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In Great Britain the time is 15:23
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Tuesday 07 Sep
2010
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HADRIAN'S WALL
HADRIAN'S Wall marked the lonely frontier on the far north of a great empire. The idea was simple and grand - a barrier flung straight across northern Britain from sea to sea. The Roman world had seen nothing like it before and it cost a bomb nearly 2,000 years ago.
And it's still here - the top Roman monument north of the Alps! Now it's a World Heritage Site, ranking with the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Wall of China.
The bloke who had the bright idea was Publius Aelius Hadrianus. As emperors go, Hadrian was a nice guy. He gave to the poor, was kind to slaves, loved his wife as well as his boyfriend and was merry and matey when you met him in the public baths. And he liked building. The emperor before him, Trajan, had carried on the Roman tradition of tacking new bits on to the empire, but Hadrian decided to stop going for growth and set off on a tour of the property to draw the line on what he'd got.
On the continent Hadrian fixed boundaries using natural features like rivers. When he arrived in Britain in 122 AD he decided not to keep battering the Caledonians just to owning all that Highland scenery. He drew another line 80 Roman miles long (75 modern miles or 120 kilometres) from the River Tyne in the east (modern Newcastle upon Tyne) to the Solway Firth (west of modern Carlisle), and ordered: "Build a wall."
Hadrian swanned off elsewhere and left the legions to get on with it. They had surveyors, engineers, smiths, masons and carpenters - everything they needed except JCBs. When they finished eight years later, the legionaries went back to barracks for a hot bath and left it to auxiliary regiments from all over the Roman world to man it.
The Wall was just one of several features of a Roman military zone. No local Celts would blunder through it unawares in the dark while out rustling their neighbour's shorthorns. And if they wanted to pass through on legitimate business, they had to ask nicely.
The zone looked like this: Running along south of the Wall was the big ditch with a mound each side known as the vallum. North of that was a road 20ft wide. Next came the Wall, a daunting 15-20ft high. Every Roman mile (a bit shorter than ours) was a miniature fort guarding a gateway. In between each of these milecastles were two smaller turrets, just for keeping an eye on things. On the north side of the wall was a defensive ditch to slow down belligerent barbarians. And every six or seven miles (11km) along the wall was a full-size fort.
The Wall wasn't for defence. Roman soldiers didn't defend walls and forts. They got out in the fresh air, bashed the other bloke's nose with a big shield and, while his eyes were watering, stuck a short sword in his breakfast. The Wall was for control. It was like a collar on Britain's neck.
For much of its 250 years as a frontier, life on the Wall was peaceful. Soldiers wrote home asking for socks. Officers' wives organised birthday parties. Racist NCOs sneered and sniggered at the "little Britties". But soon after 400 AD the Romans drifted away. Nothing personal, but there were big problems nearer home.
By the Middle Ages farmers were turning up with ox-carts and strong lads to lug the Wall away by the ton. So were bishops and abbots. Nowadays there's as much Wall off the Wall as on it, because its nicely cut stone was dead handy for building farmhouses, barns, walls and churches.
By the eighth century people like the early English historian-monk, the Venerable Bede, were proud of their ancient monument, but it was a few centuries before antiquarians began studying it.
Hero of the Wall was lawyer and scholar John Clayton (1792-1890). He bought land to save stretches of Wall from more daylight robbery and holds the record for owning Roman forts -- five of them.
John Collingwood Bruce, a Newcastle headmaster, became a leading authority on the Wall and aroused interest in it among fellow antiquarians, who've been busy digging holes along it ever since.
More recently Kevin Costner, starring in "Robin Hood - Prince Of Thieves", amazed local cinemagoers by hastening from Dover to Nottingham Forest via the Wall, a mere 320 miles out of his way. Most frequently asked question along the Wall is: "Where did they film K. Costner?" Answer: "Sycamore Gap, near Steel Crag."
Much of the Wall has vanished under Newcastle, under the 18th century Military Road or under the plough, but there's still lots to see. The most dramatic and best-preserved bit is between Chollerford and Greenhead. This is where to get your boots on and march in the steps of the Romans through great scenery, following the Wall over crags, with loughs (lakes) and rivers shining below and views over pasture and forest under big skies.
There are remains of forts, milecastles, turrets, bridges, earthworks and Wall to explore. At Housesteads Fort there's also a multi-hole lavatory for legionaries, where they made a sociable start to the day. And keep your eye open for carved phalluses. Romans used to put these good luck symbols on house walls and even on kids' jewellery to ward off the evil eye. There are three at Chesters Fort and two on the Wall between Birdoswald Fort and the River Irthing.
Major museums at Carlisle and Newcastle have finds from the Wall on display and the story of Hadrian's Wall keeps growing as archaeologists squelch around in muddy holes, leaving no stones unturned and putting more bits of the jigsaw in place. Wet, boggy ground has often pickled Roman items made of leather, fabric and wood, including notes written on wooden tablets which have given a glimpse of the real people who lived along the Wall in its heyday.
Who knows what new finds will shine a light into the Wall's dark corners? There's more to tell each year.
THIS account of Hadrian's Wall has been drawn from A Whizz Along The Wall, a lively guide which tells the story of the monument and answers such questions as: Why was Hadrian the barber's demon? Who was Wanda's man on the Wall? Who nicked this Wall? Who's who on the Wall?
A Whizz Along The Wall, by Denis Inch, illustrated by Paul Taylor, and published by Whoosh! Books, adds fun to the facts and is available from sites and information centres along the Wall, price £2.95. ISBN 0-9538252-0-5.
e-mail: denis.inch@mcr1.poptel.org.uk or denis.inch@whooshbooks.com
© Denis Inch
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