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

COURSE THROUGH NEWCASTLE.

At the head of the bank overlooking the Ouse-burn stood a mile-castle, as was usual in such situations, to guard the pass. Two stones which, I am persuaded, formed part of the entrance gateway of this mile-tower, now stand upon the stairs leading to the grand entrance of the keep of the Castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. They measure two feet by one, and are of the form usually employed in the portals of mile castles. One of them bears a rude, and almost unintelligible, inscription. These stones were found built up in a structure on the west bank of the Ouseburn, were thence taken to Busy Cottage, afterwards removed to Heaton, and finally presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The Wall crossed the Ouse-burn very near the ancient bridge which is about a hundred and fifty yards south of the railway viaduct. In preparing the foundations of Mr. Beckinton’s steam-mill about the year 1800, the workmen came upon the Wall, and, with great good taste, built into the opposite quay three of the largest stones they met with, in order to mark its site; they may yet be seen at low water, and are evidently mile-castle stones.

COURSE THROUGH NEWCASTLE.

It is not possible to trace the Wall with minute accuracy through Newcastle, a town which has been the seat of a large and active population ever since the days of Roman occupation. In endeavouring to follow its route, I shall mainly depend upon the investigations of Mr. George Bouchier Richardson, who has for several years past made the antiquities of ‘the Metropolis of the North’ his especial study, and whose paper upon this subject, recently read before the Society of Antiquaries of this town, will doubtless speedily appear in the Archæologia Æliana.

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.

Rising from the western bank of the Ouse-burn, it traversed the north side of Stepney-bank, passed through the gardens at the Red Barns, along the site of the present Melbourne-street, and, proceeding behind the Keelmen’s Hospital, came to the Sallyport. This, which was one of the gates of the town, is sometimes described as a Roman building, but is of mediæval origin. Thence, the Wall went over the crest of the hill still called the Wall-knoll, where the foundations of it were turned up about the middle of the last century. It crossed Pandon-dean on the north side of the locality called the Stock-bridge, and, in its western course, ascended the steep hill, on the summit of which stands All Saints’ church. Brand tells us that the crypt of the old church had plainly been built of stones plundered from the adjacent Wall. A well of Roman masonry is said to have been discovered near the church when the foundations of the new building were prepared. Crossing Pilgrim-street a little above Silver-street, the course of the Wall is indicated by the present narrow street called the Low bridge. Until a comparatively recent period, the site of Dean-street formed the unenclosed bed of the Lort-burn, and was spanned by an arch called the Low-bridge. At the point where this mediæval viaduct stood, its Roman predecessor carried the Wall, with its attendant military way, across the gully. The church of St. Nicholas, according to Leland, whose statement is confirmed by subsequent writers, ‘stondithe on the very Picts Waulle.’ The Wall, leaving the church, crosses Collingwood-street in an oblique direction, and passing by St. John’s church, the Vicarage-house, and the Assembly-rooms, makes for the Town-wall somewhat to the north of the site of the West-gate. There can be little doubt that in its exit from the town, the Wall occupied the elevation on which Cumberland-row now stands.

PONS ÆLII.

PONS ÆLII.—Having tracked the Wall in its passage through the modern town, the site of the ancient station of Pons Ælii next demands attention.

Horsley is the only writer who has attempted to define its limits, and he had but slender evidence to guide him. He takes, as his data, the three following facts:—1. The course of the Wall westward, which he conceives, and no doubt correctly, would form the northern boundary of the station; 2. The direction of the Vallum, some portions of which remained, in his day, just outside the West-gate; 3. 'A traditionary account of the Wall having passed through St. George’s porch, near the north-west corner of St. Nicholas’-church.' As this porch stands a little to the south of the line of the great Wall, as laid down by him, he conceives that this traditionary wall must have been the east wall of the station, and draws it upon his plan accordingly.[^[60]] The western wall now only remained to be determined, and this point was easily settled, by supposing the station to have been square. According to the line assigned by him to the Vallum, six chains is the distance which would intervene between it and the Wall; he therefore places the western rampart of the station at the corresponding distance of six chains from the eastern, and encloses altogether an area of little more than three acres.