Northumberland Bed Breakfast, b&b Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall, from Bowness on the Solway Firth via Lanercost in Cumbria to Wallsend near the mouth of the Tyne in Northumberland, was built to separate the Romans from the 'Barbarians' as they were known at the time. To this day there are remains of Hadrian's Wall which can be seen at many sites along its length very often in remote countryside and these are enhanced by later fortifications and impressive sections available for the passing tourist to visit.

The Construction of Hadrian's Wall
Although the Emperor Hadrian ordered the building of the wall, it was in fact constructed under the strict supervision of Nepos, who was at that time the Governor of Britain. This enormous task was eight years of busy construction work which was performed by soldiers from three different legions: the second based in Caerleon, the sixth which was based in York and the 20th which was based in Chester. The engineers, surveyors, masons and carpenters were all quite expert in the field and probably helped construct the turf and timber walls in Germany. Later, as the project progressed further, other auxiliary soldiers helped and they're probably even was conscripted labour from the surrounding area. It has been suggested that possibly the wall was built least in part keep soldiers busy who might not otherwise have been gainfully occupied.

To this day no one is really sure exactly how high the wall was but many think it was probably around 21 feet high and it is very likely that for a lot of its life it was a whitewashed wall. There certainly would have been many crossing points which means of course that the wall was never an impenetrable barrier, rather it imbued the Romans with control over people passing through it.

When the Emperor Hadrian died in AD 138, the man who took his place: Antoninus Pius became emperor and he decided to abandon the wall, pushing further into Scotland where he built the Antonine Wall although this was different to Hadrian's Wall in that it was constructed of turf rather than stone and this stretched from the Forth to the Clyde.

Hadrian's Wall in Decline
Much of the time, the tribes north of the wall were kept under control although there were occasionally rebellions but by the beginning of the fourth century there was a new threat: the Picts and these became a problem for successive emperors. By the beginning of the fifth century, the Roman empire was beginning to break up and the auxiliaries or guards on the wall gradually drifted away and this enormous wall soon became a quarry for local farmers. Indeed, there are many local monuments or castles or grand homes which have made use of the stone from Hadrian's Wall. For example near Brampton in Cumbria may be found 'Banks Turret' where a small section of wall can be seen to this day and in the local area one can see that Lanercost Priory and Naworth Castle the latter which was constructed in 1335 door have benefited from finally cut stone clearly obtained from Hadrian's Wall.

Hadrian's marvellous contribution to the Wall's construction seemed to be lost in the mists of time until the Victorian era when its importance came to be appreciated. Quite recently in the 20th century Hadrian's Wall became a world Heritage site and as such is now protected throughout Cumbria and Northumberland

bed breakfast hadrian's wall