-
The Fourteenth Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimageorganised by the Society
of Antiquaries ofNewcastle and the Cumberland and West-moreland
Archaeological Society tookplace in July this year. It now
happensevery 10 years and was originally started byJohn Collingwood
Bruce in 1849. I attendedthe last Pilgrimage in 2009 and was
luckyenough to take part again this year joiningover 200 other
pilgrims with a wide range ofbackgrounds and from a number of
differ-ent countries. It is organised by all the lead-ing experts
on Hadrian’s Wall and theserespected academics and
archaeologiststransform themselves into tourist guidesand health
and safety experts during theweek of the tour.The first part of the
event was based inNewcastle with many visitors stopping atthe
Station Hotel while locals like me com-muted into Newcastle each
day. For me itstarted with pouring rain on the way to New-castle to
register and ended the same on avery wet day at Cawfields on
Hadrian’sWall. During the week we had mainly dry
weather and amazingly we had tropicaltemperatures in South
Shields and Wall-send. In keeping with other pilgrimages
thebeginning and end were marked with formaldinners the first being
in the BanquetingHall in Newcastle Civic Centre and the lastin the
Ballroom of the Crown & Mitre Hotelin Carlisle. The week had a
packed pro-gramme of visits to sites where changeshad taken place
over the preceding tenyears.
On the first day we all piled into fourcoaches each of which had
two expertguides and headed to Brunton Turret and
1
Hadrians’s Wall Pilgrimage 2019
Autumn2019No. 22
-
2
Chesters Fort in the morning. At Chesterswe had the first of
many packed lunchesbeside Clayton’s amazing museum packedto the
rafters with all things Roman. In theafternoon we came back to
Newcastle tovisit wall remains at Denton and Benwelland disturbed a
peaceful residential areawith a mass influx of pilgrims peering at
thefamous Vallum crossing. The day con-cluded with a visit to the
Great North Mu-seum.On the second day, at 9.00 am on aMonday
morning in Newcastle the coachesexperienced problems picking up
200people at the Station Hotel and it led to adelayed start for a
walk from Carrawburghto Black Carts along the Vallum on privateland
not normally open to the public. Thisalso presented a major health
and safetyproblem in crossing the Military Road aswell as having to
climb over a 6 ft. high dry
stone wall. Graham Stobbs provided theanswers by having a
temporary timber stilebuilt to get people over the wall and
afterraiding his model railway kit he came upwith two flags one
green and one red to in-dicate to Bill Griffiths when it was safe
tocross the road. Despite witnessing somedangerous speeding drivers
and Bill havingto physically restrain some of the more de-termined
pilgrims, all made a safe crossingbefore Graham threw the stile
back over thefence to deter any unauthorised trespasson the
co-operative farmers land. We thenwent for a picnic and a visit to
Housesteads.On Tuesday the sun shone on Arbeia Fortand South
Shields Town Hall where theMayor hosted lunch before we all
as-sembled on the steps for the formal photo-graphs of the
pilgrims. The main highlightof the Pilgrimage followed as the
coachespulled into Segedunum Museum to visit theBorderline Funny
cartoon exhibition afterguided tours to the newly discovered
ori-ginal bathhouse and the recently consolid-ated section of
Hadrian’s Wall beside the
reconstructed wall. Most of the pilgrims vis-ited the exhibition
and much laughter washeard and some complained that the visitwas
too short to see all the cartoons.Wednesday was the changeover day
whenpeople moved hotels and I took my suitcasewith me ready for a
few days in a CarlisleHotel. All the buses headed to
Vindolandawhere we stopped all day with members ofthe Ermine Street
Guide on site to welcomeus before having a number of guided
toursaround different parts of the site. We had aHog Roast in the
evening before going onto the hotels.On Thursday we travelled along
the wall toBowness and parked on the Solway shoreand walked onto
the sands and everyonewas disappointed at the total lack of
any-thing to say we were at the start or end ofthe wall unlike at
Wallsend. We then calledat Silloth and got lost trying to find the
publictoilets and then formed one of the longestqueues ever
witnessed in the town! Wedrove along the coast to Maryport
andcaused parking problems both at our lunchstop and at Senhouse
Museum on anothervery hot day with people looking for shadefrom the
sun during tours. We called atSwarthy Hill milefortlet on the way
back and
caused major traffic problems on the mainroad as people
disembarked and GrahamStobbs had to act as traffic controller
again.In the evening we had a visit to Tullie HouseMuseum.
