Autumn 2019 No. 22

Hadrians’s Wall Pilgrimage 2019

The Fourteenth ’s Wall Pilgrimage weather and amazingly we had tropical organised by the Society of Antiquaries of temperatures in South Shields and Wall- Newcastle and the Cumberland and West- send. In keeping with other pilgrimages the moreland Archaeological Society took beginning and end were marked with formal place in July this year. It now happens dinners the first being in the Banqueting every 10 years and was originally started by Hall in Newcastle Civic Centre and the last John Collingwood Bruce in 1849. I attended in the Ballroom of the Crown & Mitre Hotel the last Pilgrimage in 2009 and was lucky in Carlisle. The week had a packed pro- enough to take part again this year joining gramme of visits to sites where changes over 200 other pilgrims with a wide range of had taken place over the preceding ten backgrounds and from a number of differ- years. ent countries. It is organised by all the lead- ing experts on Hadrian’s Wall and these respected academics and archaeologists transform themselves into tourist guides and health and safety experts during the week of the tour. The first part of the event was based in Newcastle with many visitors stopping at the Station Hotel while locals like me com- muted into Newcastle each day. For me it started with pouring rain on the way to New- castle to register and ended the same on a On the first day we all piled into four very wet day at Cawfields on Hadrian’s coaches each of which had two expert Wall. During the week we had mainly dry guides and headed to Brunton and

1 Chesters Fort in the morning. At Chesters we had the first of many packed lunches beside Clayton’s amazing museum packed to the rafters with all things Roman. In the afternoon we came back to Newcastle to visit wall remains at Denton and and disturbed a peaceful residential area with a mass influx of pilgrims peering at the famous crossing. The day con- cluded with a visit to the Great North Mu- seum. On the second day, at 9.00 am on a reconstructed wall. Most of the pilgrims vis- Monday morning in Newcastle the coaches ited the exhibition and much laughter was experienced problems picking up 200 heard and some complained that the visit people at the Station Hotel and it led to a was too short to see all the cartoons. delayed start for a walk from Wednesday was the changeover day when to Black Carts along the Vallum on private people moved hotels and I took my suitcase land not normally open to the public. This with me ready for a few days in a Carlisle also presented a major health and safety Hotel. All the buses headed to problem in crossing the Military Road as where we stopped all day with members of well as having to climb over a 6 ft. high dry the Ermine Street Guide on site to welcome us before having a number of guided tours around different parts of the site. We had a Hog Roast in the evening before going on to the hotels. On Thursday we travelled along the wall to Bowness and parked on the Solway shore and walked onto the sands and everyone was disappointed at the total lack of any- thing to say we were at the start or end of the wall unlike at . We then called at Silloth and got lost trying to find the public toilets and then formed one of the longest stone wall. Graham Stobbs provided the queues ever witnessed in the town! We answers by having a temporary timber stile drove along the coast to Maryport and built to get people over the wall and after caused parking problems both at our lunch raiding his model railway kit he came up stop and at Senhouse Museum on another with two flags one green and one red to in- very hot day with people looking for shade dicate to Bill Griffiths when it was safe to from the sun during tours. We called at cross the road. Despite witnessing some Swarthy Hill milefortlet on the way back and dangerous speeding drivers and Bill having to physically restrain some of the more de- termined pilgrims, all made a safe crossing before Graham threw the stile back over the fence to deter any unauthorised trespass on the co-operative farmers land. We then went for a picnic and a visit to Housesteads. On Tuesday the sun shone on Fort and South Shields Town Hall where the Mayor hosted lunch before we all as- sembled on the steps for the formal photo- graphs of the pilgrims. The main highlight of the Pilgrimage followed as the coaches caused major traffic problems on the main pulled into Museum to visit the road as people disembarked and Graham Borderline Funny cartoon exhibition after Stobbs had to act as traffic controller again. guided tours to the newly discovered ori- In the evening we had a visit to Tullie House ginal bathhouse and the recently consolid- Museum. ated section of Hadrian’s Wall beside the

