburn A186 UPON TYNE Wylam Byker RYTON Manors Station 2 Newcastle Crawcrook Blaydon A185 3 Monkton BLAYDON A1 A695 GATESHEAD MetroCentre A1114 Gateshead Greenside A184 Stadium Pelaw Dunston Felling A1 Dunston Pelaw A194 Felling Heworth A184 BarlowWalk route WHICKHAM 0 1 2 3 4 5 kms 1 2 A167 0 3 miles A692 Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2015 Wrekenton 2 Map designed by Oxford Cartographers 98045 E&OE A195 Sunniside A1 Sunniside Dinnington Wideopen Burradon Earsdon PONTELAND Backworth A696 Prestwick HAZLERIGG A186 A1056 A GUIDE FOR WALKERS, VISITORS AND LOCAL PEOPLE ShiremoorShiremoor Newcastle Darras Hall Northumberland Shiremoor Airport KILLINGWORTH Park A189 Medburn High Callerton Callerton The Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail of steep river valleys. Many of the most THE DIstanCE COVERED IS Parkway Woolsington A1 Palmersville Black Callerton (opened in 2003) avoids the actual line important archaeological discoveries about A19 AROUND 12 MILES (19KM), JUST Kingston Wansbeck LONGBENTON A191 of Hadrian’s Wall through the urban areas the Wall in recent times have been made Park Road ABOUT WALKABLE IN A DAY, A696 Benton of Tyneside, instead taking a riverside route in excavations in urban Tyneside, and the Bank Fawdon Longbenton Foot Regent Four Lane Ends ALTHOUGH MOST WALKERS Centre for the 12 miles between the eastern end area contains three of the major garrison WILL PREFER TO BREAK THE GOSFORTH South of the Wall at Wallsend and Heddon-on- forts of Hadrian’s Wall. This guide offers a A191 Ilford Gosforth JOURNEY IN NEWCASTLE. HEDDON-ON- Road Willington the-Wall. safe and practical route which runs as close THE-WALL Throckley A69 A188 A1058 Howdon as possible to the sites of these discoveries A189 Hadrian Visitors and residents with a real WALLSEND Road and the actual line of the Wall. A1 West HEATON Jesmond A193 archaeological interest in the Wall will want Wallsend A191 A167 Walkergate to follow the actual route the Wall took, NEWBURN Chillingham and there are good reasons for doing so. WYLAM Road A187 HEBBURN The Wall has left its legacy in the street plan A6085 NEWCASTLE Byker Walker A193 Hebburn A186 UPON TYNE of Newcastle, especially the straight West Wylam RYTON Byker Manors Station Road out of the city, and Shields Road in Newcastle the eastern suburb of Byker. Although the Crawcrook Blaydon A185 Monkton Roman remains are mostly invisible beneath BLAYDON A1 A695 GATESHEAD the modern streetscape, there are places MetroCentre A1114 Gateshead Greenside A184 Stadium Pelaw where they can be seen, and there is much Dunston Felling A1 Dunston Pelaw A194 else of interest to see, including the historic Felling Heworth A184 centre of Newcastle upon Tyne. Even in BarlowWalk route WHICKHAM the urban areas the walker can appreciate 0 1 2 3 4 5 kms the landscape through which the Wall ran: 1 2 A167 in this area it had to traverse a number 0 3 miles A692 Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database rights 2015 Map designed by Oxford Cartographers 98045 E&OE Wrekenton 3 A195 Sunniside A1 Sunniside HADRIAN’S WALL THIS waLK COVERS THE EASTERN 12 MILES OF HADRIAN’S WALL, BUILT ACROSS THE 73 MILES BETWEEN TYNE AND SOLwaY IN AD 122-4. The Wall was started to a width of 10 Roman At every Roman mile was a small fort which Feet (RF) (3m) and was originally some functioned as a fortified gateway through 20 feet (6m high), almost certainly with a the Wall - a ‘milecastle’. Between every walkway and battlements along the top. The two milecastles were two towers (‘turrets’). 10 foot wide ‘Broad Wall’ only occurs W of Major garrison forts, for full Roman army Newcastle. Between Newcastle and Wallsend units, also occur along the Wall, some 15 in the Wall is narrow (2.4m wide) - this stretch all. In our stretch there are three: Wallsend, was a slightly later addition. 