-
3
On Friday we headed east to Banks Turretand Pike Hill Signal
station before we had awalk along the former Turf Wall from
Apple-trees to Birdoswald Fort for tours and lunch.After lunch we
walked east and across theRiver Irving at Willowford Bridge to see
theimpressive remains of the Roman bridge.We then walked on to the
well preservedMilecastle at Poltross Burn at Gilsland.The final
full day of the Pilgrimage was alsothe wettest and luckily involved
a visit insidethe Roman Army Museum to dry out after atour of
Carovan fort by Andrew Birley. Wethen had a wet walk in heavy mist
along partof the dramatic wall as it climbs up anddown the crags
but as pilgrims kept fallingover and we could not see past our
nosesthe walk was eventually abandoned. Wewalked back along a farm
track with a riverrunning down it and I discovered my water-
proof boots weren’t. Back on to the steamycoach to eat our
lunch, after queuing in therain to collect our picnic from caterers
shel-tering under a windswept gazebo. Our lastvisits in the
afternoon were to a temporaryRoman camp then on to the famous
‘silly’Milecastle 42 built on a precipice where sol-diers needed to
climb up a rope to get in themain gate. David Breeze, the Chief
Pilgrimwho was celebrating his 75th Birthday gavethe closing speech
at the dinner that nightand the ‘Borderline Funny’ exhibition
wasreferred to in the speeches and got its ownround of applause.On
Sunday 26th July everyone departedCarlisle with heads spinning from
all the Ro-man facts (or drink from the night before)and looking
forward to 2029 to do it allagain.Ken Hutchinson
The afternoon of Monday September 9th saw some ofthe world’s top
riders and teams who were taking partin the Tour of Britain passing
Segedunum before con-tinuing to Newcastle city centre, with a
spectacular fin-ish on Grey Street. Elected Mayor of North
TynesideNorma Redfearn CBE said: “It was fantastic to see
theprestigious race come to North Tyneside and I was de-lighted to
see so many residents and schoolchildrenline the streets and watch
the riders come through.“This was a wonderful opportunity to
showcase ourwonderful borough to a national audience who maynever
have seen some of the amazing landmarks we boast, including St
Mary’s Lighthouse,Spanish City and Segedunum – to name just a
few.”
Tour of Britain passes Segedunum
Evans on the WallAs featured in our last Newsletter - the café
at Segedunum is now offering ten per discountto Friends on
production of your membership card. They offer a wide range of food
andsnacks using mainly local ingredients. It’s great to have full
café service once again so whynot pop in and give them a try...
Hadrians’s Wall Pilgrimage 2019 ..............1Tour of Britain
passes Segedunum...........3Evans on the Wall
.....................................3Borderline Funny
Review..........................4Meet the
Committee..................................5What is a Cartoon?
...................................5Books to look out for
.................................6Friends of Segedunum
Committee2019/20
.....................................................7
Friends of Segedunum Programme..........8Wallsend Local History
SocietyProgramme
...............................................8Ancient
Kamiros........................................9From the
Fort...........................................10Around the Wall
.......................................11Notes from the Chairman
and CommitteeOctober
2019...........................................12
In this edition
-
4
The last Newsletter announced the start of the Borderline Funny
Exhibition and this onereports on how successful it has been over
the summer.The exhibition finished on 22nd September and has been a
great success. We had a lot ofgood publicity with TV, radio,
newspaper, magazines, facebook, trip advisor and even themetro
advertising it. Segedunum Museum has seen an increase in visitor
numbers with14,567 visitors to the museum as the exhibition was on.
