Today started with a trip to the laundrette, after which we head down the A69 to look at Hadrian's Wall. Our first stop was the Roman Museum where we learnt a bit about the history, watched a short 3D film and had lunch. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos.
From there we drove back towards Newcastle to a place called Crawfields where we could get up close to some of what remains of the wall.
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| Quarry at Crawfields |
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| Part of what's left of the wall |
From there we went to Vindolanda, a Roman fort.
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| A fountain at the entry to Vindolanda |
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| Romano-Celtic Temple |
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| Wells and Water Tanks |
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| Recreations of Part of the Wall |
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| Store room |
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| Village in Foreground, Fort in Background |
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| Some of the houses |
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| A Quarry where the stone for the fort may have come from |
It seems that the English had the same respect for their heritage as the Chinese had for theirs. Just as the Chinese used pieces of the Great Wall as building materials, so the English used pieces of Hadrian's Wall and the Roman forts for building materials. This practice was only stopped when one man with some forethought and money bought sections of the wall to preserve what was left. Some of the buildings were still intact as late as the 18th century and one observant local was able to record a description of at least one of the buildings as it was being dismantled.
We learned quite a bit about the history of this area today, it was quite educational.
Tomorrow we head off to Carlisle via Alston. We will be catching a train at Alston so should have more photos tomorrow.
Richard.
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