Pastscape - Detailed Result: LANCHESTER ROMAN FORT

Pastscape - Detailed Result: LANCHESTER ROMAN FORT

This is a link to the fort which I am currently researching for my MA Dissertation. It lies on the line of Dere Street which was a supply line to the Roman army in the North. I'm really impressed to see how much information has been added since the last time I was on the Pastscape site. Good work - many thanks to whoever added all of this!

CHESTERS (Part 3) Other points of interest

This is a fabulous example of a Roman fort strongroom, where the weapons and treasure of the army unit would have been kept inside the headquarters building (principia). Roman forts are basically playing-card shaped: although the size and layout varied in Britain as well as in the Empire as a whole, there were some basic similarities throughout. There were generally four entrances at the sides when the fort was built, though entrances may have been blocked up later on. The principia is very easy to identify, as it lay at the centre of the fort with its entrance facing North; this entrance would be at the end of the street which ran in a straight line from the North Gate. The strong-room, as you can see, is partly sunken and was reached by a short flight of steps from the regimental chapel where the statues, altars and standards of the regiment were kept. Roman remains have the tendency to bring out the 10-year old in everyone: don't you just LOVE flights of steps going underground like this? Even when they don't really go anywhere!

CHESTERS (Part 2): Bathhouse

One of the most interesting features of the Chesters site is the bathouse, built on the river bank. In the picture on the left you can see this nicely intact set of seven niches in the apoditerium (changing-room). As the English Heritage guide-book says, the niches are more likely to have held statues than bather's clothing, but nevertheless you get a feeling of the room's purpose from their presence. I confess I'm not sure what the stone trough in the foreground left is, as these pictures were taken a year ago, but I will update this page the next time I visit the site.

The bathhouse was rebuilt several times during its lifetime and is one of the best-preserved in Britain. Other points of interest are an almost intact D-shaped basin in one of the caldaria (hot rooms) and a well-preserved stoke-hole at the back of the building (see central top picture, with the person - me! - being used to show the scale). You can also see the remains of the latrines (am I alone in finding Roman sanitary arrangements rather fascinating?) and the outline of the cold plunge bath in the frigidarium (cold room).

Our Roman bathers at Chesters would have enjoyed the view across the river which you can see above in the right-hand picture, but I imagine it would have looked less wild than today. Environmental archaeologists have shown that the Romans cut down a lot of trees in the Wall zone - they needed the wood for their endless fort-building, and for many other purposes. Besides, you would not have wanted to give a bunch of barbarians the opportunity to sneak up in the trees across the river, from where they could easily swim across at night and attack you in your bath. Commanding views were the order of the day (if you'll pardon the pun).

CHESTERS (Cilurnum)

Whatever you do, if you're coming to see the Wall, don't miss this one! Set in the grounds of a private house with typical English parkland is a very impressive set of fort remains. In other words, like many Wall forts, the land is privately owned - but unlike, for example, Lanchester, this is a beautifully restored and well-kept site - and it is open to the public. For aficionados of Roman stone and brickwork, I can promise you that many of the visible remains at Chesters are built with some of the neatest opus quadratum (squared stonework) that I've ever seen on a British Roman fort. Fort brickwork in the North of Britain is apt to be rough - the buildings were erected by soldiers, after all, not the master craftsmen of monumental Roman buildings in Italy and elsewhere - but the stonework at Chesters is very neat. Just look at these gloriously straight lines!

There is a small museum: sadly it's very Victorian in display style and labelling, but it contains some very important finds. No up-to-date catalogue of the Museum is available (you will get a free fold-up leaflet thing with line drawings on it) but if you ask the staff nicely they will show you the original catalogue made in the early 20th century. Last but not least, if you go over to the other side of the river, you can see another British rarity: the remains of a Roman bridge.

Next forts along the Wall: Rudchester (Vindobala) and Haltonchesters (Onnum)

According to my indispensable Wall guide by Guy de la Bedoyere (op.cit.), Rudchester was built as a cavalry fort. You will pretty much have to take his word for this, because there is not a lot to see at this site. The same can apparently be said of the next fort along the Wall at Haltonchesters, which we haven't managed to see yet. Because I'm a completist (i.e. a total anorak when it comes to Roman remains), I have no doubt that we will make another attempt to find it the next time we are up in the Wall area.

I really wish "Time Team" would come and work some of their three-day archaeological miracles on these sadly neglected Wall sites - there are far too many of them about for my liking.

The Vallum

After Heddon-on-the-Wall, there's not a great deal of Wall to be seen. Most of the stone was robbed away over the course of many centuries to make houses, barns, churches and dry stone walls. However, as you speed along the fabulous B6318, which is, of course, a Roman Road, you will notice a great v-shaped gash of a ditch which runs through the fields to your left. This is the Vallum, a huge defensive ditch which runs on the South side of the Wall. You can see its profile in this picture - as an earthwork, it is very impressive. Do not confuse it with the Wall Ditch, which is not quite as deep, and runs along the North side of the Wall (some stretches of the Ditch can be seen along the B6318 in some of the fields to your right).

The Vallum seems to have been added some time after the Wall was built. The fact that it is on the South side of the Wall seems to imply that barbarian attacks (perhaps from disaffected groups of the Brigante tribe) could come from any direction. Crossings were put in across the Vallum to allow access to milecastles and forts, but there is only one remaining example of this, and we haven't seen it yet! (Watch this space...)

Both Ditch and Vallum would have held entanglements to trap unwary attackers, particularly horsemen: the Ancient World equivalent of barbed wire consisted of sharpened poles and twiggy branches - very nasty if you fell onto them. The soldiers on the Wall would have had the perfect opportunity to shoot or spear you as you attempted to escape: not unlike shooting fish in the proverbial barrel.

HEDDON-ON-THE-WALL

Now this is where Hadrian's Wall starts to get really exciting - when it ceases to be urban. This 50 or 60 metre stretch of stonework is in its own peaceful grassy area, and is located just outside the wonderful village of Heddon-on-the-Wall, just off the A69. There is a fabulous view across the north of Newcastle from the car-park behind the Swan pub - more of which above.