ISSUE 17 - SEPTEMBER 2000

From Chester-le-Street & its Place in History (forthcoming).

Written by R. Selkirk at the suggestion of the Chester-le-Street District Council and financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Due to all the very recent archaeological discoveries by NAG the forthcoming book Chester-le-Street & its Place in History had to include an Addendum after the last chapter. This was still not quite enough and a "Stop Press" had to be tacked onto the Addendum. The "Stop press" is repeated here and by the time this newsletter is being read, our new book which has over 500 pages, 160,000 words and over 400 illustrations, should be appearing from the printers.

Even while the Addendum was being prepared, more important information has been discovered. The following "STOP PRESS" gives very brief mentions. Even so, a vast amount of unknown historical evidence still remains to be discovered in our countryside. All interested persons are welcome to join in the search.

The Northern Archaeology Group found about two thousand tons of ex-Roman stones dumped at Roker on the north side of the river mouth and around the Napoleonic defenses on the south side. These stones were thought to have been used as sea erosion defenses when the great Roman dam at Hylton was dismantled in the early 1800s.

A geology student at Sunderland University, Ian McCarrison, has just completed his thesis, the subject of which was the examination of these ex-Roman stones dumped at the river mouth. The thesis compares specimen slivers taken from the Roman stones and from various ancient quarries in the area.

The conclusions are that the river mouth dumped stones are: -

1. Definitely ex-Roman as they contain evidence of Roman building techniques and:

2. Most of the stones show all the characteristics of having been quarried in the Hylton area.

 

More evidence of Roman inland waterways trade and navigation.

Cedric is a very skilled and industrious chap and is an honorary warden of public footpaths of the Lake District. His knowledge of the area is second to none. He has also found a suspected Roman barge basin in Ullswater and several associated Roman lead mines with hitherto unknown Roman roads and defenses. His interest in the Roman navigation of the River Eden was sparked off by "On the Trail of the Legions" (R. Selkirk, Anglia 1995), which described a possible Roman flash lock at Wetheral. This was described by local historians as a fish-trap built by the monks of Wetheral Priory. The features however showed Roman characteristics. Cedric has investigated the river further and found the post-holes of a suspected Roman dam and also relocated a forgotten Roman inscription carved by soldiers of the XXth Legion. This evidence is at NY 4678, 5370, just downstream from St Constantine's Cells, which are artificial caves cut into the cliffs and according to Charlie Emett in his The Eden Way, (Cicerone Press,) are thought to date from pre-Roman times. The Romans have certainly used the River Eden as a major supply line.

The Roman road passes the ancient farm at Willimoteswick and in a riverside wood to the west; a typical Roman culvert (NY 763 633) passes under the Roman way. There is more evidence at Unthank Hall but it is extremely likely that the Beltingham to Unthank road is merely part of a much longer road, which defended the south bank of the South Tyne, perhaps even before Agricola's troops crossed the river. Mention has been made in Chapter 10 of a pre-Hadrianic defence line across northern England. This "255 Line" is not far south of the South Tyne and has been excavated by one of our teams, at Staward Manor (NY 810 603). Between the "255 suspected early frontier" and the South Tyne are probable Roman patrol roads, of which the Beltingham to Unthank road must be one. A mile south of Willimoteswick is a suspected Roman ridge road. How this has not been noticed before now is difficult to understand. The road is part of a defensive linear complex very similar to Hadrian's Vallum. The line runs from NY 769 624 to NY 771 621, and in the eastern sector, the Roman road runs along the north mound and then switches to the south mound at NY 779 623. There is a precedent for this as the Military Way of Hadrian's Wall (nothing to do with Wade's 1750 Military Road) runs along the north mound of Hadrian's Vallum for a considerable distance.

A Roman road north through the Dotland DMV.

About forty Roman coins have been found by a metal detectorist close to the Deserted Medieval Village of Dotland (NY 923 595). A close ground scrutiny reveals the shape of the corner of a Roman fortlet and part of the defensive ditch at the south side of the "humps and bumps" of the grass covered medieval buildings. The suspected Roman road runs south to Whitley Mill (NY 925 582).

