he Romans invaded Britain in AD.43 and left in AD. 410, so they were there a very long time - close to four hundred years. During this time they built Hadrian’s Wall, the most spectacular Roman remains in Britain and a World Heritage Site. It stretches for 73 miles across the narrowest part of England from Wallsend-on-Tyne in the east to Bowness-on- Solway in the west and is a dramatic example of Britain divided by occupation with Rome marking out the boundaries of its empire.
The Building of the Wall
The building of the Wall itself was a stupendous achievement, requiring nearly four million tons of rock to be quarried by hand and hauled up to the crags and ridges where it was built. It is the largest structure the Romans ever built and was maintained for nearly three hundred years.
But why build a wall at all? Why didn’t they just carry on their conquest as far north as possible? For eighty years the Romans had tried to move their empire ever northwards to achieve the total conquest of Britain, their most northerly province. However, things back home were looking a bit dodgy and it has been suggested that one reason the wall was built was to raise money.
Why Was Hadrian's Wall Built?
At the time, the Roman Empire was feeling the pinch of having to govern its widespread provinces and one suggestion is that they wanted to get some kind of tax from the ‘foreigners’ who might wish to cross over in order to trade - a sort of customs frontier.
It was a Roman biographer who wrote that the purpose of the Wall was to ‘Separate the Romans from the Barbarians’. The so-called Barbarians were the Caledonian Picts and a tribe called the Brigantes. There had been no physical border to separate them before the Romans arrived and their territory lay on both sides of the wall. They were neither English nor Scottish, since neither England nor Scotland existed in Roman times. So the notion of a customs border sounds quite feasible.
The Roman Empire Begins to Crumble
Around the middle of the 3rd-century AD, the Romans faced increased fighting with the Goths and Vandals in Europe, which meant a heavy demand for more soldiers to fight them off. The great Roman Empire was crumbling. It was too big and possibly too ambitious and the need for more troops eventually caused a gradual depletion in the numbers stationed in Britain.
After the Romans left in the early fifth century, the wall was used as a source of building material by just about anyone who wanted to carry off the stones. For a long time it was a source of ready-cut and dressed stone for castles, churches, and farmhouses.
Ancient Findings at Vindolanda
In the 1970’s, archaeologists discovered ancient wooden tablets at the site of what once was Vindolanda, a garrison fort manned by regiments guarding the area as it was being built. They are an amazing record of life in this outpost of the Roman Empire. On pieces of wood, in spidery ink writing, these early army recruits recorded their grumbles about the weather, the shortage of beer and complaints about the locals who they nicknamed Brittunculi, in other words ‘wretched little Brits’.
A Paradise for Walkers
Hadrian’s Wall wends its way across a landscape that probably hasn’t changed a lot since the Romans walked the wall. It took seven years to build, across one of the narrowest parts of the country, winding through a dramatic setting that is still one of the least populated and unspoilt areas of England - a paradise for walkers.
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