The visitor book for the exhibitioncontains a wealth of
complementary comments on the exhibition.The off the wall
exhibition brought a smile to a lot of people trying to escape from
Brexit andother false news and the exhibition even featured a
certain American President who has aninterest in walls.One of the
biggest positives from the exhibition was the engagement with local
children. Weemployed a Beano Cartoonist to work with a local school
and then with the public duringEaster which led to the production
of scores of children's cartoons. We then invited kids todraw their
own cartoons when visiting the exhibition and this was a great
success and hasled to over 700 cartoons being produced which we
have put in folders as the project pro-gressed.The Beano
cartoonist, Nigel Auchterlounie, was then inspired to produce a
Dennis the Men-ace cartoon strip based on Hadrian's Wall which
appeared in the Beano in July. After con-tacting the Beano they
allowed us to produce a blown up panel of the cartoon strip that
wemounted in the children's area.Before the exhibition ended other
museums were approached to see if they would like todisplay the
cartoons in another exhibition. A number of museums showed an
interest andthe good news is that Vindolanda have agreed to use the
cartoons in a forthcoming exhibi-tion within the next 2 years and
we have packed the panels up in bubble wrap to transportthem to
Vindolanda.Following further discussions with Museum staff at Tyne
and Wear it has been suggestedthat a 'Son of Borderline '
exhibition could be held to exhibit the best children's cartoons
inGallery 3 at Segedunum early next year after the Christmas
closure.Following the closure of the exhibition a celebratory
evening was held at Segedunum on 26thSeptember to thank the
volunteers for all their work and they all kindly searched through
thechildren’s cartoons to select the best for the new exhibition.
We still need a punchy title forthe ‘Son of Borderline’ Exhibition
so put your thinking caps on and let us have your sugges-tions.
During the evening Ken presented the raffle winners with the two
cartoons donated byTony Husband. He deliberately mixed up the two
cartoons to see if anyone would notice(false news) but luckily
someone did! Susan Austin and David Alsymer who are bothFriends of
Segedunum, but had not been involved in the exhibition, had bought
tickets tosupport the museum and got an unexpected bonus.
Susan and David being presented with their cartoons by Friends’
Chairman Ken Hutchinson
Borderline Funny Review
-
5
Meet the CommitteeGlenn has been a resident of Wallsend area for
many yearsinterspersed with periods overseas as well as in other
parts ofthe UK.After leaving Newcastle University, Glenn first
worked in a lawfirm in Barrow in Furness, before moving into
Shipbuilding,later was company solicitor at Parsons, Heaton in the
earlyto mid 90s and in most recent years General Counsel andHead of
Contract Management for the GE’s power / energydivision based in
Switzerland.
Glenn sort of retired in September 2018 and now spends time as
legal andbusiness consultant when not supporting The Friends of
Segedunum and Chairing theMyWallsendTown Community Group etc.He
spends his time between North East and South East where most of the
family reside.An avid follower of the non-league football scene,
the arts community and when feelinghalf fit trudging the hills. Oh
and then there is real Ale......
What is a cartoon? It is a drawing showing the features of its
subjects in a humorouslyexaggerated way, especially a satirical one
in a newspaper or magazine. This summer sawthe successful execution
of the Borderline Funny Exhibition at Segedunum Fort in
Wallsend.Contributions came from Private Eye, Viz, the Beano and
many others. With hindsight itmight have been a good idea to record
the chuckling and laughing voices of the hundredsof people who came
to see it.‘The gift that keeps on giving’ is how Beth Adams
describes Hadrian’s Wall in one of the twovideos that ran
throughout the exhibition. ‘Walls are having a bit of a moment –
thanks toTrump’ was another of her pertinent remarks as well as
‘Hadrian was living Trump’s dream.’This lively and quirky video
brought a contemporary view of Hadrian’s Wall to visitors.The
variety of visitors was impressive – from young children to elderIy
and I was proud toencourage my family and friends to visit the
exhibition. Many travelled from far and near –from Australia and
from around the corner in Wallsend. Hundreds of cartoons were
carriedout by children (and adults) in the section provided for
them and a follow up exhibition ofselected ones will be on display
in the near future.It was my pleasure to be a volunteer for the
exhibition and I enjoyed interacting with visitorsas well as
overhearing their comments and chuckles. Segedunum is a special
museum withspecial staff – Liz and Daniel always made me feel
welcome. Being a Friend offers manyopportunities at many levels.
This has certainly been a enjoyable and successful projectand I am
sure that Hadrian and his soldiers would have been very proud of
both its contentand presentation.Marie Rice
What is a Cartoon?
