Trip To Hadrian's Wall, Roman Forts and the Lake District Part 1

There are 2 places in England that we had been hearing about as ‘can’t miss’ – so we piled into a rental car last weekend and headed off to the north of England to experience them. We left bright and early – at 6:00 in the morning - and for those of you who know me, you understand what a challenge that was… After 7 ½ hours of riding northwards, we arrived to the general area and following a right turn headed due east to the area of Hadrian’s Wall which we were looking for.

In case you have never heard of Hadrian’s Wall, or do not know too much about it… here are a few interesting facts. The Romans felt that it was necessary to build this 71 mile long 6 meter high and 3 meter wide wall to keep out the “barbarians”, which in this case were the Scots. Work began after 122 AD when Hadrian came to this part of his realm, and realized the need to keep out the barbarians… [In the Northumberland National Park, where we viewed the wall, it was quite a bit smaller in height and width from the above noted figures…] The location of the wall running from the west coast to the east coast runs across the narrowest part of this island. I was surprised to discover that England was the furthest north that the Roman Empire ever went! I guess they didn't take a cotton to the cooler climes....

Entering the parking lot of our first venue, we were met with a wonderful treat!!! Eye candy!!!! There parked in a row were about 10 or perhaps even 15 antique MG’s! They were absolutely gorgeous!!! Obviously a car club had decided to take a trip for the day… Since these vehicles were convertibles the impending threat of rain caused them to hurry along with their tour. Too bad we didn’t think to take a picture of them when we arrived as they had long since departed when we returned to the car park [local lingo for parking lot…].

Before we actually went to see Emperor Hadrian’s edifice, we stopped off nearby at Vindolanda. At this ancient site can be found the remains of a sizeable Roman Army fort. It first appeared here around 85 AD, approximately 40 years prior to the building of the wall. Due to the fact that Vindolanda was built of wood, it required rebuilding/replacement about every seven or eight years!!! With the on-going archaeological digs, remains of these earlier wooden forts have been discovered. Eventually a stone fort was built on this site, portions of which can be seen today.

At Vindolanda a discovery was made that has major impact on the study of ancient Rome. A few years ago the largest find of Roman writing tablets found anywhere was discovered here!!! These tablets give fascinating information about the daily lives of the soldiers and the civilians that were also living in the fort or around it. The civilians were no doubt shopkeepers and the like. These tablets are now housed at the British Museum in London in a very special environment that keeps them from deteriorating so that they are preserved for the future.

Chris and I meandered around the campus enjoying the discovery of the Roman ingenuity with plumbing - like running water!!! And here you thought it was a modern invention… Even though time has eroded and broken down the fort, there is still much to be seen. Roman baths… homes… barracks… shops… why, even a temple to the Nymphs! Kinky!! One of the exhibits showed how English people lived in the 1800's and noted that people lived BETTER during the Roman era!!

Vindolanda is on a hillside and as one walks down to the bottom of the hill there is a brook and a variety of buildings. This is the site of the Nymph temple. Also, there was an amazing Roman soldier grave. He must have saved up his salary for some time to be able to afford it. We saw no others like it. It was constructed of cut stone in the form of a square above ground. The height was surely a yard tall and approximately 6 foot square. The top was rounded with a domed area to the center. On the front was a stone plaque giving the details along with a picture carved in to it.

This place obviously had some people with shoe fetishes… in one location alone there were 70 shoes discovered! They are very interesting and I spent more than a little bit of time looking at them. Basically all the shoes were of the same design ~ one piece of leather, which was seamed at the back of the heel. The cheaper shoes had holes punched in them for leather laces/thongs to be run through to pull the front and sides of the shoe together so that it could be held onto the foot. Fancy designs had amazing cut work in the leather that went over the top of the foot, which surely had taken some amount of time to cut. The leather had been worked and was soft and pliable. All the shoes displayed were black in color. Other leather had been treated in a manner to make it hard. From this leather soles were cut that attached to the exterior of the soft leather upper. Placed into the soles were what appeared to be brass tacks in patterns to make the shoe stronger. I didn’t see one pair that looked even remotely comfortable in case you were wondering…

After about an hour at Vindolanda, we left for our next stop: Housesteads, which is just 2 miles to the north. Another Roman fort, but this one was actually built into the wall as it was discovered that it was more effective for the army to be right there where the action was as opposed to a couple miles away… a no brainer in my opinion…