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Category: Hadrian’s Wall Walk

November 13, 2023

northernvicar October 2023

I started October with a Curator tour of the Wartime history of the English Heritge house at Belsay. The house was requisitioned at the start of WW2. The then owner, Stephen Middleton, kept a close eye on it, and there are piles of letters of complaint he wrote to the army. At one point he covered everything with coconut matting – you can still see the marks. There are various signs of wartime – names on doors, a loo door which says “night time use only”, graffiti and items found under the floorboard. Julie has been busy stewarding at...
Categories Hadrian's Wall Walk/Personal/Railway History Comments: 2
May 27, 2022

Hadrian’s Wall Exploration – Animated altars

Before we moved south I walked the Wall and explored various other sites – click on the category of “Hadrian’s Wall Walk” on the right of the screen to find them all. In January 2022 we were on one of our regular trups north, and visited the Great North Museum in Newcastle again. It is a funny place, such a mix of stuff – local, anthropological and the Wall gallery. What I really wanted to see was the art exhibition involving projection onto seven of the altars. It was a stunning light show – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=558FKNwxUGQ. We watched it three...
Categories Hadrian's Wall Walk/Newcastle upon Tyne Comments: 2
June 25, 2018

Northernvicar walks – a Corbridge circle, 16 May 2018

I had a day to myself, so drove across to Corbridge and parked in the village car park. I had picked up a leaflet for a 10 mile walk up to the Wall and back – a Corbridge Heritage Trail. I crossed the Tyne, went up through the village, past a North Eastern Railway bench. I went and explored some fascinating bottle kilns, part of Walker’s Pottery, which operated through the C19, through until 1910. The kilns are approximately 14 metres high and 10 metres in diameter at their base, although tapering to a narrow hole of 2 metres diameter...
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Hadrian's Wall Walk/Northumberland/Roman Britain Comments: 0
July 16, 2016

Hadrian’s Wall Exploration 16 – Corbridge Bridge Abutment

My final Wall Exploration was on the evening of Wednesday 8 June. I need to visit the Roman Army Museum on the Wall, which is run by the Vindolanda Trust and has a good cafe and excellent aerial view film. I need to visit the fort at South Shields, and it would be a good idea to blog Jarrow. Further south, the Roman fort at Binchester and Saxon church at Escomb never got the Northernvicar touch. Further north I could walk the Antonine Wall. (Did I mention I walked Hadrian’s Wall?) An evening walk of 2½ miles beside the...
Categories Hadrian's Wall Walk/Northumberland Comments: 0
July 16, 2016

Hadrian’s Wall Exploration 15 – Corbridge Museum and Store

On Thursday 12 May 2016, English Heritage were offering “hands on” Romans exploration at Corbridge as part of the “Museums by Night” season. My evening photos on the last blog were taken before it started. When I booked, and you phone a national number, I checked there was disabled access – when we got there, there wasn’t. Rather annoying. The hands-on session was led by the lass who is Curator and she was very good. She showed us, and usually let us handle, a variety of things. The two right hand photos are of the remains of a small statue...
Categories Hadrian's Wall Walk/Northumberland Comment: 1
July 16, 2016

Hadrian’s Wall Exploration 14 – Corbridge

I have already blogged the village and the church, now let’s have the Roman site, the stores and the Bridge Abutment. This might take a while, and I’ll do three blogs! It is an English Heritage site – website. There’s a good audio guide which I much enjoyed.   I have always known Corbridge as “Corstopitum”, but it is now thought its Roman name was Coria. This means “hosting place”, so it may well have been a meeting place for the peoples of the Tyne Valley before the Romans – archaeologists have found a pre-Roman building under the current...
Categories Hadrian's Wall Walk/Northumberland Comments: 0
July 15, 2016

Hadrian’s Wall Exploration 13 – Vindolanda

Vindolanda is a very special place. All this blog can do is to give a flavour of it. If you haven’t visited, why not? Their website is here. The main entrance is at the west of the site, car park and welcome centre, with a lovely fountain. From here it is a flatish walk to the main remains. More on them in a moment. Those of us with a wheelchair usually go to the other end, the eastern end. The shop, café and museum are easily accessible, and you can easily get through to the gardens with various reconstructions....
Categories Hadrian's Wall Walk/Northumberland/Personal Comment: 1
July 15, 2016

Hadrian’s Wall Exploration 12 – The Wall in western Newcastle

When walking the Hadrian’s Wall National Trail (did I mention I have walked the Wall?) you leave the line of the Wall at Heddon and head to Wallsend along the River. The Wall did not go that way. You can still see some remains along the West Road and I took these photos back in 2011 when dad came and visited. From west to east, little has been found in Throckley. Gareth’s house was just south of the Wall – on the many occasions during the Scottish Referendum debate when commentators talked about “rebuilding Hadrian’s Wall” we were glad...
Categories Hadrian's Wall Walk/Newcastle upon Tyne Comments: 2
July 15, 2016

Hadrian’s Wall Exploration 11 – Birdoswald

Before I start blogging Derbyshire, I really ought to finish my Hadrian’s Wall explorations. It is one thing to have walked the Wall (did I mention I walked it?), but I would like to use the pictures of the various sites. Birdoswald is over in the west, in Cumbria at NY616664 – English Heritage, website. They had what sounded like a wonderful kite flying Festival here early in 2016. A welcoming café, a holiday cottage you can hire (I like the idea of waking up in the middle of a fort), and a nice little museum. They have built...
Categories Cumbria/Hadrian's Wall Walk Comments: 2
July 15, 2016

Hadrian’s Wall Exploration 10 – Housesteads

Although I ended a walk at Housesteads and started a walk at Housesteads, I did not manage to find time for a proper walk round the fort and the museum. Here are some old photos, some taken on a visit with Gareth in 2013. It is an English Heritage managed site and National Trust members get in free as well. As I am a Life Member of both EH and NT I think they should pay me to visit. It should be noted that it is a steep uphill walk from the car park, which is on the Military...
Categories Hadrian's Wall Walk/National Trust/Northumberland Comments: 0