Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ROMAN WALL

ROMAN WALL, an ancient bulwark in Northumberland and Cumberland; from Wallsend on the river Tyne, 73½ miles westward, to Bowness on the Solway frith. It was constructed either by Hadrian in 120, or by Severusin 197. It consists of three parts, first, a stone-wall, with a ditch on its N side; second, a turf wall or vallum, to the S of the stone wall; third, stations, castles, watch-towers, and roads, chiefly between the stone wall and thevallum. The works proceed from E to W in nearly adirect line; they follow, for the most part, the naturalconfiguration of the country, with only such deviationsas give them positions of strength; and they rise, inmany places, to altitudes of from 400 to 1,000 feet above sea-level. The stone wall and the vallum are generallywithin from 180 to 240 feet of each other; but they mutually recede or approach, in many places, according to the contour of the country; and they approach, in oneplace, to within 90 feet of each other, and recede, inanother place, to a distance of ½ a mile. The stone wallvaries in thickness from 6 feet to 9½; is thought to have been at least 12 feet high; was built of large blocks, narrowed at one end, and cemented together with mortar; and had so rude a construction as to indicate that thenative Britons were employed by the Romans in formingit. Very long reaches of it are now entirely extinct; and only small portions, chiefly in the central hill region, exist to show what it was. The ditch on the N side of thewall was broad and deep; clung closely to it along eventhe most difficult pieces of ground; added greatly to itsstrength and to its comparative height; and, with triflinginterruptions, even in the reaches where the stone wallis quite extinct, can still be traced all the way from Wallsend to Bowness. The vallum falls short of thestone wall by about 3 miles at each end, terminating at Newcastle on the E and at Drumburgh on the W; itconsists of three ramparts and a fosse, one of the ramparts close to the S edge of the fosse, the other ramparts, of larger dimensions, the one to the N, the otherto the S, at the distance of about 24 feet; and it still, inmany places, not only is very distinctly traceable, butlifts its ramparts 6 or 7 feet above the level of the neighbouring ground. The stations occur at an average distance of nearly 4 miles along the wall's line; had a permanent character, contradistinguished from camps of atemporary kind; were military towns, suited to the residence of military chiefs and of bodies of soldiery; seem, in some instances, though connected with the wall, to have been built before it; were of a quadrangular form, rounded at the corners; comprised, in most instances, anarea of from 3 to 5 acres; were situated in places wherean abundant supply of water could be obtained; had narrow streets, intersecting one another at right angles; and were enclosed with a stone wall about 5 feet thick, strengthened probably in every case by a fosse, and insome cases also by an exterior earthen rampart. The castlesstood at distances from one another of about a Romanmile; were quadrangular buildings, mostly about 60 feetfrom E to W, and about 50 from N to S; appear to have been all built about the same time as the stone wall; and were placed immediately within it, so as to have thewall's structure for their own N side. The watch-towersstood, to the number of four, between each pair of thecastles; and seem to have been little more than stonesentry-boxes. A military way, about 20 feet wide, runswithin the wall, from castle to castle, and from stationto station; does not follow exactly the line of the wall, but takes the easiest course from point to point; and isnow, over much of its length, identical with the militaryroad formed, in last century, by General Wade, to facilitatecommunication between Newcastle and Carlisle. Anotherroad ran to the S of the vallum; and, at certain reaches of curvature in the wall's course, gave direct communication from point to point. Some of the stations have beenalmost or entirely effaced.; but others have left distincttraces or interesting remains; and that of Borcovicus, at Housesteads, 5½ miles N E of Haltwhistle, retains much of its original masonry, and exhibits one of the most interesting groups of Roman remains in England. Multitudes of interesting Roman relics, of all kinds, have been found at the stations and other parts of the wall; and arepreserved in public and private museums. A full account of the entire work, and of its relics, is given in Dr. Bruce's" Roman Wall."


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "an ancient bulwark"   (ADL Feature Type: "historical sites")
Administrative units: Cumberland AncC       Northumberland AncC

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