April 2021
It is finally time...it's time to start welcoming you all back out on fieldwork and to our summer events!! *cue cartwheels from the team here at WallCAP.
We have been working hard to ensure that we have read, digested and understood all the guidelines regarding welcoming you back out and we hope we can navigate this new phase together to ensure that you not only feel safe but also supported, in your return to your volunteering activity.
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Community Events Programme
Many of you joined us for our first public talk at the end of March, 'Excavations at Birdoswald' by Tony Wilmott from Historic England. If you would like to see it again or catch up if you missed it, the recording is now available on our website! https://wallcap.ncl.ac.uk/speakers-series/
The next talk will be:
Outwith the Wall: The Romans in Redesdale and Beyond
Wednesday 26th May, 7-8.30pm
By Prof. Jim Crow, Professor of Archaeology at The University of Edinburgh and member of WallCAP's Advisory Board.
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GIS Research Update
Thank you to everyone who has been helping us out with the research for the WallCAP Hadrian's Wall GIS! Over the past few months, you have been working hard to learn all about and research the linear features that make up the Wall. This research will soon be added to the database alongside your earlier research into the turrets, milecastles and forts (as soon as Kathryn has a chance to do it between fieldwork!). Over the coming months, we'll bring you more updates about this work and how this data will be used for further Wall research!
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One for the Bookworms
A new book on everyone's favourite monument has been written by Dr Matt Symonds, titled Hadrian's Wall: Creating Division, which has been published by Bloomsbury. We have managed to squeeze in a brief interview (9 minutes) with Matt for your enjoyment!
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WallCAP Book Club
Always room for new members, we meet on the last Thursday evening of the month. The titles have now been set until October and the next book to read will be 'War at the Edge of the World - Twilight of Empire', Book 1 by Ian Ross, with a discussion meeting planned for late May. Click here to join the WallCAP Book Club.
WallCAP Screen Club
Date of next meeting: Monday 10th May ,7-8pm where we will be discussing the film, 'The Dig' (2021). All welcome! Click here to join.
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Volunteer 'Tea Break' Session
The next social 'Tea Break' will be held on Wednesday 5th May between 10-11am. Just pop 'on' if you'd like to say hello. Joining details will be sent out the day before.
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Heritage at Risk (HAR) Activity
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Port Carlisle, Cumbria
April 2021
We achieved two important things with our short, targeted excavation at Port Carlisle in the west. We discovered a lot more about the fate of the Wall in this location and confirmed that a problematic farm gate could be moved. The small trenches were very similar to Walltown Crags as Trench 1 ran across where the line of the Wall should have been, and Trench 2 ran up to the south face of the Wall. We even arranged ourselves in the same way: Kathryn north and Jane south of the curtain in Trench 1 and Rob in Trench 2.
Trench 1, where the new farm gate is likely to go, showed that the facing stones had all been robbed from that length of Wall, and that the wall core had been used first to fill a rubble field drain running along the south face of the Wall, and then to provide hard standing for a small farm building probably built in the 1950s and blown down in the 1970s.
Attempts to improve the drainage in a location prone to flooding by the Solway have impacted the Wall along the whole of this field-length, including the surviving in-situ courses either side of the current gate. Drains had been dug running next to the Wall and through the Wall's foundations. In Trench 2 we discovered that another small farm outbuilding had been built utilising wall core material this time demolished by the 1860s. The hedge bank was reconstituted after the building was taken down and some facing stones were re-used in the bank. Before excavation they had appeared to be in-situ facing stones.
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Heddon, Northumberland
April 2021
This was a rather different excavation, cutting a 40m by 2m trench, using a digger, across the Vallum ditch and its north and south mounds. We were investigating, in the most eroded stretch of the Vallum in that area, how much of the ditch and mounds survived, to help with the future management of the Vallum. We achieved a lovely long section through the Vallum and found that the ditch survived, but a least half the depth had been lost, and that just the lowest third of a metre of the two mounds could be traced.
