The Pilgrimage of Hadrian's Wall - A Memoir of the 2019 Journey

The Pilgrimage

The Hadrian’s Wall

Pilgrimage, 2019

20

th

 – 27

th

 July 2019

The Pilgrimage of Hadrian's wall is a venerable institution. The first took place in 1849, and they have taken

place every 10 years, gine and take a few intervals. This was my fifth pilgrimage. My first was in 1969,

which I reported in CA 15. I then missed out on the 1979 pilgrimage, but I went on the 1989 pilgrimage (CA

116), the 1999 Pilgrimage (CA 164) and the 2009 Pilgrimage (CA240).  I wanted to do one last pilgrimage.

There was however a problem.  I am now 82, and my walking has deteriorated badly - I can’t really walk

more than a couple of hundred yards at a time. Indeed on the Thursday my knees collapsed when I was

getting onto the coach and I gnashed my shin - I am still suffering from it.

Nevertheless, even if I could not do any of the long walks, I could still go round the all the forts and the

museums, or even walk short stretches: and I was able to meet many old friends and see the Wall for one

last time.

Here then is my report of the 14

th

 pilgrimage –  my fifth and last.

My Fifth Pilgrimage

We began in the slightly

faded splendours of the

Royal Station Hotel,

Newcastle. It was

conveniently situated a

hundred yards from the

station and was redolent of

the glories of the age of

steam.

We stayed here for four days

before moving on to the

County hotel at Carlisle.

At the opening

dinner I found I

was not the

only pilgrim

wearing a bow

tie. I was joined

by Sebastian

Sommer, the

chief

archaeologist of

Bavaria and the

guru of the

Roman system

in Germany.

Benwell

Our first stop was at Benwell, the first fort west out of Newcastle.

The actual fort is covered by the  modern housing estate seen in

the photo and the only preserved part is the totally anomalous

feature that is the defended gateway over the vallum.

The vallum is still one of the great mysteries of Hadrian’s Wall, a

flat bottomed ditch with banks on either side running up to a mile

south of the actual wall.  Its purpose remains a mystery — it is still

tempting to see it as some sort of customs barrier.

At Benwell the vallum runs a hundred yards south of the Fort, but

uniquely there is a crossing over the vallum with an elaborate

Gateway. The flat bottomed ditch can be seen in the photo above,

while below is the English Heritage reconstruction drawing. Note

the actual Fort in the background.

We continued with our study of the vallum by visiting a section

that is virtually unknown in Denton Burn. Here the developers

were persuaded to leave a section of the vallum intact and here

we see David Breeze, the chief pilgrim explaining the vallum

with great enthusiasm – Tony Wilmott is in the background.

It is rather odd having this somewhat unkempt field in the

middle of suburbia, but at least we visited it.

We then walked back to the wall itself, seen here alongside the

A69, the main road to the West,  with traffic thundering past on

the dual carriageway

The next visit was the turret 26b, at Brunton

and here you see me demonstrating that I can

still get over a stile - with some difficulty.

Turret 26B is terribly important for wall studies

because this is where the Broad wall is

replaced by the narrow wall. Hadrian's Wall

was originally intended to be 12(?) feet wide,

but when they reached turret 26B they decided

to narrow it to 10 feet wide.

However, the turrets had already been built by

a different squad of turret builders, and here

you can see the projecting stub at the original

broad gauge linking to the narrow gauge.

Chesters

We then went on to Chesters which is the first major fort, west of Newcastle laid

out for inspection. It is perhaps the nicest of all the forts with the River South

Tyne running alongside.

But it in the 19th century it was the home of John Clayton, the wealthy Newcastle

solicitor who decided to buy up as much of Hadrian's wall as he could in order to

preserve it and eventually ended up the owner of four forts and a long stretch of

the wall which today is  one of the best stretches of the wall.

He built a special museum for the sculptures he found on his property. This has

recently been restored by English Heritage, following a long discussion whether it

should be modernised or restored as a Victorian museum, but it has been

restored as Clayton left it: the results is a triumph.

The barrack blocks at Chesters

The Chesters museum

The bath house at Chesters, with the river South Tyne in the background.

Note centre bottom the stoke hole for the hot room.

The tepid room in the

Chesters bathhouse.