2 On Friday we headed east to Banks Turret proof boots weren’t. Back on to the steamy and Pike Hill Signal station before we had a coach to eat our lunch, after queuing in the walk along the former Turf Wall from Apple- rain to collect our picnic from caterers shel- trees to Birdoswald Fort for tours and lunch. tering under a windswept gazebo. Our last After lunch we walked east and across the visits in the afternoon were to a temporary River Irving at Willowford Bridge to see the Roman camp then on to the famous ‘silly’ impressive remains of the Roman bridge. 42 built on a precipice where sol- We then walked on to the well preserved diers needed to climb up a rope to get in the Milecastle at Poltross Burn at Gilsland. main gate. David Breeze, the Chief Pilgrim th The final full day of the Pilgrimage was also who was celebrating his 75 Birthday gave the wettest and luckily involved a visit inside the closing speech at the dinner that night the Roman Army Museum to dry out after a and the ‘Borderline Funny’ exhibition was tour of Carovan fort by Andrew Birley. We referred to in the speeches and got its own then had a wet walk in heavy mist along part round of applause. of the dramatic wall as it climbs up and On Sunday 26th July everyone departed down the crags but as pilgrims kept falling Carlisle with heads spinning from all the Ro- over and we could not see past our noses man facts (or drink from the night before) the walk was eventually abandoned. We and looking forward to 2029 to do it all walked back along a farm track with a river again. running down it and I discovered my water- Ken Hutchinson

Tour of Britain passes Segedunum The afternoon of Monday September 9th saw some of the world’s top riders and teams who were taking part in the Tour of Britain passing Segedunum before con- tinuing to Newcastle city centre, with a spectacular fin- ish on Grey Street. Elected Mayor of Norma Redfearn CBE said:“It was fantastic to see the prestigious race come to North Tyneside and I was de- lighted to see so many residents and schoolchildren line the streets and watch the riders come through. “This was a wonderful opportunity to showcase our wonderful borough to a national audience who may never have seen some of the amazing landmarks we boast, including St Mary’s Lighthouse, Spanish City and Segedunum – to name just a few.” Evans on the Wall As featured in our last Newsletter - the café at Segedunum is now offering ten per discount to Friends on production of your membership card. They offer a wide range of food and snacks using mainly local ingredients. It’s great to have full café service once again so why not pop in and give them a try... In this edition ’s Wall Pilgrimage 2019 ...... 1 Friends of Segedunum Programme...... 8 Tour of Britain passes Segedunum ...... 3 Wallsend Local History Society Evans on the Wall ...... 3 Programme ...... 8 Borderline Funny Review...... 4 Ancient Kamiros...... 9 Meet the Committee...... 5 From the Fort...... 10 What is a Cartoon? ...... 5 Around the Wall ...... 11 Books to look out for ...... 6 Notes from the Chairman and Committee Friends of Segedunum Committee October 2019...... 12 2019/20 ...... 7

