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
Of these stations, with their officers and troops, only those as
far as Magna are in Northumberland; the rest continue the chain of
defences across Cumberland to the Solway Firth. Besides these
stations, there were _castella_ at the distance of every Roman mile
(seven furlongs) along the Wall, from which circumstance they are
known as “mile-castles.” They provided accommodation for the troops
necessary between the stations, which were at some distance from
each other; and between each two _castella_ there were also erected
two turrets, so that communication from one end of the Wall to the
other was speedy and certain.
All traces of the station of Segedunum (Wallsend) have long since
disappeared; the Wall from there, beginning actually in the bed of
the river, ran almost parallel with the N.E.R. Tynemouth Branch, a
little to the south of it, and climbing the hill to Byker, went
down the slope to the Ouseburn parallel with Shields Road, crossing
the burn just a little to the south of Byker Bridge. From there its
course has been traced to Red Barns, where St. Dominic’s now
stands, to the Sallyport Gate, and over the Wall Knoll to Pilgrim
Street; thence to the west door of the Cathedral, and on past St.
John’s Church, up Westgate Road.
The station at Pons AElii, it is generally agreed, occupied the
ground between the Cathedral church of St. Nicholas and the
premises of the Lit. and Phil. Society. Following the Wall up
Westgate Road, we are now out upon the highway from Newcastle to
Carlisle, which, as we have seen, is upon the very line of the Wall
for nearly a score of miles. At Condercum (Benwell) the next
station, garrisoned by a cavalry corps of Asturians from Spain, a
small temple was uncovered in the course of excavating, and two
altars found still standing in their original position. Both of
these were to a deity unknown elsewhere, given as Antenociticus on
one, and as Anociticus on the other. The former was erected by a
centurion of the Twentieth Legion, the Valerian and Victorious,
whose crest, the running boar, we shall meet with more than once in
our journey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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