Corbridge to Whiteley Bay, 30-plus miles

Last night enjoyed another excellent feed, at the aptly named Victuals Restaurant. Corbridge is a self-consciously arty town – “artisan” goldsmiths, an organic cafe, lots of galleries, which is sort of appropriate as a modern (and ancient) island of culture in a sea of barbarians.

For just down the road is the carefully named Corbridge “Roman site” – not a fort, or at least not primarily one, but a settlement that having so begun developed into a victualling and general supply centre for the garrisons of the wall (at the site of a Roman bridge across the Tyne – parts of which were recently excavated).

Collected in the excellent little museum on the site is the sculpture from settlement, and from many of the nearby forts. The style might be kindly described as “naive”, but it is also very lively, fun, and sometimes moving. The most famous example is “the Corbridge Lion, above, a fine piece of sculpture. Originally a grave monument, it was later, rather ignominiously, turned into a fountain, with water gushing through the lion’s mouth.
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Haltwhistle to Corbridge, 26 miles

First off this morning the wonderfully evocative name of Vindolanda. It was, until March 1973, just another fort – nicely enough preserved, and in a wonderful sheltered valley behind the wall – indeed behind the line of what is now known as Stanegate – the road that formed the lime (temporary border) before the wall was built. But it was then that the first of the writing tablets that have provided wonderful insight into wall life were found. (I’ve written before about the “birthday” invitation one that is usually on display in the British Museum.)

I won’t chart them in detail – this site does a wonderful job – except to note that they were found near these wooden markers for one of the gates of the early wooden fort (left) from which they date). But I will rave about many of the recently discovered objects on display in the museum. (No photos allowed unfortunately.)

The sodden, anaerobic conditions allow the most remarkable things to survive – not just leather (“more than 1,000 items of footwear”) and a horse’s ceremonial leather headdress (chamefron), but even more remarkable are wigs/hairpieces made from local “hair-moss”. They look to me more like furry hats, but they are anyway astonishingly well preserved.

In 2001 they also found a helmet-crest made out of the same material – the only one known. They may have been decoration, unit identification or rank identification. Centurions wore them transverse across the skull, ordinary soldiers’ ran up from the line of their nose down to the back of their necks.

A narrow and finely proportioned horse skull – which fitted the chamefron perfectly – suggests Arab blood had been introduced into the Roman stock here.
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