To the north of the Dotland DMV, the Roman road is under the modern road but shows its Roman characteristics down a farm track immediately to the west of Channel Well Farm (NY 921 603). At the north end of this steeply descending cart track, the Roman road disappears once again under a modern road to position NY 918 609, where it becomes a rough path. A sudden bend to the west takes the Roman road, which is now just a stony track, down a steeply angled incline, which is the typical method the Romans used to descend a cliff. The turns are always in the upstream direction of the stream at the bottom of the cliff. At the stream crossing, the road turns north and has crossed a large Roman bridge over the West Dipton Burn. The bottom courses of the huge Roman abutments are visible at NY 915 612. The tiny modern footbridge looks out of place resting on these massive rough stone abutments. Roman roads can be traced from the bridge to the north in the vicinity of Hexham racecourse and to the east to Diptonmill, turning there to Black House, High Shield and Hexham.

As in Northumberland, the Romans have placed defensive roads along the east-west ridges of County Durham. These form part of a huge "limes system" across our two northern counties. One ridge road crosses Dere Street at the top of Ragpath Wood (NZ 421 205). Another to the north lies along the Esh Ridge and continues to the west along the Hedley ridge and to Tow Law (Tower Hill).

To the east of the Esh Ridge, the Roman road runs down to the River Browney and past Beaurepaire (NZ 243 438) to Stotgate, Arbour House and Crossgates Moor.

The medieval ruin at Beaurepaire has a sewage system, which resembles a copy of Roman technology. It is too technically advanced for medieval flushing methods. In the building, which is taken to be the medieval lavatory, a Roman stone toilet seat has been reused as a window frame.

Roman fortifications in the early period were merely turf and timber. About AD120, some of these were rebuilt in stone. The redundant turf & timber forts eroded away as did the temporary work camps. Some of them can still be seen from the air, but the Roman sites are often reoccupied by farms and very frequently by churches.

In 306AD Constantius returned to Britain, this time as senior Augustus. Roman historians mention a short victorious campaign into Scotland but no detail is written. We do know that by July of the same year Constantius was back in York, where he died attended by his son, Constantine. This was the second Roman Emperor to die in York after a Scottish campaign, Severus being the previous one in 211AD.

Britain was now in the car of Constantius’ son, Constantine, who was to become one of Rome’s greatest emperors, later to go down in history as “Constantine The Great”. He gave Christians the freedom of worship and became a Christian himself, although he was not baptised until shortly before his death. Constantine did not like Diocletian’s division of the empire into four parts and was determined to become sole emperor, which he achieved by defeating his rivals one by one. His army carried the Christian chi-rho on their shields and armour, but which troops (if any) he took with him from Britain is unknown. After he became sole emperor he moved the capital of the empire from Rome to a brand new city, which took four years to build, in what is now Turkey. He named this city Constantinople (Constantine’s City) and is now known as Istanbul.

During the third century the empire had suffered from anarchy, barbarian attacks and also galloping inflation. Diocletian, in his time, had enforced price fixing, which in turn had made some trades unprofitable, causing men to look for different jobs. This caused Diocletian to introduce control of labour and restrictions; one of these was to force sons to follow their father’s trade. However these strict measures brought back stability to the empire.

Britain, during this time, had not suffered from barbarian invasions and general anarchy so; by the time that Constantine became emperor (306AD) the country was enjoying prosperity probably unequalled in the Roman Empire. The fourth century saw the building of many villas, which were really large profitable farms. Most of Britain’s needs were now being produced locally and indeed there was a large export of surplus goods, including wool, tin, lead and corn in particular. Roman historians tell us that in 359AD the emperor Julian had 800 barges built to carry corn from Britain to relieve Gallic cities after the barbarian devastations. The price of corn at this time was very high so farm owners in Britain must have done very well. British wool was particularly well sought after, a duffle coat and a travelling rug were mentioned in the price fixing. Wine was being produced in Britain but was probably taking over as the more popular drink; in fact the drinking vessels of this period were large and more suited for beer. This would reduce the import of wine and further improve the British balance of payments.

The magnificent villas in the south of England were built about this time and their owner’s prosperity is shown in the bathhouses, hypocaust systems and beautiful mosaics, which they enjoyed. Although most of these large villas were in the south of England they were built right up to North Yorkshire and even a small farmstead was found just to the south of Durham, although these far north examples did not seem to be as wealthy as the large southern ones. Many must still remain to be found; in fact a small villa was discovered near the Yorkshire Wolds just this year, complete with mosaic and all the surface finds were early fourth century. The large towns of Britain were also showing signs of prosperity at the same time with expansion and rebuilding of public buildings.