Note the window in the far

end, one of the few

windows to survive from a

bathhouse

The Great North Museum

In the evening we visited the Great North Museum at Newcastle. This was

originally the Hancock Museum of Natural History, but in 2009 it was combined

with the University Museum of Antiquities and Brian Shefton’s collection of

Greek sculpture to form the Great North Museum.

The result is highly controversial. The worst exhibit can be seen overleaf: the

Museum of Antiquities had a superb model of the course of Hadrian's wall,

which was ripped out and replaced with this totally uninformative travesty.

We then show a good example of the criticisms aimed at the new Museum: a

Roman altar and its caption. The text accompanying the altar is not in fact a

translation of the text, but a very misleading paraphrase: the detail is very

speculative while the tone is far too cynical and probably wrong. Any schoolchild

reading it would will be totally misled about the nature of the Roman Empire.

Above: The Hancock (now Great North)

museum.

Right: the model of Hadrian’s Wall. The only

other feature shown is the river Tyne

The altar actually reads:

To the goddess Minerva and the

Genius of ?? Caecilius Optatus

performed his vows

Matt Symonds

explains  a milecastle

to some of the

pilgrims.

Housesteads

Housesteads is the most majestic of the Hadrian's wall forts. It is the highest, the

most bleak, but with stunning views,  and with the wall stretching away on both

sides.

When we got there it was blowing a gale and we could scarcely stand up. Luckily,

Lindsay Alison Jones took me in her car up to the Museum – she knows the secret

way up, and then I managed to see the fort.

The idea was that we would climb up to the top of the ridge and then walk

westwards to see the next milecastle, but having staggered to the top with

considerable help, I then saw the pilgrims marching off into the distance and I

knew I could not follow them. I decided to explore the Fort, but curses! the West

gate was blocked by English Heritage, so that you had to go round to the South

gate – and pay!

Below. The statue of Victory in the Housesteads

museum, set against a fine photo of the best stretch

of Hadrian's wall. Museums tend to forget about

the background to the objects on display, but here

English heritage got it right!

Top right. The pilgrims disappearing into the

distance.

Right below, The West gate, blocked to make you go

round and pay!

A stitched together photo looking south from the fort.  In the

foreground, Tim Tatton Brown is defying the gale and consulting his

computer in the Commandant's house.

Note the clump of trees half right, which shelters the farm and

Museum. When Clayton bought the Fort, there was a farmhouse

sheltering in the inside the fort: see painting right, now in Chesters

Museum. He therefore moved the farmer out and built a new house for

him, now the Museum

 David Breeze demonstrates the most mysterious aspect of

Housesteads. It appears the wall was originally built without

forts, but when it was decided to move the forts up onto the

wall, it was decided that the Housesteads fort should project

north of the wall. When Richmond was excavating in the

1950s he found traces of the original wall where David is

pointing to it

The North gate of Housesteads, facing the Barbarians. It

appears to face out onto a steep drop, but there was a ramp

leading up to it that was removed in the 19th century to make

it more dramatic. But note Hadrian's Wall snaking away into

the clump of trees, top right.

South Shields and Wallsend

The next day we went back to do the east end of the wall,  that is east of

Newcastle, where there are two splendid forts at South Shields and

Wallsend.

South Shields is not strictly a wall fort, but a supply depot situated 5 miles

South of the Wall. It was originally excavated in the 19th century as the

Roman Remains Park, and it now has some splendid reconstructions.

Wallsend is north of the Tyne, and as name suggests, is the end of the

Wall. It was originally covered by the houses of the workers of the Swan

Hunter shipyard, but in the 1970s the shipyards declined so the whole

area was cleared and the fort was excavated.

The first and still the latest magnificent of the reconstructions at

our buyer has been that of the Gateway. This was highly

controversial at the time because the British tradition does not

allow of reconstruction on site, – though the German tradition

dollars budget has been a great success.

The more recently constructions is of the Tribune's house in the

South West corner of the Fort and adjacent to it a barrack block by

contrast at the barren. In the late Roman period, the commanding

officer, a Tribune built a new house for himself in the corner of the

Fort set out according to the best Mediterranean traditions and

half of this has been reconstructed. The most impressive part is the

dining room where the position of or tricking them where the

position of the couches could be seeing in the excavation

Two famous tombstones from South

Shields.  Left is that of Regina (=Queenie?)

freedwoman and wife of  Barates a

Palmyran, though she was by nation a

Catuvellaunian  (= from St Albans). She

died aged 30.