6m (20RF) Newcastle and Benwell, each of which had a in front of the Wall ran a great V-shaped civilian settlement (vicus) outside its walls. Wall-forts, milecastles and turrets. Along this ditch, generally over 8m wide and up to 3m To the rear of the Wall (but not E of corridor, between the Wall and the Vallum, deep. The wide space between the Wall Newcastle), was a linear earthwork, the so- there ran a Roman road, the main means of and its ditch was a deliberate measure to called Vallum. This was a flat-bottomed ditch, communication and supply, known as ‘the provide space for extra obstacles - sharpened 6m wide and 3m deep, with a substantially Military Way’. Apart from a brief period in AD branches set in pits - a previously unknown built mound to either side. This formidable 140-60 when the Romans advanced to the element of the Wall, seen for the first time in obstacle demarcated and presumably secured Antonine Wall in Scotland, Hadrian’s Wall was recent years in excavations on Tyneside. the southern edge of the military zone of the continuously held by the Roman army for 4 three hundred years, until Rome lost control of Britain in the early fifth century. Hadrian’s Wall was originally inscribed as a WALKERS PLEASE NOTE World Heritage Site in 1987. Today, Hadrian’s Wall is part of the transnational Frontiers Traditionally the Wall is described from E to W. of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, Many modern day Wall-walkers travel from W inscribed in 2005 and currently comprising to E, so the guide is organised as a series of stages Hadrian’s Wall, the German Limes (frontier which can be read in reverse, from W to E, as well as from E to W. line) and the Antonine Wall in Scotland. Sometimes more detailed directions are given where the route might be difficult to follow through the urban landscape: in these cases the directions are given twice, first E-W then W-E. The milecastles are numbered from E to W, and the turrets in each Wall-mile have the number of the preceding Milecastle with the suffixes A and B. So, for example, between Milecastles 48 and 49, we find Turrets 48A and 48B. Note however that not all positions of milecastles in Tyneside are known with certainty; where the position is described as ‘probable’, it means that the actual structure has never been discovered. No turret has been reliably seen in the whole 7-mile stretch from Wallsend to Denton, W of Newcastle. In some areas, particularly in Newcastle city centre, the line taken by the Wall is still not known, and will only be discovered by future archaeological research. 5 WALLSEND ROMAN FORT (SEGEDUNUM) 1 THE Fort at THE E END OF The reconstructed baths are not on the site The Roman fort and supply base at the mouth THE WALL WAS SITUATED TO of the original Roman building, which was of the Tyne at South Shields, on the other side COMMAND MAGNIFICENT VIEWS discovered by the WallQuest community of the river (www.arbeiaromanfort.org.uk) ALONG TWO STRAIGHT STRETCHES archaeology project in 2014, 120m closer to can be visited from Wallsend by taking the OF THE RIVER TYNE. the river. At the time of writing plans were Metro from the Wallsend Metro station to being made to display the Roman baths North Shields and taking the pedestrian ferry Built under Hadrian around AD 124 it housed to the public. to South Shields (approximately 1 hour from a 500 strong cohort of mixed infantry and site to site). cavalry, for most of the Roman period the At the SE corner of the fort can be seen Fourth Cohort of Lingones, originally raised remains of the ‘Branch Wall’, the very last in eastern France. The fort was completely portion of Hadrian’s Wall which ran down built over in the late nineteenth century, but into the river Tyne, probably terminating in revealed again in excavation campaigns a magnificent monument to commemorate in 1975-84 and 1997-8 which mean it has the decision of the emperor Hadrian to build the most completely known plan of any the Wall. Wall-fort. The modern highway (Buddle Walkers starting at Wallsend and following Street) bisects the fort, but its outlines are the actual line of the Wall, rather than the marked out on both sides of the road. National Trail path along the river, should Above: The original Roman baths There is a modern museum housing the proceed W from the entrance to the museum under excavation in 2014 finds excavated from the fort and a carpark, along Buddle Street. Right: Plan of fort reconstruction of the fort baths. Top right: Richardson painting of the site in 1848 (Laing Art Gallery) FOR Further INFORMatION GO TO: Far right: The same view today www.segedunumromanfort.org.uk with the displayed fort site 6 P A O 1 Four Lane N 8 T Ends A E 8 91 L 1 1 STAMFO A A N 8 D 6 H D R R IG D O R H A A H Longbenton M H D ROAD S T T R R E O E AD A O S 69 T RK R W ON PA T 6 T A G BEN I N A1 TI 9 ON LL 1 B D KI 6 OA 91 H R R HURC A 8 C 19 O P 1 RD A191 AD ONTELAND ROAD N TIO C TA H S Pineglades U RC South Dewley Burn H VE

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