Wardley, Wrekendyke Roman road

HER Number:
277

District:
Gateshead and S Tyneside

Site Name:
Wardley, Wrekendyke Roman road

Place:
Wardley

Map Sheet:
NZ36SE NE25NE

Class:
Transport

Site Type: Broad:
Road Transport Site

Site Type: Specific:
Road

General Period:
Roman

Specific Period:

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
It is generally agreed that this Roman road connected the fort at South Shields with the Roman road from Chester-le-Street to the Tyne. A considerable stretch of the road is still in use, from Jarrow Slake to Wrekenton at NZ 2812 5926. West of there it is now largely built over. Wright obtained a section at NZ 310614, where it was 16 feet wide, and another on the east side of Long Bank, Wrekenton, where it was 19 feet across. Until comparatively recently long stretches of the Wrekendyke formed parish boundaries.

Easting:
3525

Northing:
6480

Grid Reference:
NZ35256480

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 277 >> W. Hutchinson, 1787, History of...Durham, II, pp. 487-9 R. Surtees, 1820, History of...Durham, II, pp. 102, 136 J. Hodgson, 1832, Observations on the Roman Road called Wrekendyke, Archaeologia Aeliana, 1, II, pp. 123-36 W.H.D. Longstaffe, 1858, Durham before the Conquest,Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute, Newcastle, I, pp. 59-60 R.P. Wright, 1940, The Wrekendike and Roman road-junction on Gateshead Fell, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XVII, pp. 54-64 R. Selkirk, 1983, The Piercebridge Formula; P Bidwell and M Snape, 2002, The History and Setting of the Roman Fort at Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th Series, vol 31, p 257; DH Heslop, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead before 1080, in Diana Newton and AJ Pollard, Newcastle and Gateshead before 1700, p. 7