-
6
Books to look out for“Wallsend at Work” Ken HutchinsonAnother
work from our prolific chairman has recently beenpublished. It is a
well researched study of the town’s work andindustries ranging from
the 2nd to the 21st century and is ap-propriately dedicated to
“everyone who has worked in Wall-send”.It is a slim volume of just
under 100 pages but it iscomprehensive and very readable. I read it
through in a singlesession. I found the first two chapters on the
2nd to 5th Cen-turies and the 6th to 11th Centuries particularly
interesting asalthough I am fairly knowledgeable about the Roman
periodthere were several gaps in my knowledge of the other
periodswhich the book has filled. And it is not just the text - the
pho-tographs illustrating each period are well chosen for their
clar-ity and interest.Good use is made of photographs ofSegedunum
and Arbeia sites to illustrate the Chapter onSecond to Fifth
Centuries and I particularly liked the advert-isements for “Monitor
Safety Devices” and “Parsons Tur-bines” in the chapter on the 20th
Century. Looking forward to the next one Ken!
“Tyne Anew Celebrating Public Art in North Tyneside”Peter Dixon
and Keith Armstrong
Friends who were involved in curating the BorderlineFunny
exhibition will know Peter from the excellentwork he did in
maintaining the database of cartoonsand generally helping with the
curation of the exhibi-tion. This is also a short volume of around
60 pagesbut it is a fascinating study of the vast amount of pub-lic
art in the Borough commissioned by both publicand private
organisations. Some pieces are wellknown such as our own “Sentius
Tectonicus” but oth-ers such as “the Dudes” and “Total Policing”
may beless so. It was interesting to read the words inside“Total
Policing” which are not easily seen as you rushpast it. But what
makes this book really interesting isthat the authors have included
poems which relate toeach piece of public art.The poems are all by
localpoets and relate well to text and descriptions. So youget
great photographs, informative text and local po-etry. And at a
very reasonable price.
“The Northumbrians North-East England and its People” Dan
JacksonIf you were fortunate enough to hear Dan’s excellent talk in
September last year you willwant to buy this great book. Dan was
commissioned to write it in 2016/7 and it was publishedon 26th
September 2019 by C Hurst & Co at RRP of £20. It is available
on Amazon and wasimmediately marked there as a Best Seller. And
with good reason.I bought my copy as soon as it was published and
so far I have read half of the book so thisis the first part of the
review and I hope to have read it all by the time of our first 2020
News-letter.The work is concerned about the distinct identity of
the people living in Northumberland andDurham, an area stretching
from the Tees to the Tweed, and the factors which influence
thatidentity. Although the treatment is generally chronological it
is not merely a list of events andbattles but instead is divided
into several themes starting with “Understanding the Northum-
-
7
brians” and ending with “Upon a Bleak Northumbrian Moor”The
style is relaxed and easy to read however if you wish topursue any
issue further there are footnotes to help withyour research.I
particularly enjoyed the chapter on “The Northumbrian
En-lightenment”. This opens with a paragraph on J.M.W.Turner’s
famous 1838 painting “The Fighting Temeraire” butthe author
concentrates on a little known but significant as-pect of the
painting which “came to symbolise the eclipse ofthe age of sail and
the coming world of iron and steel”. Thepaddle tug “Monarch” towing
the “Temeraire” to the breakersyard, was built on the Tyne at South
Shields. The tug beingpowered by steam and “Temeraire” powered by
sail. Thischapter covers a number of innovations in UK science
andtechnology many of which are well known to us such as thesteam
turbine which powered “Turbinia” but others whichare not. The
author also reminds us that there was a thriving intellectual
environment asillustrated by the founding of the Literary and
Philosophical Society in Newcastle in1793 withsimilar institutions
formed in North Shields and Seaham and Sunderland’s “Athenaeum”.The
next chapter has the intriguing title “The Sparta of the North” and
relates to the author’sstatement “If Edinburgh is the Athens of the
North, then Newcastle is the North’s Corinth, orbetter still its
Sparta.” We are now considering Northern architecture.. A fair
proportion of thechapter, nearly 9 pages, deals with North Shields
and its environs. I began this review bymentioning Dan’s talk to
the Friends last year and you can find a more detailed treatment