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Cambeck
We're so looking forward to welcoming you back to site with the excavation at Cambeck from 11th-24th May. We will be investigating a bridging point where the Wall runs over the beck.
Corbridge Playing Fields
We will be running an excavation from 7-29th July at the playing fields again (some of you will remember the very damp excavation in 2019!). There will be lots of opportunities to get involved so watch this space for more information!
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Stone Sourcing and Dispersal (SSD)
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Blog O'Clock
This month, our Community Geologist, Dr Ian Kille, ventures to..........the moon!
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Mystery Rock Competition!
Last month's clue (13) : What is the relationship between these rocks? There is both a significant similarity and a massive difference
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Answer: They are both sedimentary rocks each of which has nice examples of cross-lamination. One, however, is from Mars and was snapped by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater by a rock outcrop named Mont Mercou. The other is of the cliffs under Tynemouth Priory taken by our roving Community Geologist from the pier and is of wind-blown dune bedding in the Yellow Sands Formation. You can follow where the Curiosity rover is on this interactive map here: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/where-is-the-rover/... and you can catch up with our Community Geologist at the next dig!
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Mystery Rock Number 14!
Clue: There's something odd about this stone's behaviour and its location is up for discussion too.
Answer next month!
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SSD Volunteer Training
Over June, we are planning a programme of fieldtrips and training events to look at geology and to examine Wall stone. More details in the next newsletter or direct via email if we get giddy beforehand!
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In this section, we take the opportunity to get to know each other a bit better!
This month we're delighted to introduce one of our WallCAP Advisory Board members, Chris Jones. The WallCAP project depends on co-operative partnership working along Hadrian's Wall. Here's what Chris has to say:
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"Hi, I’m Chris and I represent Northumberland National Park on the Advisory Board. My job title is Historic Environment Officer and this means I am one of several heritage managers responsible for archaeology across the whole National Park and for the 17 or so Roman miles in the central section of the World Heritage Site. My role is principally concerned with providing advice into planning applications, land management and forestry proposals and community archaeology projects in the National Park. It’s been great to see a number of positive initiatives enabled through WallCAP, like the conservation works at Steel Rigg and Mucklebank Turret to name but two. It is a team effort which requires working with the Access and National Trails Officer, Volunteer Development Officer, the Ranger team, Farming team and all of the amazing volunteers who patrol, record, alert and repair the amazing archaeology we’re all lucky to have on our doorstep." Chris
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Hadrian’s Wall 1900th Update from the Festival Team
Next year's festival to mark the 1900th anniversary of the beginning of the construction of Hadrian's Wall, has now received over 100 proposed activities! The Steering Group have responded to everyone that submitted an activity – if that’s you and you haven’t seen anything arrive in your inbox, please check your junk folders just in case it’s gone there it will have come from info@hadrianswall1900.co.uk.
It’s a really exciting mix which includes guided walks and tours (both on the ground and in the air!); music and film festivals; site specific theatre and dance; Roman foraging and banquets; fire and light events; exhibitions and lectures; and lots more.
The Festival Steering Group are really interested to hear how many of you have submitted activity, so would really appreciate you answering this Doodle Poll: https://doodle.com/poll/pde96tz2pvhsazra?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link
The Steering Group continue to be busy working on funding applications which will fund the core costs of coordination and marketing of the Festival to make it as big, exciting and far-reaching as possible. Recruitment for a Marketing and Communications Coordinator is underway, and with this new role they hope to be able to update activity organisers on a more regular basis.
They are now also looking into ways that they might be able to also update interested parties that might not necessarily want to deliver activity, but just want to be kept in the loop. More details on this soon.
For now, the message is still very much about Get Involved, so please do share this messaging from the Hadrian’s Wall Country social media channels, and further information can be found here - https://hadrianswallcountry.co.uk/hadrianswall1900/getinvolved
And Finally, Finally.....
That's it for April.
We hope to see you at the 'Tea Break' next week or out on site at Cambeck in a couple of weeks!
The WallCAP Team
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