The Thirteenth Station: Petriana; now Cambeck Fort

Mile castle near Housesteads

Fifty miles from Newcastle, and eight from Carlisle; a modern name, derived from the river Cambeck. The works are wholly gone; for a gentleman, who, like other “wise men from the East,” had acquired a fortune in India, recently purchased the estate on which this Castle stood, for thirteen thousand pounds, stocked up the foundation, and erected a noble house on the spot. Other Stations preserve the ruins, but this only the name; and is the first which has been sacrificed to modern taste.

It also bears the name of Castle Steads, perhaps the most proper. This small fort stands at so great a distance from all the works, that I can scarcely admit it among the Stations. It could be of no more use to Severus’s Wall, than various other fortifications scattered over the country on both sides of the Wall. It might be of rather more use to Agricola. It is the third reputed Station which stands out of the line; and was, I have no doubt, erected by him, and most probably accepted by Severus, and occupied by him as a Station; otherwise, we cannot account for the great ‘vacancy between Burdoswald and Watch Cross, which is more than nine miles; or rather between Burdoswald and Stanwix, which is fourteen miles, and would have been too great a distance between the Stations, a distance no where found. So that between the above two, which line with the Wall; we find two that do not, Cambeck Fort, of which we now treat, and Watch Cross, which follows.

The ground-plot was visible before the purchase, and is all that was left of the Station. Along the Wall, Severus’s ditch with the Works of Agricola and Hadrian may be traced; but the higher we rise in cultivation the more we sink in antiquity. The plough will bury its last remains.

The works now pass Newton, and Old Walton, much in a feeble style, except Severus’s trench, which, through the inclosures, makes, and perhaps ever will make, a bold figure.

Wall-Head, a single house, in a low situation! Here the people viewed me with a suspicious eye when I entered the house, and, I have reason to think, rather wished me out. ‘A book in my hand, and ink-bottle at my breast. “What could I be but a surveyor of land, employed by the landlord, preparatory to a rise of rent!”

But when I could dispel the gloom, and raise a smile, I became a most welcome guest; was received with additional joy, in proportion to the depth they had been let down; was obliged to drink tea, and promise a return of the visit. Thus the civil treatment rose from the removal of an expected injury.

Links:

• Roman Society at Roman-Empire.net

• Roman Army at Wikipedia

• Frontiers of the Roman Empire at UNESCO