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The Romans

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The Romans arrived in the north of England sometime after 70 AD. There were 3 legions in Britain, the II, VI and XX, each with around 5,000 men based at Caerleon (South Wales), Chester and York. A road ran from York to Corbridge and beyond, later known as Dere Street, and a further main Roman road ran east to west from Corbridge to Carlisle. At both ends of the east-west road, now called the Stanegate, or "stone road" there were Roman forts and settlements, with a few on the way too.

When Hadrian decided to build his Wall, sometime around 122 AD, it was positioned just north of the Stanegate. Soldiers from the 3 legions built the Wall, taking somewhere between 8 and 10 years, before returning to their bases further south. The soldiers who manned the frontier were from much smaller units of infantry and cavalry, although they still probably numbered over 15,000 men. At first the forts on the Stanegate (such as at Carlisle, Chesterholm (Vindolanda) and Corbridge) provided military assistance to the Wall. On the Wall itself, in front of which lay a defensive ditch, there was a series of "milecastles" where the soldiers could shelter and between these, two smaller "turrets". Thus there was some form of shelter for most of the length every 1/3^rd of a mile. At some point after the Wall had been begun, a number of revisions were incorporated into the plans. One of these was to extend the Wall from its original eastern base towards Wallsend. Another was to build a series of forts actually on the Wall itself. There are 15 or 16 of these, depending on how you count them (more details in Appendix 1) and these combined with the Stanegate forts, plus one further east at South Shields, further west at Old Carlisle, Maryport and Papcastle and to the north at Netherby, Birrens, Bewcastle, Risingham and High Rochester, to provide a strong and impressive defensive (or aggressive) military force. As the Wall forts were an afterthought, we know that in places the milecastles and turrets already built were partially or fully destroyed to accommodate them.

Another amendment to the plan was to build, or rather dig, a large ditch just to the south of the Wall, known confusingly since the times of the Venerable Bede (672- 735 AD) as the "vallum", which is Latin for "wall". This vallum was nearly 10 feet deep and 20 feet wide, with a flat bottom of around 8 feet. The excavated soil was piled up in two mounds either side of the ditch, some 30 feet away from it. Thus the width of the entire structure was some 120 feet. Sometimes this vallum was placed only a few metres away from the Wall, but in other places, depending on the terrain, it is nearly half a mile from it.

If there has been disagreement concerning the purpose of the Wall, then agreement regarding that of the vallum is even less easy to find, although it may have been intended to mark the boundary between the military and civilian zones, south of the wall. At the forts there were causeway crossings and large gateways, but at the milecastles, the northern mound only had been cut through, leading to the Roman Military Way, a 20 foot wide road which ran between the Wall and Vallum, traces of which can still be seen. Incidentally, the vallum does not go any further east than Newcastle, so it may have been built before the extension to Wallsend.

Thus the whole system known as Hadrian's Wall consisted of the following, from north to south:

- a ditch

- the Wall, with forts, milecastles and turrets

- the Roman Military Way

- the "vallum" with its earth-mounds either side

- forts

Further south lay the Stanegate, running from Corbridge to Carlisle, with additional Roman settlements which acted as supply bases for the soldiers on the fort.