Hadrians Wall, Chesters Fort

It goes without saying that it was "To the Garage" first thing for a tyre repair.. but then... back up to full speed... we carried on up to Amble.

We nearly went to Newcastle Races as we were sat in their traffic...and we nearly watched Amble cricketers, but the game was over when we arrived... so we wandered along the High Street and round the harbour, and then had an hour on Alnmouth Beach flying the kite ...with my foot haha.... and walking back to the car through the golf course.

Our house on George Street.

NEXT DAY Sunday 24th July

Had our last "lie in" for a while 

(imminent arrival of excited grandchildren)

and after travelling along some incredibly straight roads -you could see for miles- we arrived at HADRIAN'S WALL...which was all a bit hooty...how to sword fight and how to joust on a sliding wooden horse... but also very interesting... John Clayton did a great job of protecting the site.

John Clayton (1792-1890) was the town clerk of Newcastle upon Tyne, a lawyer and antiquarian. When he was four, his father bought the mansion house of Chesters which had the Roman fort of Cilurnum in its front garden. It was the start of a life-long interest. By the time John died in 1890 he owned five forts – Chesters, Carrawburgh, Housesteads, Vindolanda and Carvoran – as well as most of the Wall within this 20 mile stretch. His contribution to excavating and protecting Hadrian’s Wall has often been overlooked, but without him we could have lost much of this World Heritage Site. Frances McIntosh, Curator of Roman Collections at English Heritage, introduces the man who saved Hadrian’s Wall.

 

The Clayton Collection is now cared for by English Heritage and much of it can be viewed at Chesters, presided over by a large portrait of John. When visitors enter the museum they are met with row upon row of inscribed and sculpted stone. Centurial stones give the names of soldiers who built the Wall, whilst altars tell us of deities they worshipped. There are cases filled with coins, pottery and metal work which gives clues about the lives of the Romans who lived on Hadrian’s Wall. The collection contains approximately 11,000 finds along with around 12,000 coins and archival material from both Clayton’s time and later. It’s a hugely significant array and it was all discovered through Clayton’s work.

We had a go at BOW AND ARROWWWW though haha.

We had to do an emergency stop on the way back to Amble.

A MILK VENDING MACHINE!!

How cool is that!

Yes, of course we bought a pint of milk (or two)

And that evening the Bells arrived!

YAY!