However this peace was not to last, Constantine died in 337AD and his son, Constans, became Emperor. Again the source of the information is from Roman historians who tell us that Constans made a hurried visit to Britain in mid-winter but they do not give us any reason why. The date was 342AD.

A greater threat appeared in 360AD that apparently came from the north. Ammianus Marcellinus, a historian writing in the late fourth century tells us, “The savage tribes of Scots and Picts broke their treaties: their raids and devastation of the frontier region terrified the provincials, already exhausted by previous disasters. The Caesar Julian, wintering in Paris, sent his commander Lupercinus to settle the troubles by diplomatic or military means.”

Lupercinus appears to have been successful but five years later in 367AD came the barbarian conspiracy when Picts, Scots and various other tribes united and coordinated their attack. The effect was devastating; Nectaridus, the Count of the Saxon Shore, was killed and Fullofaudes, the Dux Britanianus, lost his life in an ambush. (It is interesting to note that they both had Germanic names!)

The Emperor Valentinian was on his way to Trier in Germany when news of the disaster reached him. He despatched two men to deal with the situation but both failed. Finally the emperor sent Theodosius, a man of outstanding successful military reputation who gathered a number of legions and cavalry cohorts and sailed from Boulogne to Richborough where he and his army landed safely and set out for London.  

From this we must assume that the army in Britain was ineffectual in stemming the tide of invaders (or should we say gangs of looters, for that is what they appear to have been). This is surprising, but later in Marcellinus’ account of the troubles he gives us a clue, we’ll come to that shortly. However, when Theodosius arrived at London he saw that the enemy consisted of wandering bands that were weighed down with loot they had stolen from the provincials. He divided his army into many detachments to attack the enemy bands and recovered the stolen goods. The goods were restored to their owners except for a small part, which Theodosius gave to his weary soldiers.

The historian Marcellinus continues the story: -

“Theodosius set out from Augusta (London) with an army skilfully assembled. He brought great help to the Britains, marching ahead of the barbarians so he could ambush them at selected spots. He routed and put to flight the various tribes who were insolent enough to attack the Roman army, thinking they would go unpunished. He restored the cities and forts which had been founded to secure a long peace but had suffered serious damage again and again.”

Marcellinus also tells us that Theodosius had to deal with a certain Valentinus who had been exiled to Britain for various crimes. Valentinus had bribed soldiers and planned rebellion. (Was this the reason for an ineffectual British based army?) Theodosius had him arrested and executed; then pardoned any soldiers involved in his plots. The mater was pursued no further to avoid any trouble.

The Emperor Valentinian created a fifth provincial division in Britain, which was named after him (Valentia) and was important enough to have a civil governor. Where Valentia was is uncertain but it was probably in the north, encompassing the western side of Hadrian’s Wall and most of Brigantian territory. The north of Britain must have suffered severely in the attacks from the north, Marcellinus tells us that the garrisons in the northernmost outpost forts were bribed not to report the impending attack, although I find this hard this hard to believe. However the cohorts were disbanded and he forts abandoned, Hadrian’s Wall being hurriedly repaired. The civil settlements outside the forts must have suffered too, but they were never completely rebuilt; archaeological excavations show that women and children were living inside the forts at some time. By this time frontier cohorts must have consisted of local recruits, probably from the families of serving and retired soldiers with both Celtic and German ancestry. We must remember that they were a defensive force rather than campaigners; in fact one could almost say a police force. However, this does not say that they were still disciplined and orderly, recent excavations at South Shields have shown that even in the late fourth century the fort was still operating as an orderly military unit.

Theodosius left Britain in a defensive situation; the towns had been refortified and made almost impregnable with high strong walls. Raiders were not equipped to conduct long sieges or carried equipment to breach walls.

By 369AD recovery seems to have been complete and it would appear that Britain was still as prosperous s before the attacks, despite the annoyance of sea raiders, but even these were being kept under some sort of control by the British fleet and coastal watchtowers. Unfortunately the peace was not to last too long and the end of Roman rule in Britain was getting near.    – More in part X.