Nice bit of stone in that wall. We’ll have it for the canal
Last updated 13:40, Thursday, 28 February 2008
The Carlisle Patriot reported in December 1818 that, while digging clay for making bricks on the line of Carlisle Canal, remains of Hadrian’s Wall had been uncovered a mile east of Bowness-on-Solway.
This, said the newspapers, was unexpected and the foundation of the wall was removed, providing “useful stones for the construction of the canal”.
Before the exact line of the wall was established such unexpected finds were often made.
The Patriot in March 1856 reported on the burial of Jane Turner of Cobble Hall in Kirkandrews churchyard.
The newspaper said this was “in the midst of the Roman wall and two tons of stone had to be taken away before a resting place for her coffin could be found”.
It took some time before attitudes changed. One enlightened antiquarian, CJ Ferguson, wrote to the Carlisle Journal in July 1870 about a section of the Roman Wall which had just been brought to light on the road between Lanercost and Birdoswald.
He visited the site and “found a portion of the wall already destroyed and the contractor firmly bent on commencing at six the next morning to take down the remainder.”
Mr Ferguson said: “It was only by paying his wages and those of his men that we could save it.”
Another citizen of Carlisle, a rambler, complained of the disappearance of the wall between Stanwix and Tarraby.
He wrote to the Journal in March 1877: “I felt much annoyed and grieved to see that the vandals are destroying the remaining portion of that glorious monument.”
He asked: “Is there no means of saving so great a remnant of ancient glory?”
The Journal pointed out in 1881 that there were those “not troubled with an antiquarian turn of mind” who were intent on destruction.
But others were more respectful and for the pilgrimage of the Roman Wall in 1886 the line of the wall was marked with coloured flags “so its course can be pointed out from the road”.
The organisers hoped “to be pardoned if the flags were put up inadvertently without permission”.
Their aim was to prevent trespass, said the newspaper.
This was also the case in 1896 when 80 flags were displayed for the pilgrims “at Bowness and at various places on the route by Port Carlisle and Drumburgh Marsh”, said the Journal.
Cumberland was congratulated in 1901 for its care of ancient monuments which had been protected by an act of parliament.
But this was not true of Northumberland where in August 1902 the Journal reported: “Housesteads was to be closed up to visitors henceforward, purely in self-defence.”
It had been found, said the newspaper, “that certain young men, on Sunday especially, have amused themselves in heaving stones from the walls of the Roman station down a neighbouring ravine and otherwise defacing this”.
Further damage had been done to the Roman wall at Cawfields on April 20, 1902.
Youths were seen “pulling stones off the wall and rolling them down the crags.”
A witness shouted at them but they took no notice and he called the police. The culprits appeared at petty sessions for wilful damage and it was hoped the fines imposed would be a lesson to others.
There were more informed visitors and in May 1903 the Holy Trinity Men’s Mutual Improvement Society set out from Carlisle on their first ramble of the season with the intention of “traversing the Roman wall from the Solway far into Northumberland.”
From the city eastwards to Bleatarn they were accompanied by TH Hodgson who showed them coloured drawings of excavations he had conducted, because “members found no part of the wall proper”, said the Journal.
They then retraced their steps to Crosby-on-Eden for tea at the Laughingstock Inn.
This was so popular the men made it an annual event.
Enthusiasm for the Roman wall was such that on the pilgrimage of 1906 “between Bowness and Port Carlisle a field of Mr Wills at Monkland Head was invaded”, said the Journal.
Fortunately Mr Wills was busy haymaking, said the newspaper and “was able to show the visitors the line of the Wall, of which some stones were visible”.
By 1910 the editor of the Journal stated “everybody deplores the vandalism which has deprived us of much of the Roman wall” – but the destruction did not stop there.
