Newcastle day 5

When I got up this morning the day look cold and grey again. However, I was not about to lose another day of sightseeing, so I headed out.

The plan for today was: South Shields and the Roman Fort of Arbeia, Whitley Bay, Wallsend and the Roman fort of Segedunum.

My first stop was South Shields. South Shields is at the very end of the metro line. Not far from the metro station is the South Shields museum. This was a little bit disappointing. It was quite a small museum that seemed to focus on the life of Catherine Cookson. It certainly wasn't called the Catherine Cookson museum, but that was what the majority of the exhibits were focused around.

However, the museum was free, so I wasn't overly concerned that I hadn't enjoyed it!

Next I headed up a rather large hill to get to the Roman fort of Arbeia. The fort of Arbeia isn't part of the Hadrian's Wall forts. It was constructed mainly to be a supply fort based at the mouth of the river to funnel supplies to forts throughout Northern England and Scotland.

When I had been looking at digs that I wanted to do while in Europe, there was one available at Arbeia. I was really interested in participating in that particular dig, but it was very expensive and the timing conflicted with the Villa Vignacce dig in Rome, so I had to forget about it. I'm extremely glad that I didn't put my name down for the dig at Arbeia.

The site was very disappointing. As it isn't part of Hadrian's Wall, I don't think they get the same number of tourists. Because of this they obviously haven't spent the same amount of time and money making the site accessible to tourists as most of the other sites have done.

I find the fort of Arbeia lacked any detailed information on the layout of the fort or the progression of building over the period of occupation of the site. They weren't even able to provide me with one map that explained the layout of the site! Many of the foundations lay unmarked. They had reconstructed one of the barrack blocks, but I feel that they made many assumptions about how the blocks were used, and it seemed as though it was quite tacky in the way it had been done. Obviously there are excavations continuing at this site as there is still much to unearth, but there is no information regarding what they believe they are unearthing or how long this is going to take.

Overall, I feel that the site is badly managed and not designed to appeal to tourists or even those of us who have an archaeological background. I was really quite upset as so far this was not a good start to my fort exploration over the next couple of days.

So, I headed back into South Shields so I could go to my next stop which was Whitley Bay.

To get to Whitley Bay via metro you have to catch the train back to the main Newcastle train station, and then hop onto a different train that is heading out towards Whitley Bay. The big problem is that Whitley Bay and South Shields aren't actually all that far apart. They are only really separated by the mouth of the river and then Whitley Bay is a few more miles North. However, the local council have come up with a good solution. There is a ferry between South Shields and North Shields on each side of the mouth of the river. From North Shields you can catch the metro and it is only a few stops to Whitley Bay.

The ferry ride was included in my metro ticket, so I didn't have to pay. It's only a 5 minute crossing so it was quick and easy. Something that was really sweet on the ferry was the Captain's dog. Obviously the Captain takes his dog - a lovely Golden Retriever - on the ferry every day. The dog is very well-behaved and friendly. I was eating my lunch on the ferry crossing, so it didn't take long for the dog to find me very interesting. He trotted over to me and gazed at me with big, limpid eyes just hoping that I might feel sorry enough to drop some of my lunch! It was so cute and caused everyone on the boat to laugh. He was such a lovely dog and he didn't get any of my food, but he got some pats.

We arrived at North Shields and I had a bit of a walk to get to the metro. Once I was on the train it wasn't long before I reached Whitley Bay.

Mum and Dad really wanted me to see Whitley Bay so I could experience a proper English seaside. And boy, did I get a typical English seaside experience!

It was cold! And windy! And grey! Everything I expect from an English beach. But it was a bit of fun and very different to what we're used to as a beach coming from Australia. One thing in particular that I really missed was the smell of the ocean. I was surprised to discover that as I got closer to the beach I couldn't actually smell the sea. There wasn't that salty feel to the air that I'm used to. That was a bit of a shock and I don't know why that smell doesn't exist. I'd be very intrigued to know if anyone knows the answer?!

