The Roman Wall / A historical, topographical, and descriptive account of the barrier of the lower isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway, deduced from numerous personal surveys

by J. Collingwood Bruce

WALLSEND.

In tracing the outline of the station it will be well to begin at Carville-hall, the 'Cousin’s-house,'[^[57]] of Horsley. Between it and the Gosforth ‘waggon-way,’ the north fosse of the Wall is very distinct, a gravelled path, for some distance, occupies the site of the Wall.[^[58]] Behind the Methodist-chapel the ditch may still be traced, but after that it disappears. The row of houses between the chapel and the station is manifestly very close upon the line of the Wall. The old engine-house, which Brand tells us was six yards north of the Wall, still remains. The whole of the ramparts of the northern section of the station are gone; the walls of the southern portion of it may, however, be traced rising in the form of a grassy mound above the general level of the soil. The continuation of the eastern wall of the station down the bank to the river’s edge, may also be recognised, not only by the gentle mound which it forms, but by the fragments of Roman mortar, Roman tile, and coarse-grained sandstone, not proper to the district, which may be picked up on it. This river-wall joins the Tyne at the spot where a jetty has recently been formed. Numerous swellings in the ground to the south, and to the east of the station, indicate the ruins of suburban buildings. These seem to have been invariable concomitants of stationary camps. Officers wishing to have more space than the fort allowed, the families of the soldiers, the camp followers, and others, who sought the protection of a fortified post, would occupy such dwellings. The sunny exposure of the streets on the south of the camp, would render them peculiarly acceptable to the Lingones who came from that part of Gaul where the Meuse and Marne have their source.[^[59]] The fosse which protected the eastern rampart, is still distinctly visible, and generally contains a little water. The accompanying lithographic view is given chiefly with the intention of showing the extensive command which the station had of the river below it; the south-east angle of the rampart may be traced upon it, as well as the fosse beyond. The altar, represented in the foreground, was found in the vicinity of the station a few years ago, and is still preserved upon the spot, it is without an inscription, but has a hole drilled through its centre, which it had when found. An extensive natural valley protected the western side of the camp, which some years ago was partially filled up, in order to form the waggon-way. The house occupied by the late Mr. John Buddle, the eminent colliery viewer, is just within the western wall of the station, and that, formerly occupied by Mr. John Reay, is just within the eastern rampart. The waggon-way leading from the Wallsend pit seems to enter the station by its western portal, and to leave it by its eastern, and thus exactly traverses the via principalis of the camp. The only trace of the northern division of the station that remains, consists |SEGEDUNUM.|of the road which has apparently led from Segedunum to the out-posts at Blake-chesters and Tyne-mouth. This causeway extends from the station to the north of the Shields railway; it is formed of a mass of rubble, about two feet deep, and is eleven yards wide. It cannot be ploughed, and nothing that requires any depth of earth will grow upon it.

Numerous proofs of Roman occupation have been discovered at various times in the station and its vicinity. Brand says, ‘I found a fibula, some Roman tegulæ, and coins, a ring, &c. Immense quantities of bones and teeth of animals are continually turning up. Stones with inscriptions were found, but the incurious masons built them up again in the new works of the colliery.’ Dr. Lingard was told, that in digging a cellar under the dining room of Mr. Buddle’s house, a deep well was found. I have been informed by Mr. John Reay, that another was discovered outside the station, at the spot shown on the plan of the station, [Plate IV]. A structure, which was conceived to be a bath, was struck upon about the same time, near the river’s brink; it was immediately removed, but its site is marked on the plan. Many coins have been found, but most of them in a very corroded state. A beautiful piece of Samian ware was got in sinking the shaft of the colliery, which is now in possession of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; it is figured in a subsequent Plate.

WALLSEND TO NEWCASTLE.

Leaving Wallsend, and proceeding westward, the Wall is chiefly to be traced by the presence of its north fosse. This is very distinctly marked nearly all the way to Byker. In front of Stote’s-houses, the Beehouses of Horsley, it forms a pond, which is used for farm purposes. Some traces of the foundation of the Wall may be seen, but they are faint. Thirty years ago the Wall was standing, for a considerable distance, three and four feet high, covered with brushwood of hazel, oak, and alder. The tendency of the half-ruined Wall to give lodgement to the roots of these plants, is very remarkable; wherever the Wall is undisturbed they are found, and in regions where the hazel does not occur elsewhere, as in the neighbourhood of Bowness, it is to be met with abundantly upon the Wall.

A mound, a little more elevated than the neighbouring ground, near to Stote’s-houses, points out the site of the first mile-castle west of Wallsend. The tenant of the farm told me that he had got a great quantity of stones from it. In Horsley’s time, there were ‘two distinct tumuli remaining near the Bee-houses’; what I take to be the rudiments of them may yet be traced; one of them is just behind the stack-yard of the farm, the other, the least marked of the two, a little to the west of it.

The road that is seen stretching in a straight line up the hill to Byker indicates the direction of the Wall, and though the first, it is by no means the most remarkable instance that we shall meet with, of the unflinching and straightforward tendencies of this remarkable structure. The Wall stood on the south side of the present road. The facing-stones having already been removed, and it being desirable to have the rocky remnant entirely cleared away, the ground was let to parties without rent for a short term of years, on condition of their clearing it, and bringing it into cultivation. It is on this account that the site of the Wall and fosse, even yet, is portioned out in long narrow slips, which are, for the most part, used as potato gardens.

From the top of Byker-hill, an interesting view is obtained of the Tyne and the numerous hives of busy men which bestud its banks. This would be an important post for the Roman soldier, who could easily see from it the stations on either hand—Segedunum and Pons Ælii—and all that was going on between them.

Between Byker and Newcastle, all traces of the Wall are now nearly destroyed. In 1725, it was, however, standing in a condition of imposing grandeur, as appears from Stukeley’s ‘Prospect’ of it in the Iter Boreale. He was induced to make this drawing because ‘the country being entirely undermined’ by colliery excavations, it might ‘some time or other sink, and so disorder the track of this stately work.’ He dreaded an imaginary evil, and overlooked a real one.

The north fosse was, till recently, very distinct within the wall of Heaton-park; it is now filled up; many of the stones in the park-wall, are to all appearance, Roman. Before descending the hill, a portion of it, boldly developed, may yet be seen at the end of a small row of houses called Howard-street.