Exploring Hadrian’s Way Based upon the 2000 Ordnance Survey map A69 with permission of the Controller of H.M.S.O N Crown Copyright Reserved LA 076244

S S B6528 A P - HEDDON-ON Y B Dene THE-WALL N R E Walbottle T S E W A 1 TYNE 69 A RIVERSIDE COUNTRY 1 PARK Up to 4 /2 miles / 7 km ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı ı A60

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This 41/2 miles / 7 km walk is Contact details: packed with historical interest. A 1920’s garden village, a Traveline Victorian rifle range and one of Tel: 0870 608 2608 the oldest waggonways in www.traveline.org.uk Britain are just some of the Hadrian's Wall Information Line diverse delights to be Tel: 01434 322002 discovered along the way. www.hadrians-wall.org The route can be joined at any point and can be followed Newcastle Tourist in either direction. It is mostly Information Centre accessible for wheelchairs, Tel: 0191 2778000 except the lower section of Walbottle Dene which has some To give feedback on these & steps. The river crossings in this other strategic routes in and part of the Dene can become around Newcastle, impassable in wet weather. please contact: Frequent bus services run to John Robertson, Walbottle and Throckley. Newcastle City Council Parking is possible around Planning & Transportation the green in Walbottle village. Tel: 0191 232 8520

Layers of History Born from Molten Magma The Roman Frontier Why Blucher?

At first glance this landscape Over 50 million years ago, The route of this walk straddles In 1815, when the Duke of may seem unremarkable, when mammals were only just the course of Hadrian’s Wall, Wellington faced Napoleon at but take a closer look and many appearing on Earth, there was the northwest frontier of the the Battle of Waterloo in layers of history are revealed. a period of massive volcanic Roman Empire. It was an Belgium, it was General activity in southwest Scotland. Near the surface are relics of 200 impressive and imposing Blücher’s Prussian army who years of coal mining. Many of Huge quantities of molten rock, structure, and a magnificent saved the day. Some historians the disused waggonways and or magma, welled up from the feat of civil engineering. claim that without Blücher’s railways which once served the depths and squeezed through involvement Napoleon’s army The main curtain wall stood up coal industry have now become faults in the existing rock layers. would not have been routed as to 10 ft (3m) thick and 16ft (5m) roads and tracks. The molten rock then solidified totally as they were. to form horizontal sills and high. In front, on the north side, Delve a bit deeper - about 800 vertical dikes. was a deep defensive ditch. Back home in Walbottle, to years deeper - and you discover Some distance behind, to the mark the great victory, the local the medieval origins of Walbottle The effects of that Scottish south, ran another line of coal mine was renamed Duke village. Deeper still, and the volcanic activity spread as far defensive earthworks including Pit, after Wellington, and a new landscape of the Roman as , and two a wide flat-bottomed ditch, sinking was named Blücher Pit, occupation comes into view. of the dikes formed at that time the Vallum. A military access after the Prussian. Subsequently now run close to Walbottle. But the layers continue on down, road ran in the strip of land the village of Blucher grew up through the Bronze Age 1000 The Great Whin Dike crosses between the Wall and the around the pit. years before the Romans arrived Fellside Lane and runs Vallum, the Military Zone. in Britain, to a prehistoric southeast towards the Tyne. landscape 50 million years It caused major problems in before humans appeared on many Newcastle coal mines. Cross section of the Vallum North Mound South Mound the planet. The Little Whin Dike runs Follow this route and take a walk parallel, slightly to the south, Ditch through the past. and was quarried in Walbottle Feet Dene. 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

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Front cover: Near Walbottle – Newcastle City Council Designed by Ad Infinitum, Rothbury. Published by Newcastle City Council © 2002 N Walbottle Dene 41/2 miles / 7km Suggested starting point: Walbottle Village This leaflet can be used in conjunction with Ordnance Scale of map Survey Explorer Map 316 W E Kilometres 0.5 Based upon the 2000 Ordnance Survey map S with permission of the Controller of H.M.S.O Miles 1/2 Crown Copyright Reserved LA 076244

3 Over 250 years old, the Walbottle 4 Aerial photographs have shown Moors waggonway two rectangular Romano-British is the only surviving enclosures on Walbottle Moor. 18th century They were probably associated waggonway in the with small farmsteads. Newcastle area. Railway pioneer

Picture: Newcastle City Council is reputed to have Callerton Walbottle Dene Fell House Farm worked on this line & Nursery as a boy.

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BURN ROAD BURN MANOR D 1ST SCHOOL 1 Picture: Newcastle City Council Path near Walbottle Dene Picture: Newcastle City Council Gradients The village of Walbottle is North known to have existed since at Walbottle Walbottle Blucher Walbottle least the 13th century, and Key to map Village Hexham Village Road 7 perhaps earlier. The medieval 4 village was built round the Main route 1 1 green, and was surrounded by Alternative route 2 ••• strip-cultivated open fields. Slope

Kilometres 1 23456 7 8 Steps Miles 1 2 3 4 5 Refreshments/Pub