What is fascinating is that underneath

there is a line of an Aramaic inscription

reading Regina, freedwoman of Barates,

alas.

Top right is the tombstone of Victor, a

Moor from North Africa, , who was the

freedman of Numerianus, a cavalryman.

He died aged 20

Wallsend

Looking across the archaeological Park at Wallsend. On the far side is the Museum

and its observation tower from which the excavations can be viewed.

In the distance on the right is the River Tyne, where once the steamship Mauritania

was built in the Swan Hunter ship yards. A short wall ran from the Fort down to the

Tyne to mark the end of the Wall

The newly excavated Roman

bathhouse that had been

hidden under a pub down by

the river

Ten years ago this stretch of the Roman Wall was

uncovered and a full-height  replica was built

behind it. A stream ran through the wall at this

point in a culvert and this has now been restored

and is being examined by the pilgrims.

The latest plan of the Wallsend fort.

The reconstructed section of the Wall

and the culvert through the wall is seen

centre left, marked Buddle Street. Then

the blue line marks the hypothetical line

of the stream, now called an aqueduct,

leading down to the newly discovered

bath house seen two pictures above.

The short length of wall leading from

the fort down to the river Tyne can be

seen to the right

Vindolanda

Wednesday, 24 July was change over the day when

we changed over from Newcastle to Carlisle and

the whole day was devoted to just one site,

Vindolanda

Vindolanda is magnificent. It is now in the third

generation of Burley’s, having been begun by Eric,

then passed on to Robin, who sadly died last year,

and is now taken over by his son, Andrew;  though

Robin’s elder brother Tony is still very much with us

and was holding court at the site.

Vindolanda

Two remarkable new ideas have come from recent work at

Vindolanda. The first is the complete change round that

took place in the Severan period, between A.D. 208 – 12.

The whole of the old fort appears to have been given up

and filled with roundhouses, laid out very regularly in rows

of five,  back to back.

Meanwhile the civilian settlement, the vicus became the

fort or fortlet. It was surrounded by defences, and filled

with barracks, workshops and a commanding officers house.

The occupation was very short lived, perhaps only four

years, but it was  very different in the two halves of the fort.

The new fort or fortlet  produced the usual rich finds,  including over 470 boots and shoes from the southern fort

ditch: over 40% were from non-adult males, suggesting that women and children were living in the fort. However

there were very few finds from the round houses, though analysis of the grains show that the roundhouse dwellers

ate mostly barley, rather than wheat: their bread was pretty rough. They were ‘barbarians’ who did not enjoy the

delights of the Roman consumer economy.

The round houses erected

in the fort in the Severan

interlude

Andrew Birley demonstrating  the defences of

the vicus in the Severan period when it became

the  fort.

 Christian Vindolanda

Another major new concept is a recognition of post-Roman

Vindolanda, stretching from the beginning of the fifth century to the

ninth century with a vibrant well-organised settlement.

The fort was perhaps abandoned  from 280 to 303/4 and the new

fort had some interesting changes. It appears less coherent,  and it

appears that several different units may have occupied different

parts of the fort.

In the late fourth and fifth centuries, several buildings have been

interpreted as churches. One of them is a large building adjacent to

the old Headquarters building which could have held 50 worshippers

or more, with a possible baptismal font just outside, converted from

a large water tank inserted by the late Roman cavalry.

Right: Late Roman Vindolanda.  The top left-hand quarter was still military,  with barracks rearranged as individual houses.

Below centre left,  the two granaries.  To their right is what remains of the headquarters building, while  centre right is the

former commanding officers house with a ?church in the courtyard and a sort of bath house. The bottom right quarter

contains at least two possible apsidal buildings, including  the large one near the centre with to its left the possible

baptistery formed from the former Roman water tank. (Vindolanda Trust)

Vindolanda's church. In the fifth century,

there may have been a church at Vindolanda

-  note the semicircular apse, left.

But the old religion still continued. This  shrine to the

God Jupiter Dolicenus  was discovered just before the

last pilgrimage, a splendid altar  showing the God as a

smith riding a bull . The actual altar is now hidden in the

museum, but it is replaced by a replica gleaming a

pinkish white,  as the original would have done when

first erected.

Andrew Birley calls this the most terrifying view at Vindolanda. A barbarian

entering by the North gate would have been faced with this view down the

broad road leading to the headquarters building. Imagine the arched

gateway at the centre of the HQ building with two Roman soldiers in full

regalia standing on either side.

