England -- Antiquities, Roman; Hadrian's Wall (England); Walls, Roman -- England
Hadrian's Wall was found to join the main road a little to the east
of the Vicarage, from which point the road is laid partly on the
Wall's {vii} foundations, and partly on its berm, up to the junction
of Wall and fort.
A site known as Old Castle, about 200 yards eastward from the fort,
marks the position of the mediæval castle of Sir Hugh de Morville,
built, no doubt, of stones from the Wall and fort. The remains of a
small Roman bridge, which carried the Military Way over the Powburgh
Beck, are to be seen some 300 yards east of the Old Castle.
At Rudchester, Mr. Parker Brewis, F.S.A., has directed excavations of
the fort of Vindobala. It was found to be similar in plan to
Cilurnum, lying across the Wall, and with six gates. Three out of
the five chambers of the headquarters buildings were uncovered,
including the Chapel of the Standards with the treasury beneath; and
there was also found the largest granary yet known in the north of
England.
Both portals of the double west gate, and also the west portal of the
south gate, were found to have been built up as early as the middle
of the second century.
The Excavation Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of
Newcastle-on-Tyne, appointed in February 1924, has been enlarged into
"The North of England Excavation Committee," which hopes to open up
other sites on the Wall during 1925, with Mr. Parker Brewis still as
Director. A detailed {viii} report of the work at Rudchester will
shortly be published.
Below Birdoswald, Dr. R. C. Shaw, of Manchester University, is, as I
write, completing the excavation of the bridge over the Irthing,
referred to on page 163. No trace has been discovered of any western
abutment, and it has therefore presumably been washed away by the
strong current of the river; but on the eastern side a whole series
of abutments has been uncovered. The course of the river is now much
farther west than it was in Roman times, and it was evidently
necessary in their day to rebuild the abutments farther and farther
west as the river receded in that direction.
The remains of these abutments are most impressive, and Hadrian's
Wall has been found standing up to nine courses of stones.
The stages of the work appear to be as follows:
I. A very interesting feature, and one likely to give rise to much
discussion, is the discovery of a 10-foot thick wall, of earlier date
than the Great Wall, and ending in an abutment which is also 10 feet
thick. The bridge starting from this abutment could only have been
wide enough to carry the rampart-walk. Farther inland this wall has
been found to a height of one or two courses of stone above the
foundations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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