South Shields Fort, parade ground

In 1959 John Thornborrow excavated at the corner of Beacon Street and Lawe Road roundabout. He recovered three stone altar bases in situ, a large inscribed altar (HER no. 905), fragments of a further very large altar, the statue of a bearded god (HER no. 906), a large moulded panel and a feature interpreted as a tribunal. These discoveries are taken to suggest that a parade ground lay immediately east of the fort, with its long axis parallel with the east wall of the fort, and the shrine area and tribunal at the north end.