On either side there were the backs of barracks, tall walls without any

break in them. It would have looked very grim for a visiting Barbarian

The Vindolanda Museum

The Vindolanda Museum, sited in the original Burley family home at

Chesterholme has become one of the finest displays of everyday Roman

material in the world

Because so much of the ground is wet, wood and leather and writing tablets

are preserved. One of the most stunning displays is their display of Roman

shoes. It is almost  impossible to photograph because of the reflections, but

that they have literally thousands of shoes in their collections, including

many in the latest ladies fashions.

However, the champion recent discovery is a set of boxing gloves. Boxing

was a cruel sport in the ancient world, but the boxing gloves are displayed

on suitable model. I end with a photo of their latest room, Vindolanda’s

Wooden Underworld, demonstrating the marvels of tree-ring dating.

,

Vindolanda’s boots and shoes

The Boxer

Right The

tombstone of

poor Ingenuus,

who lived twenty

four years, four

months, and

seven days

Left.  I love this

stick figure. just

like a child’s

drawing, but

strangely

powerful

Here is a picture of me consuming a

special diabetic cake as part of my packed

lunch.

The catering for the packed lunches was

done by Bryony and Joy from the Slack

House Organic Farm,  and on the first day,

I complained that their orange drink was

full of sugar and their special ‘free from’

dietary bars may have been free from

fashionable ingredients but were certainly

not free from sugar.

As a penance they cooked me a special

diabetic cake which I am here consuming.

And finally . . .

Whither British archaeology?

Going round Vindolanda, I couldn't help wondering about its place in British

archaeology. On all the other sites and museums that we visited, the story was of

gloom, of ‘the cuts’. In retrospect, the 1990s and the 2000’s were the highpoint of

locsl government support for archaeology and now local governments are

beginning to wonder whether they should support things like archaeology.

Vindolanda however it is entirely self-supporting.  They have over 2000 volunteers

a year: most of the work is done by volunteers, not only the excavation, but also

much of the finds processing and the writing up.  If you want to join the team,

bookings open in November, but get in quickly as they are often full up by the end

of the month.

What was particularly impressive was the overall research design. They knew what

they were doing and were achieving new and fascinating results. Andrew Birley is a

third generation to be working on the site and I look forward to hearing further

reports

Maryport

On Thursday 25

th

 July we went down the Cumberland coast to visit

Maryport

Maryport is the last fort of the Roman defensive  system built up along the Cumbrian coast. It

is now best known for the Senhouse Museum  which houses a splendid series of Roman altars

dug up in the 18th and 19th centuries most from the settlement outside the fort.

These have recently being the subject of a major excavations which showed that they were in

fact buried in the late Roman period when a huge timber structure was erected on the highest

point and the altars were used as packing stones for the post pits.

The museum is now housed in a

former naval Battery  overlooking

the Roman  fort – and the sea on

the other side.

The finest of the

altars

View of the fort – simply a series of

humps and bumps.

Maryport is a much neglected town. It was laid

out as a planned town by Humphrey Senhouse

in the 1750s and is a fine example of a

Georgian planned town.

After Maryport, We went on to Bowness, the site of the last fort on Hadrian's

Wall.

Here, by tradition, the pilgrims roll up their trousers and go paddling in the

sea.

This time the tide was out and the sea was a long way away. I tried to struggle

down after them, but only got half way before I had to turn back.

 Then in the evening, we went

to Tullie House, Carlisle's

Museum, for a reception.

Two items caught my attention.

To the left is a cloaked figure

known as a Genius Cucullatus

which I thought was rather nice.

Then to the right there is a

replica tombstone for a saucy

lady, but look — there is no

inscription underneath. This is a

mass produced tombstone

which you could buy and insert

your own inscription.

Pike Hill and Birdoswald

On Friday, 26 July we visited Birdoswald fort - and I wrecked my shin while getting into the

coach.

We began by visiting turret 52 a and then walking a short distance to Pike Hill. Pike Hill is an

interesting anomaly, a watch tower built before Hadrian's Wall was built, when it acted as

an advance signal tower to warn the forts along the Stanegate of what was happening to

the north.

I walked out to the tower, but on my return I fell while getting into the coach and cut my

shin. The coaches then went on to Birdoswald where I was patched up. We then  had lunch

and I was able to see but Birdoswald again, though there had been no excavations there in

the past 10 years.