ofthis subject in this chapter in the sections “Deepest Tyneside”,
“Geordie Shore”, “WhitleyBay and “Oh, Delaval is a Terrible
Place”.So having read half way through the book I must close this
Review and recommend you tobuy the book as I have hopefully
stimulated your interest in what is the first new history ofour
area for some time. Part 2 of the Review will appear in the next
Newsletter.Mike Halsey
Friends of Segedunum Committee 2019/20Chairman: Ken
HutchinsonVice-chair: Mike HalseySecretary: Liz Liddle
([email protected])Treasurer: Liz
LiddleNewsletter Editor: John Fleet
([email protected])Membership Secretary: Liz
ShawOther Officers: Phyllis Benoist, Anne Baxter, Shirley
Mortimer,
Glenn Duffy, Jean CleatheroTWAM Representatives: Geoff Woodward;
Trevor WilsonNTC Representative: Cllr Andy Newman
Anyone interested in serving on the committee is welcome to
attend meetings as anobserver. We meet at Segedunum, usually in the
week before a main Saturdaymeeting
-
8
Friends of Segedunum ProgrammeSpeakers at our meeting at
Segedunum in 2019 - 2020
November 23rd Jellicoe of Scapa Prof John DerryJanuary 25th The
Northumbrians Dr Dan JacksonFebruary 29th Working together -
Beamish & its Friends Ian BeanApril 11th AGMMay/June Dates
and subjects tbcJuly 18th Friends summer outing - Coach Trip -
details tbcSeptember 5th Speaker and subject tbcOctober 17th
WallCAP Dr Rob CollinsNovember 28th (tbc) Prof John DerryFollowed
by Christmas LunchAll meeting start at 11 am on the Saturday, with
refreshments available from 10.30 amFree to Friends. Visitors
always welcome - £2 For more information, contact our Secretary–
Liz Liddle
Wallsend Local History Society ProgrammeSpeakers at our meetings
in St Luke’s Church Hall, Frank Street in 2019 - 2020
November 11th A Northumbrian Quiz Geoff HughesDecember 9th The
Top 100 Geordies Anthony Atkinson
January 13th Annual General Meeting & Archives
DisplayFebruary 10th Tynemouth Priory Sophia StovallMarch 9th The
Half Shilling Curate Sarah ReayApril 6th Aircraft Carriers. Malcolm
ByrneMay 11th Glovers Row Ed YoungJune 8th The Swinging Sixties
Freda Thompson.July 9th Edith Cavell Prof John DerryAugust 10th WW2
Memories Brian Robson & Barry Martin
& Archives DisplaySeptember 14th Second Industrial
Revolution Robert Forsyth.October 12th A Trip from Tyne to Tweed
George NairnNovember 9th The Tyne Bridge at 90 J Michael
TaylorDecember 10th Songs and Stories of Christmas Geoff Hughes
Also Christmas Festivities & CelebrationsAll meetings start
at 7.00pm. Followed by Committee meeting.
All Welcome Visitors £2 per meeting
-
9
Friends John Fleet and Vivianne Buller recently visited the site
of Ancient Kamiros (orKameiros) whilst holidaying on the Greek
island of Rhodes.The city is very ancient having been first
established by the Dorian Greeks in the early firstmillennium B.C.
At that time, three city-states controlled the island and its
shipping: Ialysos,(where we stayed - we can recommend the Hotel
Oceanis!) Kameiros and Lindos. Around400 B.C. the three entities
joined to form a single state and built a new capital on the site
ofthe present day Rhodes town. Kamiros continued as a thriving
community rebuilt by theHellenes after an earthquake in 227 B.C.
That rebuilt city nestles into the natural contoursof a hill side
overlooking the Aegean Sea and we were able to see the remains as
they aretoday following excavations during the last century.Of
particular interest to us was theevidence of Roman occupation,most
notably the remains of two bathhouses; the Large Thermae and
therather better preserved Small Ther-mae. At its entrance there is
a smallatrium which leads to a narrow cor-ridor with a fountain at
the far end.Opening off the corridor, along itslength are the
familiar chambers ofRoman Thermae: the frigidarium forthe cold
bath, the tepidarium for thewarm baths and the caldarium for thehot
bath.
Next to the caldarium was the prae-furnium, a narrow passage in
whichburnt the fire that heated water in ametal cauldron. A pipe
whichpierced the wall separating the cal-darium from the
praefurniumchanneled the hot water to the bathtub. The generated
hot air circu-lated under the floors of the tepid-arium and the
caldarium heatingthe rooms; it escaped through clay
vents built into the walls. A triangularcistern supplied water
to the bath tubs inthree chambers, along pipes that perfor-ated the
walls of the cistern. The similar-ities with ‘our’ own bath house
atSegedunum were striking, although onemight imagine that rather
more fuelwould have been needed to keepSegedunum’s caldarium up to
temper-ature and conversely the frigidarium inRhodes was almost
certainly rather lessfrigid that its northern equivalent!