3 Borderline Funny Review The last Newsletter announced the start of the Borderline Funny Exhibition and this one reports on how successful it has been over the summer. The exhibition finished on 22nd September and has been a great success. We had a lot of good publicity with TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, facebook, trip advisor and even the metro advertising it. Segedunum Museum has seen an increase in visitor numbers with 14,567 visitors to the museum as the exhibition was on. The visitor book for the exhibition contains a wealth of complementary comments on the exhibition. The off the wall exhibition brought a smile to a lot of people trying to escape from Brexit and other false news and the exhibition even featured a certain American President who has an interest in walls. One of the biggest positives from the exhibition was the engagement with local children. We employed a Beano Cartoonist to work with a local school and then with the public during Easter which led to the production of scores of children's cartoons. We then invited kids to draw their own cartoons when visiting the exhibition and this was a great success and has led to over 700 cartoons being produced which we have put in folders as the project pro- gressed. The Beano cartoonist, Nigel Auchterlounie, was then inspired to produce a Dennis the Men- ace cartoon strip based on Hadrian's Wall which appeared in the Beano in July. After con- tacting the Beano they allowed us to produce a blown up panel of the cartoon strip that we mounted in the children's area. Before the exhibition ended other museums were approached to see if they would like to display the cartoons in another exhibition. A number of museums showed an interest and the good news is that Vindolanda have agreed to use the cartoons in a forthcoming exhibi- tion within the next 2 years and we have packed the panels up in bubble wrap to transport them to Vindolanda. Following further discussions with Museum staff at it has been suggested that a 'Son of Borderline ' exhibition could be held to exhibit the best children's cartoons in Gallery 3 at Segedunum early next year after the Christmas closure. Following the closure of the exhibition a celebratory evening was held at Segedunum on 26th September to thank the volunteers for all their work and they all kindly searched through the children’s cartoons to select the best for the new exhibition. We still need a punchy title for the ‘Son of Borderline’ Exhibition so put your thinking caps on and let us have your sugges- tions. During the evening Ken presented the raffle winners with the two cartoons donated by Tony Husband. He deliberately mixed up the two cartoons to see if anyone would notice (false news) but luckily someone did! Susan Austin and David Alsymer who are both Friends of Segedunum, but had not been involved in the exhibition, had bought tickets to support the museum and got an unexpected bonus.

Susan and David being presented with their cartoons by Friends’ Chairman Ken Hutchinson

4 What is a Cartoon? What is a cartoon? It is a drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorously exaggerated way, especially a satirical one in a newspaper or magazine. This summer saw the successful execution of the Borderline Funny Exhibition at Segedunum Fort in Wallsend. Contributions came from Private Eye, Viz, the Beano and many others. With hindsight it might have been a good idea to record the chuckling and laughing voices of the hundreds of people who came to see it. ‘The gift that keeps on giving’ is how Beth Adams describes Hadrian’s Wall in one of the two videos that ran throughout the exhibition. ‘Walls are having a bit of a moment – thanks to Trump’ was another of her pertinent remarks as well as ‘Hadrian was living Trump’s dream.’ This lively and quirky video brought a contemporary view of Hadrian’s Wall to visitors. The variety of visitors was impressive – from young children to elderIy and I was proud to encourage my family and friends to visit the exhibition. Many travelled from far and near – from Australia and from around the corner in Wallsend. Hundreds of cartoons were carried out by children (and adults) in the section provided for them and a follow up exhibition of selected ones will be on display in the near future. It was my pleasure to be a volunteer for the exhibition and I enjoyed interacting with visitors as well as overhearing their comments and chuckles. Segedunum is a special museum with special staff – Liz and Daniel always made me feel welcome. Being a Friend offers many opportunities at many levels. This has certainly been a enjoyable and successful project and I am sure that Hadrian and his soldiers would have been very proud of both its content and presentation. Marie Rice

Meet the Committee Glenn has been a resident of Wallsend area for many years interspersed with periods overseas as well as in other parts of the UK. After leaving Newcastle University, Glenn first worked in a law firm in Barrow in Furness, before moving into Shipbuilding, later was company solicitor at Parsons, Heaton in the early to mid 90s and in most recent years General Counsel and Head of Contract Management for the GE’s power / energy division based in Switzerland.

Glenn sort of retired in September 2018 and now spends time as legal and business consultant when not supporting The Friends of Segedunum and Chairing the MyWallsendTown Community Group etc. He spends his time between North East and South East where most of the family reside. An avid follower of the non-league football scene, the arts community and when feeling half fit trudging the hills. Oh and then there is real Ale......

