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Tyne and Wear HER(806): Wallsend vicus - Details

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806


N Tyneside


Wallsend vicus


Wallsend


NZ26NE NZ36NW


Domestic


Settlement


Vicus


Roman



Documentary Evidence


The vicus "extended along the north bank of the river, Horsley noting buildings on the slope between the south rampart and the Tyne, and also south-west of the fort". Birley was more specific, saying that a very extensive civil settlement had existed within the angle between the Wall and fort stretching nearly half a mile westward along the Military Way. He added that traces of 2 or 3 streets had been noted, and evidence of industrial activity, including a probable potter's kiln. It should, however, be noted that recent excavations outside the fort to the west at NZ 299 658/9 have not provided evidence of Roman occupation, either because it had been destroyed or because it had never been there. Over the years there have been from this area many random finds of coins, metalwork, querns, animal bones and Roman pottery, including a large part of a samian bowl (HER no. 811-829). Defensive ditches and a possible earth bank formed the western boundary of the vicus some 65 metres from the fort and the Branch Wall from fort to Tyne formed the eastern boundary. Excavations in advance of a new dry dock at Swan Hunter's Shipyard in 2002, revealed a sequence of banks and ditches 75 metres south of the fort, forming elements of a defensive cordon most probably defining the south side of the vicus. These lay parallel to the Roman riverbank, some 160 metres north of the modern highwater mark.


29851


65719


NZ2985165719



<< HER 806 >> J. Horsley, 1732, Britannia Romana, 135-6 J. Brand, 1789, History of Newcastle, I, 604-05 and n. J.C. Bruce, 1851, The Roman Wall, 1st ed, p. 116, pl. IV opp. p. 113, pl. XV fig. 1 W.S. Corder, 1905, Wallsend (Segedunum),Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 3, I (for 1903-04), 45-6 W.S. Corder, 1913, Segedunum, The Last Phase,Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 3, V (for 1911-12), pl. opp. p. 213 G.R.B. Spain, ed. 1930, Wallsend Fort, Northumberland County History, XIII, 486-7, 490-1 E.B. Birley, 1961, Research on Hadrian's Wall, 159-61 K. Smith & J. Coppen, 1977, Wallsend: vicus? W.B. Griffiths, 1992, A Trial Excavation at Thermal Syndicate Ltd. Wallsend P.T. Bidwell, N. Holbrook & M.E. Snape, 1991, The Roman Fort at Wallsend and its Environs, passim Tyne and Wear Museums, 2002, New Dry Dock, Swan Hunter's Shipyard, Wallsend, Archaeological Evaluation Report Barry C. Burnham, 2002, Roman Britain in 2001, Wallsend, North Tyneside, Britannia, 33 (2002), p 291-2; David J. Breeze, 2006, J. Collingwood Bruce's Handbook to the Roman Wall, 14th edition, p 138; Jonathan mcKelvey, nd, Segedunum Roman Fort: Camp Road site, Arbeia Magazine 16th Issue; Tyne and Wear Museums, 2010, Land east of Wallsend Roman Fort (TWEDCo) - Archaeological Assessment; Pre-Construct Archaeology, 2013, Former Swan Hunter Site, Station Road, Wallsend - Archaeological Evaluation; Pre-Construct Archaeology, 2016, Segedunum Museum, Buddle St, Wallsend - Archaeological Evaluation

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