I didn't hang around at Whitley Bay for long. Much too cold. Instead I headed to Wallsend.

Again I was on the metro and it wasn't far to Wallsend.

The main attraction at Wallsend is the Roman fort of Segedunum. As the name of the town suggests, this is the end of Hadrian's Wall, and Segedunum was the fort that marked the end of the wall.

After my experience at Arbeia earlier in the day I was a bit worried about what Segedunum would be like. I was pleased to find that it was a lot better. This site obviously has quite a large number of tourists that visit and so they have both more money and more desire to make the site accessible. One thing that they have done which is very good is a tower raised quite high that gives views over the whole site. From the tower you can really gain a better appreciation for the layout of the fort and the size of it. The fort is organised in a very regimented manner with clear divisions between troop accommodation, captain's accommodation, stores and administration.

The museum that is attached to the site currently has a very interesting extra addition - the head of Hadrian.

Ok, so it's not his actual head, but a large bronze bust of his head that was once part of a statue in London. The body is long since lost, but the head was discovered some time ago at the bottom of the Thames and has since been on display in the British Museum. It is currently touring around the forts along Hadrian's wall and I was lucky enough to catch it at Segedunum.

At Segedunum, the big draw card is a reconstructed bath house. I was quite interested to see this, naturally. It has been done in quite a faithful manner, without adding too many unnecessary extras that would really only be assumption and not fact. They had been quite witty in one respect with their reconstructed bathhouse. They had built into the bathhouse toilets for the people who visited, but what I really like was that the access to the toilets was through the reconstructed latrine! It was hilarious! I was also very impressed by the reconstructed latrine. They had done a good job reconstructing them exactly how I had always pictured them to look.

I left the bathhouse and spent quite a bit of time exploring the ruins of the Roman Fort. Once again it had been done in a very accessible way. Where they had foundations remaining they just cleared up the area around them so they stood out, but where the foundations had disappeared they created an outline and filled it in with large pebbles so you could get an idea of the layout of the whole building. It was really well done and there was a lot of information provided regarding each of the buildings, how they were used and how their use changed over the occupation of the fort.

I also managed to find the location of the latrine within the ruins of the fort. The latrine is located in the hospital - or at least what they assume is the hospital. It isn't a very large latrine, and I can't imagine it would have been the only latrine in a fort of 600 men. I'm sure there would have been other latrine buildings. They may have been built into the walls to allow for the best drainage or they may have even been located outside the walls, but I'm sure there would have been more latrine buildings.

Ok, enough of the latrines. I'm sure you're all thoroughly bored by now (even though I could talk for hours!). The rest of the site was really interesting and I enjoyed wandering around exploring it all. I also managed to see the start of Hadrian's Wall and also an old coal pit entrance. The pit was in use between the 1700's and 1850. It was eventually lost until recently when it was once again uncovered. You certainly can't go into it, but you can see the foundations of the structures around the pit entrance - buildings for the boilers and the machine to pump air into the mine. I found it quite interesting. I guess I never assumed that you would need all of these buildings around the pit entrance. I always just assumed that all that would be there was the entrance to the pit and that was it. The entrance to this pit was 5m from Hadrian's Wall.

Segedunum fort and Wallsend turned out to be a great ending to the day.

I am going to attempt to have an early night tonight as tomorrow will be the start of my adventures along the wall.

I'm not entirely sure what order I'm going to do it in yet, I'll have to figure that out tonight. I was thinking I might start at a point further west along the wall and work my way back over the next couple of days so by the end I'm close to Newcastle rather than doing it the other way around. I'll have to do a bit of research tonight and organise an action plan!

There is a good bus (called the AD122 - really lame!) that follows the course of the wall. The price isn't bad either - you can buy a 3 day pass that only costs 15 pounds, which is pretty good.

Ta Ta for now. More tomorrow.