5 Books to look out for “Wallsend at Work” Ken Hutchinson Another work from our prolific chairman has recently been published. It is a well researched study of the town’s work and industries ranging from the 2nd to the 21st century and is ap- propriately dedicated to “everyone who has worked in Wall- send”.It is a slim volume of just under 100 pages but it is comprehensive and very readable. I read it through in a single session. I found the first two chapters on the 2nd to 5th Cen- turies and the 6th to 11th Centuries particularly interesting as although I am fairly knowledgeable about the Roman period there were several gaps in my knowledge of the other periods which the book has filled. And it is not just the text - the pho- tographs illustrating each period are well chosen for their clar- ity and interest.Good use is made of photographs of Segedunum and Arbeia sites to illustrate the Chapter on Second to Fifth Centuries and I particularly liked the advert- isements for “Monitor Safety Devices” and “Parsons Tur- bines” in the chapter on the 20th Century. Looking forward to the next one Ken!

“Tyne Anew Celebrating Public Art in North Tyneside” Peter Dixon and Keith Armstrong Friends who were involved in curating the Borderline Funny exhibition will know Peter from the excellent work he did in maintaining the database of cartoons and generally helping with the curation of the exhibi- tion. This is also a short volume of around 60 pages but it is a fascinating study of the vast amount of pub- lic art in the Borough commissioned by both public and private organisations. Some pieces are well known such as our own “Sentius Tectonicus” but oth- ers such as “the Dudes” and “Total Policing” may be less so. It was interesting to read the words inside “Total Policing” which are not easily seen as you rush past it. But what makes this book really interesting is that the authors have included poems which relate to each piece of public art.The poems are all by local poets and relate well to text and descriptions. So you get great photographs, informative text and local po- etry. And at a very reasonable price.

“The Northumbrians North-East and its People” Dan Jackson If you were fortunate enough to hear Dan’s excellent talk in September last year you will want to buy this great book. Dan was commissioned to write it in 2016/7 and it was published on 26th September 2019 by C Hurst & Co at RRP of £20. It is available onAmazon and was immediately marked there as a Best Seller. And with good reason. I bought my copy as soon as it was published and so far I have read half of the book so this is the first part of the review and I hope to have read it all by the time of our first 2020 News- letter. The work is concerned about the distinct identity of the people living in Northumberland and Durham, an area stretching from the Tees to the Tweed, and the factors which influence that identity. Although the treatment is generally chronological it is not merely a list of events and battles but instead is divided into several themes starting with “Understanding the Northum-

6 brians” and ending with “Upon a Bleak Northumbrian Moor” The style is relaxed and easy to read however if you wish to pursue any issue further there are footnotes to help with your research. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on “The Northumbrian En- lightenment”. This opens with a paragraph on J.M.W. Turner’s famous 1838 painting “The Fighting Temeraire” but the author concentrates on a little known but significant as- pect of the painting which “came to symbolise the eclipse of the age of sail and the coming world of iron and steel”. The paddle tug “Monarch” towing the “Temeraire” to the breakers yard, was built on the Tyne at South Shields. The tug being powered by steam and “Temeraire” powered by sail. This chapter covers a number of innovations in UK science and technology many of which are well known to us such as the steam turbine which powered “Turbinia” but others which are not. The author also reminds us that there was a thriving intellectual environment as illustrated by the founding of the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle in1793 with similar institutions formed in North Shields and Seaham and Sunderland’s “Athenaeum”. The next chapter has the intriguing title “The Sparta of the North” and relates to the author’s statement “If Edinburgh is the Athens of the North, then Newcastle is the North’s Corinth, or better still its Sparta.” We are now considering Northern architecture.. A fair proportion of the chapter, nearly 9 pages, deals with North Shields and its environs. I began this review by mentioning Dan’s talk to the Friends last year and you can find a more detailed treatment of this subject in this chapter in the sections “Deepest Tyneside”, “Geordie Shore”, “Whitley Bay and “Oh, Delaval is a Terrible Place”. So having read half way through the book I must close this Review and recommend you to buy the book as I have hopefully stimulated your interest in what is the first new history of our area for some time. Part 2 of the Review will appear in the next Newsletter. Mike Halsey

