NORTHUMBERLAND
(1) Peel Gap (NY 75253 67534): a collapsed section of the southern face of the curtain, previously revealed and consolidated in the nineteenth century by work-parties employed by John Clayton (giving the name ‘Clayton Wall’), was repaired to the west of Peel Gap tower. During the work, an undisturbed lower course of curtain was revealed with in-situ mortar on the tail ends of at least three facing stones. A sample of mortar was taken for analysis.Footnote 10
(2) Walltown Crags (NY 67645 66563): two small trenches were excavated ahead of conservation work on the Wall curtain. A 30 m trench dug in the opening years of the twentieth century, and reported only in brief, had uncovered the northern and southern faces of the curtain and left them exposed since then. One of the new trenches ran across the ditch and bank of the earlier excavation south of the curtain and uncovered foundation courses of the curtain sitting directly on uneven, weathered bedrock (fig. 4). Below the Edwardian spoil-bank, large stones from an earlier collapse of the curtain were discovered.
Walltown Crags: Trench 1 after excavation, looking north. (© WallCAP, Newcastle University)
The second trench was positioned just east of the end of the earlier excavation, running perpendicularly across the width of the curtain to expose the northern and southern faces of the Wall. This short length of curtain had not been previously excavated and had been buried for some considerable time. Only two courses of the northern face survive but seven courses of the southern face were revealed, relatively little weathered and with no evidence for bonding of facing stones. A clear sequence of Edwardian spoil dumped over an earlier substantial collapse was recorded. The curtain was constructed directly onto bedrock, here flat and unweathered.Footnote 11
CUMBRIA
(1) Carlisle, the western Stanegate Roman road (NY 34079 56730 to NY 24220 57207): Kirkbride fort pre-dates Hadrian's Wall and is considered contemporary with the Stanegate forts east of Carlisle. The proposal of a western road extension of the Stanegate to Kirkbride has often been suggested and the beginnings of the road were spotted in 2018 in LiDAR imagery either side of Carlisle Westerly Bypass, A689.Footnote 12 The release of further LiDAR coverage by Defra has enabled the route to be extended, passing Moorhouse towards Thurstonfield and merging into the B5307 via Kirkbampton. The line of the Roman agger is visible in LiDAR imagery in the fields south of Moorhouse (NY 34079 56730 to NY 32319 56607). West of Kirkbampton the modern road (B5307) continues in a series of straight alignments via Fingland, surely overlying the Roman road, to just short of Kirkbride (NY 24220 57207) (fig. 5). Extrapolating from there would match precisely where Barri Jones recorded the road exiting the fort on aerial photographs.Footnote 13
Lidar image showing the route of the Roman road connecting Carlisle to Kirkbride. The final dashed section matches exactly where Barri Jones recorded the road at the fort. (Base LiDAR data is © Crown Copyright 2020)
