The Third Station: Condercum; now Benwell Hill
Reconstruction of the gate of a Roman fort (from Arbeia, rather than Benwell Hill.
I have now travelled five miles and a half from the Wall’s end; two from Newcastle; and arrived by the military way upon a very considerable eminence, suitable for a Roman Station. Severus’s ditch is close on my right, and I upon the foundation of the Wall, as part of the turnpike road; its bare stones under my feet are frequently distinguishable from those used for mending the road. But the Station totally disappears, except a roughness on the ground, which shews what has been; while Agricola and Hadrian’s works lie on my left, between me and the village, which contains two hundred and three houses, and nine hundred and fifty-one people.
The Station was very large. The corners, rather canted off, had four entrances answering to the four Cardinal Points. The country and prospects are delightful, and the land good.
I now pass, on my left, another house of Mr. Orde’s.
At Denton Dean, or West Denton, situated at the bottom of Benwell Hill, the great road veers a few yards to the right, that is, into Severus’s ditch, and gives us for the first time a sight of that most venerable piece of antiquity, The Wall, which is six yards South of the road, and twenty short of the brook I am going to pass. The fragment is thirty-six feet long, has three courses of facing stones on one side, and four on the other, and is exactly nine feet thick. An apple-tree grows upon the top, as shewn in the Plate annexed.
The eye can easily trace the line over the water, and unite it to the opposite bank.
Before we leave this village of ninety houses, the Wall again becomes round, and the ditch is at my right elbow.
At the three-mile stone from Newcastle, I leave on my right the seat of Matthew Montague, Esq.
Hadrian’s work is now fifty yards on my left.
At the fourth mile-stone, I arrive at Chapel-house, then Castle Steads, where there has no doubt been a mile castle; the situation, as well as the name, corroborates the remark. Fifty yards on my left, down a green pasture, run, in bold figures, the united works of Agricola and Hadrian, dressed in about half their antient grandeur; and, having this clue, we can trace them over the inclosures for many miles.
A little short of the fifth mile-stone is Wallbottle.
At the stone, Hadrian is thirty yards on my left, I upon the Wall.
Newburn Dean is nearly at the sixth mile-stone. Here, climbing a bank, to gain a better view of my valuable companions, I stumbled, and, to save myself, caught at a hawthorn hedge, when, like a Knight of Ulster, I bore the bloody hand.
Pass Throcklow. My two friends Agricola and Hadrian are forty yards on my left.
At the seventh mile-stone is Hadden-on-the-Wall. The road here, as is usual at a village, takes a small turn to the right; it goes up the bank, and leaves Severus’s ditch close to my left, and his Wall a yard high; but in a confused heap. There must have been here a mile castle. One hundred yards passed, I again tread the Wall, with the ditch on my right.
Near the eighth mile-stone is the seat of Calverley Bewick, Esq. Here Hadrian assumes a little more consequence; and now we finish our third Station.
Links:
Benwell, centre of the Universe at Newcastle Museum of Antiquities
The Roman Army at Roman-Empire.net
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