Friends of Segedunum Committee 2019/20 Chairman:Ken Hutchinson Vice-chair: Mike Halsey Secretary:Liz Liddle ([email protected]) Treasurer: Liz Liddle Newsletter Editor:John Fleet ([email protected]) Membership Secretary:Liz Shaw OtherOfficers:Phyllis Benoist, Anne Baxter, Shirley Mortimer, Glenn Duffy, Jean Cleathero TWAM Representatives:Geoff Woodward; Trevor Wilson NTCRepresentative:Cllr Andy Newman

Anyone interested in serving on the committee is welcome to attend meetings as an observer. We meet at Segedunum, usually in the week before a main Saturday meeting

7 Friends of Segedunum Programme Speakers at our meeting at Segedunum in 2019 - 2020

November 23rd JellicoeofScapa ProfJohnDerry January 25th TheNorthumbrians DrDanJackson February 29th Workingtogether- Beamish&itsFriends IanBean April 11th AGM May/June Datesandsubjectstbc July 18th Friends summer outing - Coach Trip - details tbc September 5th Speaker and subject tbc October 17th WallCAP DrRobCollins November 28th (tbc) ProfJohnDerry FollowedbyChristmasLunch All meeting start at 11 am on the Saturday, with refreshments available from 10.30 am Free to Friends. Visitors always welcome - £2 For more information, contact our Secretary – Liz Liddle

Wallsend Local History Society Programme Speakers at our meetings in St Luke’s Church Hall, Frank Street in 2019 - 2020

November 11th ANorthumbrianQuiz GeoffHughes December 9th TheTop100Geordies AnthonyAtkinson January 13th Annual General Meeting & Archives Display February 10th TynemouthPriory SophiaStovall March 9th TheHalfShillingCurate SarahReay April 6th AircraftCarriers. MalcolmByrne May 11th GloversRow EdYoung June 8th TheSwingingSixties FredaThompson. July 9th EdithCavell ProfJohnDerry August 10th WW2Memories BrianRobson&BarryMartin & Archives Display September 14th SecondIndustrialRevolution RobertForsyth. October 12th ATripfromTynetoTweed GeorgeNairn November 9th TheTyneBridgeat90 JMichaelTaylor December 10th SongsandStoriesofChristmas GeoffHughes

Also Christmas Festivities & Celebrations All meetings start at 7.00pm. Followed by Committee meeting. All Welcome Visitors £2 per meeting

8 Ancient Kamiros Friends John Fleet and Vivianne Buller recently visited the site of Ancient Kamiros (or Kameiros) whilst holidaying on the Greek island of Rhodes. The city is very ancient having been first established by the Dorian Greeks in the early first millennium B.C. At that time, three city-states controlled the island and its shipping: Ialysos, (where we stayed - we can recommend the Hotel Oceanis!) Kameiros and Lindos. Around 400 B.C. the three entities joined to form a single state and built a new capital on the site of the present day Rhodes town. Kamiros continued as a thriving community rebuilt by the Hellenes after an earthquake in 227 B.C. That rebuilt city nestles into the natural contours of a hill side overlooking the Aegean Sea and we were able to see the remains as they are today following excavations during the last century. Of particular interest to us was the evidence of Roman occupation, most notably the remains of two bath houses; the Large and the rather better preserved Small Ther- mae. At its entrance there is a small atrium which leads to a narrow cor- ridor with a fountain at the far end. Opening off the corridor, along its length are the familiar chambers of Roman Thermae: thefrigidarium for the cold bath, the tepidarium for the warm baths and thecaldarium for the hot bath.

Next to thecaldarium was theprae- furnium, a narrow passage in which burnt the fire that heated water in a metal cauldron. A pipe which pierced the wall separating thecal- darium from thepraefurnium channeled the hot water to the bath tub. The generated hot air circu- lated under the floors of thetepid- arium and thecaldarium heating the rooms; it escaped through clay

vents built into the walls. A triangular cistern supplied water to the bath tubs in three chambers, along pipes that perfor- ated the walls of the cistern. The similar- ities with ‘our’ own bath house at Segedunum were striking, although one might imagine that rather more fuel would have been needed to keep Segedunum’scaldarium up to temper- ature and conversely thefrigidarium in Rhodes was almost certainly rather less frigid that its northern equivalent!