Ancient Kamiros
-
10
I wanted to begin by saying thank you to the Friends for
delivering the brilliantly engagingexhibition Borderline Funny. I
know that a huge amount of hard work went into the wholeenterprise.
It was a wonderful to hear visitors chuckling and giggling in the
galleries – itcertainly brought a lot of extra fun into the visitor
experience. Now we have a newly trainedup team of exhibition
curators I look forward to the next collaboration! I understand
thatanother Hadrian’s Wall venue is interested in showing the
exhibition at a future date whichis great news and a fine legacy.
At Segedunum we too will be following up Borderline Funnywith an
exhibition in Gallery 3 of cartoon work produced by children. There
were certainlysome excellent examples produced in response to the
summer exhibition, so I’m very muchlooking forward to that.Visitor
numbers have been very positive over the summer with 22,958
visitors between Apriland the end of September. Admission income
and shop sales have been healthy too, andEvans on the Wall’s cafe
offer continues to flourish. I recall when we first met with
theowners they talked about the importance of providing a quality
cup of coffee – I would agreewith that sentiment and for one can
vouch that Evans does indeed provide excellent coffee!If you
haven’t sampled their fare yet do come and try it. Our NE28
initiative (free admisisonfor residents living in Segedunum’s
postcode) has also proved sucessful. Up until the endof August we
had 1119 residents taking up the offer since we launched it at the
beginning ofApril. It’s really great that local people, for whom
the admission charge may be a substantialbarrier, are able to
access the heritage venue at the heart of Wallsend.At the beginning
of September the cycling Tour of Britain came to North Tyneside and
I wasdelighted that the route took the Tour to Wallsend with the
riders (accompanied by a veryimpressive cavalcade of high speed
police motorcyle outriders), racing right past the gatesof
Segedunum and along Buddle Street across the World Heritage Site. I
don’t imaginethere are many cycle tours that actually go through
World Heritage Sites! I’ve included aphotograph that
capturessomething of the excitement of theevent.Now we are fast
approaching ourannual Fireworks from the Fort (5November), which
I’m sure willagain be a stunning affair. There issomething very
special about thespectacular fireworks set againstthe background of
the Romanremains, the silhouette of thereconstructed bath house and
theRiver Tyne. As always we wouldwelcome any volunteers from
theFriends to help us on the day to helpand manage the crowds,
encouragedonations and promote the benefitsof the venue. Next year
we arehoping to attract sponsorshiptowards the cost of the
fireworks. As Segedunum and TWAM expands its business networksand
connections more opportunities for sponsorship and support of this
kind will arise.There is much to look forward to in 2020. We will
be celebrating 20 years since Segedunumfirst opened and are
planning an exciting summer exhibition about gladiators, chariot
racingand Roman games in general. We are also looking forward to
the outcome of theHemingway Design feasibility study and seeing how
the site and museum might developnext. We’ll be sharing details of
all this in due course.
Geoff WoodwardMuseum Manager North & South Tyneside
From the Fort
-
11
A few things you may have missed in the newspapers, TV and
social media:Our Wall has won two more awards….
“Countryfile Magazine” in May 2019 gave Hadrian's Wall “Landmark
of the Year” award -“Hadrian’s Wall isn’t just one of the most
important historical structures in Britain, it’s also theone with
the most stunning natural setting."
“Lonely Planet” published its first list of 500 unmissable
experiences in the UK and Had-rian's Wall was fifth “ Only 10%
survives today, but what does makes an unforgettable im-pression.”
The Wall came 5th behind the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, British
Museum, Giant’sCauseway and the Roman Baths at Bath.
