Walking the Wall on Tyneside
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Walking Hadrian’s Wall on Tyneside THE ROUTE THROUGH THE URBAN AREAS 1 Dinnington Wideopen Burradon Earsdon PONTELAND Backworth A696 Prestwick HAZLERIGG A186 A1056 A GUIDE FOR WALKERS, VISITORS AND LOCAL PEOPLE ShirShiemoorremoor 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. 6 A1 West HEATON Jesmond A193 archaeological interest in the Wall will want Wallsend1 A191 A167 Walkergate to follow the actual route the Wall took, NEWBURN Chillingham and there are good reasons for doing so. 5 Road WYLAM A187 HEBBURN The Wall has left its legacy in the street plan A6085 NEWCASTLE Byker Walker 4 A193 Hebburn A186 UPON TYNE of Newcastle, especially the straight West Wylam RYTON Byker Manors Station 2 Road out of the city, and Shields Road in Newcastle the eastern suburb of Byker. Although the Crawcrook Blaydon A185 3 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 Wrekenton 2 Map designed by Oxford Cartographers 98045 E&OE 3 A195 Sunniside A1 Sunniside HADRIAN’S WALL THIS waLK COVERS THE EASTERN 12 MILES OF three hundred years, until Rome lost control HADRIAN’S WALL, BUILT ACROSS THE 73 MILES BETWEEN of Britain in the early fifth century. TYNE AND SOLWAY IN AD 122-4. 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. The Wall was started to a width of 10 Roman At every Roman mile was a small fort which of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, Many modern day Wall-walkers travel from W Feet (RF) (3m) and was originally some functioned as a fortified gateway through inscribed in 2005 and currently comprising to E, so the guide is organised as a series of stages 20 feet (6m high), almost certainly with a the Wall - a ‘milecastle’. Between every Hadrian’s Wall, the German Limes (frontier which can be read in reverse, from W to E, as well as from E to W. walkway and battlements along the top. The two milecastles were two towers (‘turrets’). line) and the Antonine Wall in Scotland. Sometimes more detailed directions are given where the route might be difficult to 10 foot wide ‘Broad Wall’ only occurs W of Major garrison forts, for full Roman army follow through the urban landscape: in these cases the directions are given twice, first Newcastle. Between Newcastle and Wallsend units, also occur along the Wall, some 15 in E-W then W-E. the Wall is narrow (2.4m wide) - this stretch all. In our stretch there are three: Wallsend, The milecastles are numbered from E to W, and the turrets in each Wall-mile have was a slightly later addition. 6m (20RF) Newcastle and Benwell, each of which had a the number of the preceding Milecastle with the suffixes A and B. So, for example, in front of the Wall ran a great V-shaped civilian settlement (vicus) outside its walls. between Milecastles 48 and 49, we find Turrets 48A and 48B. Note however that Wall-forts, milecastles and turrets. Along this ditch, generally over 8m wide and up to 3m not all positions of milecastles in Tyneside are known with certainty; where the To the rear of the Wall (but not E of corridor, between the Wall and the Vallum, deep. The wide space between the Wall position is described as ‘probable’, it means that the actual structure has never been Newcastle), was a linear earthwork, the so- there ran a Roman road, the main means of and its ditch was a deliberate measure to discovered. No turret has been reliably seen in the whole 7-mile stretch from Wallsend called Vallum. This was a flat-bottomed ditch, communication and supply, known as ‘the provide space for extra obstacles - sharpened to Denton, W of Newcastle. In some areas, particularly in Newcastle city centre, 6m wide and 3m deep, with a substantially Military Way’. Apart from a brief period in AD branches set in pits - a previously unknown the line taken by the Wall is still not known, and will only be discovered by future 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 archaeological research. 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 5 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 I G DH O R A A H Longbenton M D H S ROAD T T R R E O E AD A O S 69 T RK R W ON PA T 6 T A G BEN N T I A1 I 9 ON LL 1 B D KI 6 OA 91 R H 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 Gosforth D A A 8 O 1 1 R 19 3 A 1 L B L I ve i M Dr S n K a y l C I e KE A69 v D R e 1058 r E A LAN N A T A KENTON RO D 1 T ' D O 67 ERS N T HA AL R S D 9 8 D 1 ROA A191 A ST COA H I G e H n a S L ane K tal L T n E R N i 8 P E A gg O ET 8 B bi N 1 w T A P e W N E Ilford O L E N A A Road H s T 69 N T den T r E WALLSEND ROMAN FORT (SEGEDUNUM) 1 a D e G e L shir Lan A R ilt w MA W kro N O ac A1 A Bl D Paddy Freeman's Park D R O A A D 8 K A i 05 ng D C 1 B632 1 RO ragside A 4 6 E d s 7 N oa R E n R o Drove Road Little Moor o a D wt D Ne d N S AD o A Westerhope Dukes Moor O S u S T t 6 T R T S h A SMO B A 0 M E J 16 COA T 6 8 F I O O 5 RD 0 N H 0 A R M 9 O RD Bigges Main A 18 B West Denton The reconstructed baths are not on the site The Roman fort Aand supply ObaseSBORNE RO Aat the mouth D THE Fort at THE E END OF D E HEXHAM RO AD N T B6528 Blakelaw ON B6528 ad Ro of the original Roman building, which was A189 of the Tyne at South Shields, on the other side h t Heddon-on- THE WALL was SItuateD TO R Nor O C A o a D Bank Top c the-wall h 8 R of the river (www.arbeiaromanfort.org.uk) d discovered by the WallQuest community COMMAND MAGNIFICENT VIEWS 05 W B o 1 a B1 A o a o e y H R B s d A t d WT S 3 e H e West n S R O l T 18 f t Throckley R t A AD ie r o N t 1 A O e T R a E o M 9 Jesmond ld et R 1 ST d R b 1 A A l N O CE FO A 67 archaeology project in 2014, 120m closer to can be visited from Wallsend by taking the C Ro a ALONG TWO STRAIGHT STRETCHES e W w ad RD to St h P ati t o n Wallsenda n R r r o o H ad y R k nton Wa N West De A Jesmond Dene o R T AD a o EAS M d a T n theWalk river.