Up here in the North East, we have Hadrian’s Wall, and quite a lot of Roman ruins, and much is made of them even though they’re a bunch of stones :). Of course some of the stones have ancient words carved into them, and some are arranged in squares and rectangles that used to be buildings to house Roman soldiers, so I guess they are an interesting bunch of stones. Just North of where I live, in fact directly opposite our house over the River Tyne, are the remnants of a Roman fort, named Segedunum.
The History Bit.
The fort lay at the eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall, at Wallsend near the banks of the River Tynes, forming the easternmost portion of the wall. It was in use as a garrison for approximately 300 years, almost up to 400AD.
The original garrison of Segedunum is unknown, but in the 2nd century the Second Cohort of Nervians was stationed there. In the 3rd and 4th centuries the part-mounted Fourth Cohort of the Lingones occupied the fort, as recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum. Both units were 600 strong. 120 cavalry and 480 infantry.
Sometime round about 400AD the fort was abandoned. For centuries the area remained as open farmland, but in the 18th century, collieries were sunk near the fort and the area gradually became a populous pit village. Eventually, in 1884, the whole fort disappeared under terraced housing.
In 1929 some excavations were carried out which recorded the outline of the fort. The local authority marked out this outline in white paving stones. In the 1970s the terraced houses covering the site were demolished.
The site of the fort now contains the excavated remains of the buildings’ foundation of the original fort, as well as a reconstructed Roman Military bathhouse based on excavated examples at Vindolanda and Chester forts. A museum contains items of interest that were found when the site was excavated, and a large observation tower overlooks the site.
My Bit.
Phil asked me if I fancied a trip out on Saturday so I had a google and found they were having a Mercato, (Roman Market) at Segedunum including birds of prey, so that’s where I chose to go. The museum itself is really well done but low lighting so as not to damage the treasures. I didn’t have a tripod so I used the iphone to take some shots inside, they’re a bit meh, but of interesting things. They had a visiting exhibition of Roman finds from all over the place.
This is the marble buriel chest of Titus Valerius Secundus found in Ephesus,Turkey AD 50- 100.
The inscription reads:-To the spirits of the departed and to Titus Valerius Secundus, son of Titus, a soldier in the 7th praetorian cohort in the century of Severus. His home was in Liguria. He served for 8 years and was stationers at Ephesus. He lived 26 years and 6 months.
A stationarius was a border guard/military policeman. It does ‘t say how he died so young though.
They had a replica skull with a replica cut in his head from a roman sword. You can”t see the cut from this angle, but I liked this angle better 🙂
This was lovely, it’s called an ewer and is made from copper alloy and was found in a grave in Bayford, Kent, England around AD 43-140. Although found in our country it’s handle is decorated with greek mythology, which the Romans were very into, and shows Ajax slaying cattle whilst a herdsman flees in terror.
Roman provinces were generally personified as women. This was from a colossal marble statue of a woman probably representing ‘Germania”, a personification of conquered German tribes.
One of the galleries in the museum had an exhibition to do with the ship building industry and Phil was very impressed with the models of the ships which were perfect representations of real ships, and beautifully made.
At the top of the building is a viewing station, from the ground it looks like an air traffic control tower, and I took some iPhone pano’s of the views.
that empty green area is where the fort stood, the white building with red roof 1/3 of the way in on the left is the reconstructed bathhouse, I’ve been in it before and its really well done, but was closed for maintenance this time sadly.
That shows the bath house better, and also you can see 3 white tent like structures & 1 little green tent, this was the market!! A bit underwhelming to be honest but they did have 3 birds of prey and some wonderful pies so all was not lost! The fuji came out.
We bought a beef pie, a pork pie and something & apple, can’t remember what but I’m having some for dinner tomorrow!
They also had some gladiator fights on but we got there at break time.
and someone must’ve been a bear
but best of all, were the birds 🙂
so back to work tomorrow, long journeys again this week.
laters gaters
😉
fraggle ~ rocking a camera across the Universe 
Look at these orange birds eyes. Fascinating! The birds shots are really stunning! Cool series, Fraggy. Have a nice week.
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Thanks Reinhold, they were beautiful, but I always think sad that they are tethered and used for entertainment. Birds should be free, but saying that I think these are birds that can’t survive in the wild for some reason.
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Magnificent owl! truly fantastic, I think I’ve never seen one (so perhaps it’s not an owl, lol) I loved that ship too, so perfect and big. Great week for you too kind lady ^_^/
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it was definitely an owl! Thanks Francis 🙂 You have a great week too.
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No shot in those pies?
Cool pictures. I think owls are creepy. Did he wink at you?
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No he did squark a lot at me though!
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What a devil!
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Excellent adventure Fraggy, loved seeing the roman ruins. I not think we have anything like a meat pie here, that I can even think of… That was interesting, how do they tast? Did u find any extra”filling” is there veggies in there as well? Is that crust on top or gravy?
Awesome birds!!! Were they injured at one time?
I was in Bflo. For a few days, got a pinched nerve in my neck, this is the first day I’ve not been in pain, trying hard to catch up to everyone;) saved you re for last to really enjoy it;)!!!
Have a great week . Kathy
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Just had the pies for dinner, they were yummy, Phil chose a beef one and I chose game & apple, we had 1/2 each, no veg and no ‘extras’, crust on top, pastry was really nice, thin & crisp. Think the birds have either been injured or orphaned in the past, not sure really. Hope you are feeling better 🙂
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They sound yummy Fraggy. I know we don’t have them here.. Some thing similar but not the same, I think I would love yours
Yep, I’m working on getting better. Lots of rest and heat
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Looks like you’ve been doing a lot of fun things lately! It’s great to see you living life to the fullest!
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Thanks Lola, having photography for a hobby makes me get out and do stuff! 🙂
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Excellent post! The history and the owls are great. My family came from the other end of Hadrian’s Wall, Bowness-on-Solway, and emigrated to Canada in the early 1800’s.
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that’s just this side of the border, it’s in the patch I do for work but have not had any appointments up that far yet. I’ll take pics if I end up there 🙂
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I have some photos my grandmother took 1909 when she was doing the Grand Tour.
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Have you posted them somewhere?
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I have couple posted on my other blog though there are more in her photo album that I didn’t use: https://marjoriesutherlandhenderson.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/europe-1910-part-2/
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have looked through t hat blog before, but will revisit when I have time to have a good go through.
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would love to see some of the photo’s of your grandmother at Bowness on Solway. Have you ever been there? I checked on google earth but couldn’t find granddad’s house, or the monument, might have to do a field trip and get you some shots. 🙂 Was his name John Blain?
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I hitchhiked around the British Isles in the early 70’s but unfortunately didn’t know about my family history then. I later found I had visited many places my grandmother did. The closest I got to Bowness-on-Solway was Carlisle – sleeping under the castle walls with some rats and a someone being chased by the police joining us. My great, great grandfather was Thomas Blain (1775-1855). If you ever feel like taking a jaunt that would be wonderful. I’ll see what other Bowness photos I have.
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The birds were impressive, but I belted out a laugh when I saw the gladiators on their tea break and the meat pies with shot….do you think the apple pies had shot in them as well? 😉
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maybe a bit of arrow head 😀
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Oh! There was some William Tell action going on as well 🙂
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You have such a fascinating history in your part of the country. I have never heard about Segedunum , so thank you for taking me along. A great post.
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Cheers Otto. 😊
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https://fragglerocking.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/seg-9.jpg is my favourite!
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