Hadrian's Wall... defence for the Romans, curiosity today

Northern England was my viewing territory for the day on Thursday, June 16, 2016.
 
It reminds me that Farrar Fenton, who did his own bible translation about 120 years ago, wrote that the reason he wanted to do this was because the language of the King James bible was no longer that of the common man. “It’s only used by the shepherd boys of the North of England, the most ignorant of our countrymen.”
 
I wasn’t really expecting to find any ignorance, nor shepherd boys, but I looked forward to investigating the ancient Hadrian’s Wall, which separated the English and Scottish people in the days of the Roman Empire. But that was still some distance away, about 140 miles, as I left the Chimney House Hotel under the inevitable cloudy skies.
 

 
I drove up the M56 motorway and onto the M6 after bypassing Manchester. Then, with Blackpool somewhere to my left, I spotted the Irish Sea in the distance.
 

Irish Sea. From a high point in the motorway I was able to see across the Blackpool area with the Irish Sea out on the horizon. The Isle of Man is out there somewhere too.
 

Power lines. Like everywhere else there are major power lines, even going to Blackpool. I don’t know why, but I have photographed them in many countries.
 

Stone fences. A sign of the old world is the use of stones to build fences everywhere. It cleared the paddocks and it was a resource locally available in a time when labour was plentiful. But who collected all the rocks?
 

M6 trucking and more fences. Yes, there is plenty of freight on these roads going by yet more of the stone fences.
 
A glimmer of hope arose as I drove along. The persistence of the overcast days looked like it might fall down for a while as some blue sky appeared:
 

M6 under blue sky. Well, that’s an optimistic view, but some blue was certainly most welcome.
 
And the scenery rolled by with plenty of nice scenery. The line, “Of ordered woods and gardens” [“My Country” by Dorothea Mackellar] comes to mind when one compares this kind of setting with what I’m more used to seeing in Australia…
 

Rolling hills and blue skies. Sadly, this was as good as it got, but it did paint a nice picture of well-manicured farming land.
 
Soon enough the blue patches in the sky went behind more clouds, however…
 

Rolling hills and clouds. How much better would it be under blue skies? The hills roll off into the distance while these homes are a part of some nice scenery.
 
I left the M6 to head across towards Newcastle upon Tyne, the main road which gives access to Hadrian’s Wall. It was no longer the motorway, but a main road which was still of a high standard.
 

The road to Newcastle. Heading East I got this pic of houses facing the main road, I was by now getting eager to see some of the famous stone wall.
 
So who was Hadrian? A Roman Emporer, no less, ruling from 117 to 138CE, a time when the Roman Empire was huge. As this sign explains, he toured the Empire ensuring that there was no revolt, that they didn’t suffer from incursions and that steps were taken to help with that:
 

Hadrian. A well-travelled Roman Emporer and the man who made the biggest impact on this part of the world.
 
This was, it says, the Northernmost point of an Empire which stretched all the way to the Middle East. Quelling any local problems would be very important, I’d imagine, as news couldn’t have travelled all that quickly in those times and reacting with a large force would be very difficult.
 
But a wall 15 feet high and 73 miles long would mean collecting a lot of rocks!
 

The wall. My first sighting of the famous wall, driving down a side road it appeared for me.
 
Even though this looks a substantial wall, it’s not like it used to be. Whether it’s lost height – as it’s probably a little over half the original height here – due to it sinking into the ground, or because rocks have been taken from its top over the years, or both, I don’t know. I suspect it’s both, I was told that many homes in the districts along the way had been built with rocks taken from the wall.
 
But it wasn’t just a wall. There were structures called ‘milecastles’ every Roman mile along its length. A Roman mile is 1.48kms, or 0.92 miles, and there were two ‘turrets’ between each of the milecastles. What a lot of work!
 

Information. I encountered no places where there was printed information available, but at a few places there were signboards like this one.
 
Note that it explains that it wasn’t just the wall, or its turrets or milecastles, which provided the protection from invaders. A ditch was dug on the ‘foreign’ side, with the soil thrown up to form a bank the other side of that ditch, so any threatening force would have to climb that bank and be exposed right down into the ditch before they got very close.
 

Viewing place. Here’s a section where the turret wall has been used as a border for a parking space for visitors. Again, the wall has lost most of its height.
 

More information. To this point, almost halfway along the wall, it had been built originally of soil, with the rock construction following about ten years later.
 
Not forgetting that this area has some very nice scenery. Despite the overcast day I was getting the odd worthwhile picture showing what it was like. The homes of those ‘ignorant shepherd boys’ were often seen, with the stables these days used to house cars and the homes no doubt featuring those odd random-sized doorways that have many people ducking as they walk through.
 
And one has to think that some of those shepherd lads had a part in the manicuring of the scenery over the centuries:
 

Farms, homes and hills. A small village, hedges and tree-lined boundaries are typical of this part of England.
 
Some historic buildings are to be seen. On a back road between the main highway and the wall I came across this stone archway:
 

Lanercost Priory. The building visible here is a church structure, but just around the corner were tea-rooms so tourists could get refreshments during their visit.
 
It was a little place called Lanercost, and just down the road from this was an old stone bridge which was also worth a moment to photograph and admire…
 

Lanercost Bridge. Believed to have been built in 1543 and restored (or rebuilt) in 1724, it no longer carries traffic.
 
Some fascination with bridges leads me to photograph these. Years ago I read somewhere that the average life of a bridge is fifty years, but this one might be said to have stood the test of time. Or, perhaps, bearing in mind the few ‘rebuilds’ it’s had along the way, staggered through the test of time.
 
Checking it out I found a really good example of the older language used in this part of the country, this sample being from a more learned man, the local Bishop, writing about the bridge in 1705: “Sharp Repartees in ye morning ’twixt Mr. Recr. Aglionby and Mr. Gilpin on ye subject of ye decay’d Bridge at Lennard-Cost.” That certainly justifies Mr Fenton’s statement in his bible translation’s foreword, doesn’t it?
 

Hard work! It wasn’t just a matter of collecting the rocks, but cutting them to shape and keying them into place to carry the load.
 
And so I drove on, spending most of my time on the back roads. They’re still subject to the presence of wildlife between the roadside hedges. Wildflowers and greenery were abundant.
 

Deer sign. Probably not at the time I drove through, but a warning more for night drivers. But what is the meaning of the umbrella on the sign?
 
Another chance to get a picture of an old stone-arch bridge came up, this one out in the clear and much larger. This was at a village called Haltwhistle along the main road, from which I took the photo:
 

Alston Archive Viaduct. A lengthy name to be sure, but the bridge is longer than the other one and crosses the Tyne. The archways in the supports are unusual.
 
But mainly I was here to look at Hadrian’s Wall. To keep on progressing sometimes required driving away from it and then back on those minor roads. And always it was there somewhere, if emaciated after 1,850 years.
 

Wall along hill. Roman soldiers patrolling along this section of wall could enjoy some nice views. The wall went over hill…
 

Hill and dale. …and dale. Here it comes off that same hill and curves down through the gap to the next hill.
 

Turret on top. Looking closely at this steep climb to the next hill we see the remnants of one of the turrets. Or, perhaps, a milecastle.
 
I went no closer, but the couple in the photo obviously did. I didn’t see very many tourists out looking at the wall on this Thursday, a weekend would probably find more wandering around.
 

Along the cliff. And from that point the wall continues along the top, the cliff here probably being enough of a barrier anyway.
 
And because I’ve put too many photos into this day’s travel I need to make a separate entry to cover the rest of it…