Northumberland Yesterday and To-dayTerry, Jean F. (Jean Finlay)
History
Northumberland Yesterday and To-day
Terry, Jean F. (Jean Finlay)
Northumberland (England) -- Guidebooks; Northumberland (England) -- History
The Roman road called the Stanegate runs westward from the North
Tyne at Cilurnum, a little to the north of Fourstones railway
station, through Newbrough, on past Grindon Hill, Grindon Lough,
which it passes on the south, and Grindon Dykes, to Vindolana
(Chesterholm) another Roman town, which lies a mile due south from
Hot Bank farmhouse on the Wall. Vindolana stood on a most
favourable site, a high platform protected on three sides, and it
covered three and a half acres of ground. Here no excavations have
yet been made, and the site is grass grown and desolate although
the outlines of the station may be distinctly traced. A ruinous
building to the west of this station was popularly called the
Fairies’ Kitchen, a name given to it on account of the marks of
fire and soot on the pillars. From the station several inscribed
stones and altars have been taken to the museum at Chesters. One of
them is dedicated to the Genius of the Camp by Pituanius Secundus,
the Prefect of the fourth Cohort of the Gauls, which cohort, as we
have already seen by the _Votitia_, was stationed here. In the
valley below Vindolana a little cottage is standing. It is built
entirely of Roman stones, and was erected by an enthusiastic
antiquary, Mr. Anthony Hedley, for himself. Many of the stones used
in its construction have inscriptions on them; and in the covered
passage, leading from the cottage down to the burn, we come upon
one of them inscribed with the name of our old friend the XXth
Legion, and its crest, the running boar. The most interesting relic
of all in the neighbourhood is a Roman mile-stone, standing in its
original position on the Stanegate.
Leaving Vindolana, this road goes on westward to Magna, where it
joins the Maiden Way, another important Roman road, which runs from
north to south. Coming from the neighbourhood of Bewcastle Fells,
it enters Northumberland at Gilsland, and leading eastward as far
as Magna, then turns directly southward past Greenhead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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