Wall Mile 4

Wall Mile 4 [HB 150–1]

Walking westwards from the Arts Centre, we pass through the line of the medieval city walls (still visible to our right, eradicated to the left). Redevelopment here uncovered traces of the medieval city ditch but also of hadrian’s Wall, which the property frontages have dutifully been following. This was the location of the West Gate (hence the name of the road) and the beginning of the 18th-century Military Road, of which more later.

Westgate Road on the line of the Wall ditch

Next we arrive at a rather impressive obstacle, in the form of the ceremonial way known as St James’ Boulevard, which leads to the magisterial heart of Newcastle (now called St James again after a brief flirtation with something dully commercial), a temple to sport that has been allowed to break all planning good taste and sit on the horizon in exactly the way ugly sports stadia shouldn’t. Ignore it and press on.

We cross this rather imposing road very carefully (it takes patience as the timings of the pedestrian crossings naturally do not favour pedestrians) and head up Westgate Road, past the motorbike shops and greasy spoon cafes. We are making for the Big Lamp junction, the supposed site of Milecastle 5.

Milecastle 5 (Quarry House) [HB 151; haiku]

One of the consequences of the discovery of Milecastle 4 was to render the next few milecastle locations uncertain. The site of Milecastle 5 has yet to be found but Horsley ‘thought there were some visible remains of a Castellum [milecastle], just behind the quarry house’ near the junction of Westgate Road and Elswick Road, but this would make it much too close to Milecastle 4. The best we can do is assume a perplexed expression and press on.

Hadrian’s Wall inscriptions (Newcastle to Benwell)

Introduction

The inscriptions come from four disparate locations, three of them close to the line of the Wall, one 6km to the north (but assumed to come from the Wall).

Inventory

RIB 1323: coh(ors) I Th/racum (‘First Cohort of Thracians (built this)’). Building stone found 1864 in Clavering Place. Source: RIB II p.438

RIB 1324: coh(ors) VII / […] (‘Seventh Cohort …’). Building stone found 1826 in North Gosforth Chapel. Source: RIB II p.438

RIB 1325: …II O / F[E]IIIIOI (‘?’). Found 1932 Express Hotel outbuilding. Source: RIB II p.438

RIB 1326: VIII (‘8’). Building stone found 1890 at Rye Hill. Source: RIB II p.438

Analysis

RIB 1323 comes from close to the likely line of the Vallum; elsewhere, building stones recording work by auxiliaries have been associated with that component of the Wall system. RIB 1324 has travelled some way in order to be built into the medieval chapel in Gosforth. Although there is no guarantee it comes from the Wall, there are few other convenient sources in the area. RIB 1325 is now lost but on the line of the curtain wall, whilst the enigmatic RIB 1326 again comes from close to the Vallum.

The Milecastle Haiku (Week 1)

The idea for a milecastle haiku (just one, initially) came in 2011, whilst walking the Wall from west to east with a group from Andante Travels. I make it a regular treat to stop off at Vallum Farm ice cream parlour and, in conversation, for some reason the subject of writing a haiku about it came up as we reached Matfen Piers, the site of Milecastle 19. I set to seeing if I could do it and, by the time we had reached the location of Milecastle 18 (at Vallum Farm), I was amazed to find I had made a passable stab at it. Later, as I was deciding how to follow on from my initial tweeting and blogging of a west to east Wall walk, one of the many ideas I came up with was writing haiku for each of the milecastles, this time going east to west. I am no poet (prose is my weapon of choice) but the idea intrigued me enough to lodge firmly in one of the less dusty corners of my brain. Each, I felt, should hint at the account already blogged, but each would also tie in with a further project I am currently working on which, when put together, will produce something rather special. The blog will be posted in a sort of omnibus edition once a week, containing the past seven haiku and at the end of it all will conclude with a competition, so pay careful attention. The prize is undecided as yet, but you will be relieved to know it will probably not be a book of my awful haiku!

Milecastle 0

Mystery Zero.
Autumnal mist shrouds the Tyne’s
Paddling milecastle.

Milecastle 1

Stott’s Pow‘s easterly
Wind scours across deserted
Frontier soccer pitch.

Milecastle 2

Walker was moved from
A pub to a greyhound track.
Empty road. Snow soon.

Milecastle 3

We glimpse a priest here.
Sketched in haste, hazy Ouseburn
Above its valley.

Milecastle 4

Found by a potter,
Westgate Road (not where it should
Be) hides artfully.

Milecastle 5

Quarry House, Big Lamp:
A junction above a hill;
Leafless bikers’ grove.

Milecastle 6

Old windmill long gone,
Benwell Grove, concealed by shops,
Neither found nor glimpsed.

Wall Mile 4

Wall Mile 4 [HB 150–1]

We cross the road patiently (the little green men on the crossing seldom synchronise) and plunge down Westgate Road, past the bike shops and ‘greasy spoons’ before we arrive at the ceremonial way known as St James’ Boulevard leading to the magisterial heart of Newcastle (which was briefly no longer called St James, changed to something dully commercial, but is now thankfully back to its proper name), a temple to sport that has been allowed to break all planning good taste and sit on the horizon in exactly the way ugly sports stadia shouldn’t. Ignore it and press on.

Westgate Road, on the line of the Wall ditch

When this road was punched through and the old porn cinema demolished they found traces of the medieval city ditch but also of the Wall itself, which the property frontages have dutifully been following. Finally, and rather unexpectedly (you’ll see why in a moment), we reach the site of Milecastle 4 (Westgate Road), although the astute will note a slight adjustment in line just before we do.

Milecastle 4 (Westgate Road) [HB 150; haiku]

The site of Milecastle 4

Scholarly calculations had long been baffled by the location of this (as it turns out) long-axis milecastle, not least because of the uncertainties we are about to encounter over the course of Wall Mile 3. In 1985, its discovery in the backyard of the Newcastle Arts Centre during the digging of a drain led to Milecastles 5 and 6 being shuffled along a bit from their old hypothetical locations to new hypothetical locations, and all was better. Its position is marked in the Black Swan Yard behind the Arts Centre.