The Dark Sky Discovery Centre at Walltown CragsNew and improved
visitor facilities have officially been opened by the
Northumberland Na-tional Park Authority in August this year at
Walltown Country Park, a designated Dark SkyDiscovery Site,
following significant investment from the European Agricultural
Funds forRural Development which provided 80% of the £108,000
investment.The intention is to strengthen Northumberland National
Park’s Dark Sky Programme withnew facilities as part of a planned
multi-site “Hadrian’s Wall Observatory” featuring The
Sill,Cawfields and Walltown Country Park.The newly refurbished
visitor facility has new washroom and toilet facilities with
24-hour ac-cess. Visitor Welcome Assistants will be available to
provide information at key timesthrough the week and staff a small
kiosk selling refreshments including hot and cold drinks,cold
snacks and a small range of merchandise
Damage to Hadrian's WallThe structure of the Wall is under
serious threat from visitors walking on it and from
metaldetectorists illegally removing artefacts and stones. A
section of Steel Rigg – a popular vis-itors' spot collapsed in May
probably caused by tourists scrambling on the structure to
take“selfies”.And the illegal removal of artefacts and stones has
been a longstanding problem caused bythese “nighthawks”. There has
been a spate of ‘nighthawking’ incidents at Roman Wall sitesat
Corbridge, Housesteads and Steel Rigg over the past three years and
last year HistoricEngland reported a serious incident when more
than 50 holes made by nighthawks werefound at Brunton Turret.And
finally some items which may be of interest- GlampingPlans to
install three glamping pods on a field to the south of Rising Sun
Farm, on KingsRoad in Wallsend have been submitted to North
Tyneside Council. According to a designand access statement
submitted to the council the three timber structures will promote
tour-ism in the area and create new jobs.The Council will consider
the application in January nextyear.
Sale of Durham CathedralStones removed during restoration work
on the cathedral’s central tower have been sold byauction at the
Cathedral and raised £125,782 which will be put into the
cathedral’s restora-tion fund, a £10million endowment fund to cover
the cost of annual repair work to the 1,000-year-old Norman
building.
Around the Wall
-
12
Contact Details:Friends of Segedunum:
Secretary: Liz Liddle: [email protected]
or mobile: 07960 409 003Newsletter Editor: John Fleet:
[email protected]
Notes from the Chairman and Committee October 2019We have had
three meetings and a coach trip since the last Newsletter.In
JuneAlan Fidler, the driving force behind the very successful
Northumbria World War Oneproject, told the Friends a moving story
about how one family had been affected by the war.The Brown
brothers from North Shields had written accounts of what life was
like on theFront and in a prisoner of war camp.In July the annual
coach trip took place with an almost full bus made up of Friends
and mem-bers of Wallsend Local History Society. The first stop was
Arbeia Roman Fort and everyonelooked round the recent
refurbishments and improvements on the site taking in the
re-con-structed west gateway, the barracks and the Commanding
Officers house and also the mu-seum. We then drove down the
coastline to the National Glass Centre at Sunderland to lookround
and also have lunch overlooking the River Wear. The group then had
a tour of theancient St. Peter’s church. The bus then drove over
the Northern Spire Bridge to Washing-ton Old Hall for a visit and
refreshments before returning to the museum.In September Ken
Hutchinson stood in for Dan Jackson whose book The
Northumbrian’shad not yet been published. Luckily Ken’s book
‘Wallsend at Work’ had been published inJuly and members heard
about Wallsend’s impressive industrial background where it led
theworld on many occasions. Starting with Salt Pans at Howdon,
Wallsend industries includedglassmaking, whaling, rope-making,
chemicals, mining and shipbuilding to name but a few.In October
Bill Griffiths filled the Daniels Room as usual and attracted
probably our oldestever guest who at the grand age of 101 persuaded
his family to bring him along to hear theentertaining talk on the
Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimage. The talk was very well received
andFriends were delighted to hear that Bill thought that the
Borderline Funny Exhibition was oneof the best exhibitions the
Pilgrims have seen in recent times.The committee have been
beavering away in the background and John Fleet and VivianneBuller
have offered to take over the Treasurer’s role from Liz Liddle and
Jean Cleathero hasagreed to take the minutes of the
meetings.Committee members Mike, Phyllis, John and Ken have been
heavily involved in the Border-line Funny cartoon exhibition along
with many other Friends. A rota of room stewards wasset up by
Maggie Wakeley and a lot of Friends have helped out in many ways
making theexhibition a success. The engagement with children was
very positive and led to over 700children’s cartoons being
produced. This has now led to ‘the Son of Borderline Funny’ or
afuture exhibition of the children’s cartoons next year in Gallery
3 at the museum.Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the
Newsletter and thanks again to John forputting it all together so
professionally.Ken Hutchinson