In the afternoon there was a long walk to Gilsland but I had to stay in the coach in the car

park. Frustrating!

Turret  52 a – Banks East.

This is a well preserved turret. It was originally  built as a

stone turret in the turf wall, though within a few years the

turf wall was replaced by the stone wall.

Pike Hill.

This stone watch tower was built before Hadrian's Wall. But

when the wall was built, it cut ruthlessly through the old

building

The walk back to the coaches. This was at the limit of what I am capable of

walking so when I got back, when I tried to get onto the coach, my knees

just collapsed and I gnashed my shin.

The granaries at Birdoswald — note the buttresses to the walls to

support the weight of the grain stored inside.

In the post Roman period, a huge timber hall was built over the

top of the collapsing granaries —the position of post pits is

marked by the wooden boxes:  but why is one of them out of line?

Marching camp at Burnhead, and

Carvoran

Saturday, 27 July, was our last day and it rained – it rained hard

all day so I was not altogether too disappointed when I was not

able to join in the walks.

We began visiting a site north of the wall that was a ‘camp’. The

pilgrims set out to walk round the ramparts, but I stayed by the

car where I had been brought by Lindsay Alison Jones.

Then in the afternoon we went on to the fort at Carvoran to see

the Roman Army Museum and get out of the wet.

It rained. This is, I think, a corner of a camp in the rain.

Camps

Camps, or Marching camps as they used to be known, have received a lot of attention

recently. These camps have been discovered in increasing numbers through aerial

photography and are now marked on the new Archaeological Map of Hadrian's Wall,

published by the Historic England. This has been somewhat criticised as being

cumbersome and failing to show modern roads clearly enough, but it is printed on

both sides of the sheet and show as lot of new detail. In particular it shows all these

camps, which are a revelation.

It is almost impossible to say much about these camps. They were temporary

fortifications, quickly  erected but never occupied for long, so there are no finds in

them to date them. They tend to be classified in two sizes, big and small. The small

ones are often thought to be the camps of the working squads building Hadrian's wall,

but the larger ones could hold a substantial body of troops — some at least could be

legionary. However, no one knows their date. Some could be early Agricolan, that is

pre-Hadrian’s Wall. Others could be Severan  and the campaigns into Scotland around

A.D 200. But there is no dating evidence, so this is all purely hypothetical.

Cawfields Crags in the rain.

This is the finest stretch of Hadrian’s Wall, but I missed it.

But I have walked it before!

Carvoran is another Hadrian's Wall fort that was

acquired some years ago by the Vindolanda

Trust. The fort itself is unexcavated apart from a

corner tower, and part of it is now a bog due to

drainage problems.

 But the Trust has made it into the Roman Army

Museum, and  Andrew Birley and his family live

in the farmhouse and look after it.

Carvoran and the Roman Army Museum.

Andrew Birley standing in the rain and lecturing on

Carvoran fort

Corner tower, excavated for an earlier

Pilgrimage

Defences at Carvoran

The Roman Army Museum

I was rather impressed with the Roman Army Museum. It had little original material, but was

essentially a Museum of the Roman army with models like this one of a Roman soldier.

I particularly liked a room devoted to the Emperor Hadrian, where there was a bust of

Hadrian delivering his memoirs, his justification, veering between boastfulness and glossing

over the less happy aspects of his life. I listened, and then I thought to myself, yes, I know who

this is, this is Tony Birley (Robin’s brother) – and I checked with Andrew and yes, I was right. I

also liked the ‘offerings to the gods’ – is this Tony to?

It is interesting to compare this Museum and the Vindolanda Museum with the municipal

museums such as those at Wallsend and Arbeia. The Trust museums, answering to academic

trustees rather than to municipal politicians , are somehow more mature, less dumbed down

and more informative on every level: yet I felt sure that it would be every bit as informative to

a child

Here I learned the different types of Roman armour.

Left is scale armour,  

lorica squamata

, looks good but

hard to maintain, and only occasionally worn by

legionaries.

Right is plate armour 

Lorica  segmentata

, which was

the usual armour of a Roman legionary.

And finally, we come to the farewell

dinner, held in the Crown and Mitre

hotel in Carlisle.

Here Rebecca Jones delivered a highly

amusing farewell speech summing up

the success of the 14th pilgrimage.

 It was a worthy end to a splendid

pilgrimage.