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Most of England and Wales was now either
under Roman control or governed by British kings friendly to Rome. The problem was the fierce Celtic tribes in the north of Great Britain. The new emperor,
Hadrian, decided a wall should be built across the country to keep these tribes, known as the Picts, out of Roman Britain. Roughly translated, Picts means
painted ones so I think we can tell what they looked like. Luckily, this wall was known as Hadrian’s Wall.
Hadrian had decided that an Empire which controlled about 20% of the known world was big enough. The wall was 73 miles long, estimated to have been
between 12 to 16 foot high and 10 feet wide. Every mile there was a fort manned by Roman soldiers. The plans were made in Rome, the Romans planned everything in
great detail being very organised people, but this did throw up some odd things. For example the “fort every mile” instruction was religiously followed meaning
some forts overlooked a sheer drop which no one could climb while maybe 20 yards further along was a narrow valley through which people could have attacked the wall.
The wall was actually not intended to stop movement between Scotland and England but merely to control it. There were gateways through which people
could pass but these gateways would be manned by Roman soldiers. For the first 40 miles or so from the east, the wall was built of stone while the remainder was
made of a turf, or grass, bank.
Parts of this wall are still there today showing how good Roman builders were. The soldiers detailed to man the forts probably had the worst weather
of any Roman soldiers in England and remember they came from a hot country. Experts reckon there were about 40,000 soldiers guarding the wall at any one time.
That’s quite a lot of cold Romans. The wall was finished in about 138AD.
Two of the forts along the wall, at Vindolanda and Housesteads, can be visited today or tomorrow or any time you like actually. Rest assured we will
be there.
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