9 From the Fort I wanted to begin by saying thank you to the Friends for delivering the brilliantly engaging exhibitionBorderline Funny. I know that a huge amount of hard work went into the whole enterprise. It was a wonderful to hear visitors chuckling and giggling in the galleries – it certainly brought a lot of extra fun into the visitor experience. Now we have a newly trained up team of exhibition curators I look forward to the next collaboration! I understand that another Hadrian’s Wall venue is interested in showing the exhibition at a future date which is great news and a fine legacy. At Segedunum we too will be following upBorderline Funny with an exhibition in Gallery 3 of cartoon work produced by children. There were certainly some excellent examples produced in response to the summer exhibition, so I’m very much looking forward to that. Visitor numbers have been very positive over the summer with 22,958 visitors between April and the end of September. Admission income and shop sales have been healthy too, and Evans on the Wall’s cafe offer continues to flourish. I recall when we first met with the owners they talked about the importance of providing a quality cup of coffee – I would agree with that sentiment and for one can vouch that Evans does indeed provide excellent coffee! If you haven’t sampled their fare yet do come and try it. Our NE28 initiative (free admisison for residents living in Segedunum’s postcode) has also proved sucessful. Up until the end of August we had 1119 residents taking up the offer since we launched it at the beginning of April. It’s really great that local people, for whom the admission charge may be a substantial barrier, are able to access the heritage venue at the heart of Wallsend. At the beginning of September the cycling Tour of Britain came to North Tyneside and I was delighted that the route took the Tour to Wallsend with the riders (accompanied by a very impressive cavalcade of high speed police motorcyle outriders), racing right past the gates of Segedunum and along Buddle Street across the World Heritage Site. I don’t imagine there are many cycle tours that actually go through World Heritage Sites! I’ve included a photograph that captures something of the excitement of the event. Now we are fast approaching our annual Fireworks from the Fort (5 November), which I’m sure will again be a stunning affair. There is something very special about the spectacular fireworks set against the background of the Roman remains, the silhouette of the reconstructed bath house and the . As always we would welcome any volunteers from the Friends to help us on the day to help and manage the crowds, encourage donations and promote the benefits of the venue. Next year we are hoping to attract sponsorship towards the cost of the fireworks. As Segedunum and TWAM expands its business networks and connections more opportunities for sponsorship and support of this kind will arise. There is much to look forward to in 2020. We will be celebrating 20 years since Segedunum first opened and are planning an exciting summer exhibition about gladiators, chariot racing and Roman games in general. We are also looking forward to the outcome of the Hemingway Design feasibility study and seeing how the site and museum might develop next. We’ll be sharing details of all this in due course.

Geoff Woodward Museum Manager North & South Tyneside

10 Around the Wall

A few things you may have missed in the newspapers, TV and social media: Our Wall has won two more awards….

“Countryfile Magazine”in May 2019 gave Hadrian's Wall “Landmark of the Year” award - “Hadrian’s Wall isn’t just one of the most important historical structures in Britain, it’s also the one with the most stunning natural setting."

“Lonely Planet” published its first list of 500 unmissable experiences in the UK and Had- rian's Wall was fifth “ Only 10% survives today, but what does makes an unforgettable im- pression.” The Wall came 5th behind the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, British Museum, Giant’s Causeway and the at Bath.

The Dark Sky Discovery Centre at Walltown Crags New and improved visitor facilities have officially been opened by the Northumberland Na- tional Park Authority in August this year at Walltown Country Park, a designated Dark Sky Discovery Site, following significant investment from the European Agricultural Funds for Rural Development which provided 80% of the £108,000 investment. The intention is to strengthen Northumberland National Park’s Dark Sky Programme with new facilities as part of a planned multi-site “Hadrian’s Wall Observatory” featuring The Sill, Cawfields and Walltown Country Park. The newly refurbished visitor facility has new washroom and toilet facilities with 24-hour ac- cess. Visitor Welcome Assistants will be available to provide information at key times through the week and staff a small kiosk selling refreshments including hot and cold drinks, cold snacks and a small range of merchandise

Damage to Hadrian's Wall The structure of the Wall is under serious threat from visitors walking on it and from metal detectorists illegally removing artefacts and stones. A section of Steel Rigg – a popular vis- itors' spot collapsed in May probably caused by tourists scrambling on the structure to take “selfies”. And the illegal removal of artefacts and stones has been a longstanding problem caused by these “nighthawks”. There has been a spate of ‘nighthawking’ incidents at Roman Wall sites at Corbridge, Housesteads and Steel Rigg over the past three years and last year Historic England reported a serious incident when more than 50 holes made by nighthawks were found at Brunton Turret. And finally some items which may be of interest-Glamping Plans to install three glamping pods on a field to the south of Rising Sun Farm, on Kings Road in Wallsend have been submitted to North Tyneside Council. According to a design and access statement submitted to the council the three timber structures will promote tour- ism in the area and create new jobs.The Council will consider the application in January next year.

Sale of Durham Cathedral Stones removed during restoration work on the cathedral’s central tower have been sold by auction at the Cathedral and raised £125,782 which will be put into the cathedral’s restora- tion fund, a £10million endowment fund to cover the cost of annual repair work to the 1,000- year-old Norman building.

11 Notes from the Chairman and Committee October 2019 We have had three meetings and a coach trip since the last Newsletter. In JuneAlan Fidler, the driving force behind the very successful Northumbria World War One project, told the Friends a moving story about how one family had been affected by the war. The Brown brothers from North Shields had written accounts of what life was like on the Front and in a prisoner of war camp. In July the annual coach trip took place with an almost full bus made up of Friends and mem- bers of Wallsend Local History Society. The first stop was Arbeia Roman Fort and everyone looked round the recent refurbishments and improvements on the site taking in the re-con- structed west gateway, the barracks and the Commanding Officers house and also the mu- seum. We then drove down the coastline to the National Glass Centre at Sunderland to look round and also have lunch overlooking the River Wear. The group then had a tour of the ancient St. Peter’s church. The bus then drove over the Northern Spire Bridge to Washing- ton Old Hall for a visit and refreshments before returning to the museum. In September Ken Hutchinson stood in for Dan Jackson whose book The Northumbrian’s had not yet been published. Luckily Ken’s book ‘Wallsend at Work’ had been published in July and members heard about Wallsend’s impressive industrial background where it led the world on many occasions. Starting with Salt Pans at Howdon, Wallsend industries included glassmaking, whaling, rope-making, chemicals, mining and shipbuilding to name but a few. In October Bill Griffiths filled the Daniels Room as usual and attracted probably our oldest ever guest who at the grand age of 101 persuaded his family to bring him along to hear the entertaining talk on the Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimage. The talk was very well received and Friends were delighted to hear that Bill thought that the Borderline Funny Exhibition was one of the best exhibitions the Pilgrims have seen in recent times. The committee have been beavering away in the background and John Fleet and Vivianne Buller have offered to take over the Treasurer’s role from Liz Liddle and Jean Cleathero has agreed to take the minutes of the meetings. Committee members Mike, Phyllis, John and Ken have been heavily involved in the Border- line Funny cartoon exhibition along with many other Friends. A rota of room stewards was set up by Maggie Wakeley and a lot of Friends have helped out in many ways making the exhibition a success. The engagement with children was very positive and led to over 700 children’s cartoons being produced. This has now led to ‘the Son of Borderline Funny’ or a future exhibition of the children’s cartoons next year in Gallery 3 at the museum. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Newsletter and thanks again to John for putting it all together so professionally. Ken Hutchinson

Contact Details: Friends of Segedunum: Secretary: Liz Liddle:[email protected] or mobile: 07960 409 003 Newsletter Editor: John Fleet:[email protected]

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