Dan Snow's History Hit - Edges of Empire: Rome's Northernmost Town

Episode Date: February 2, 2021

Roughly two miles south of Hadrian’s Wall lie the remains of Roman Corbridge, the northernmost town of the Roman Empire. The site’s archaeology is unique. The remains highlight what was once a bustling town. As its centre was the high street. Covered walkways, street-side shops and an ornate fountain are just a few of the structures that we know were present along this central road, now known as the Stanegate. Metres away, however, you have the remains of very different structures surviving. Military buildings, ‘mini forts’ that were slotted into Corbridge’s bustling town landscape, when the legionaries returned here in the 2nd century. Though not on Hadrian’s Wall itself, this ancient cosmopolitan town had strong economic connections with those manning this frontier. It is a must-see site for anyone planning to visit Hadrian’s Wall.A few months back, I was fortunate enough to visit Corbridge and be shown around the site by English Heritage curator Dr Frances McIntosh.The full tour / documentary can be viewed on History Hit TV. Hadrian’s Wall: Settlement and Supply: https://access.historyhit.com/videos/settlement-and-supplyThe site of Corbridge Roman Town is owned by English Heritage https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/corbridge-roman-town-hadrians-wall/

Douglas Adams, the genius behind The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was a master satirist who cloaked a sharp political edge beneath his absurdist wit. Douglas Adams' The Ends of the Earth explores the ideas of the man who foresaw the dangers of the digital age and our failing politics with astounding clarity. Hear the recordings that inspired a generation of futurists, entrepreneurs and politicians. Hey everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history hit. Two miles south of Hadrian's Wall is the remains of Roman Corbridge. This has the unbelievably cool distinction of being the northernmost town of the Roman Empire. Well, before you stop me, obviously, the Antonine invasion of Scotland saw Roman forces march north of Hadrian's Wall, but this town was an enduring, bustling Roman settlement

and as such was the northernmost town of the Roman Empire. We're going with it. We're going with it. That's what the historians and archaeologists are telling us. It was so cool. And here to talk us through Roman Corbridge is Tristan Hughes. This is an episode of the Ancients podcast, our sibling podcast available wherever you get your pods. Tristan walked. This is an episode of the Ancients podcast, our sibling podcast available wherever you get your pods. Tristan walked around Corbridge, well the remains of Corbridge, with the English

Heritage curator Dr Francis McIntosh. It's such a fantastic place. You've got to go and check it out. In fact, if you can't check it out because, for example, you're locked in your house indefinitely during this global pandemic, you can go and view tristan's full tour and documentary a much larger and fuller version of this podcast at history hit tv obviously tristan's made a fantastic program looking at hadrian's wall the logistics at the settlement of the defensive structure of which the wall was only one fairly significant part. You've got to think about Hadrian's Wall as being a sort of defensive band across the north of England, a militarised region. Anyway, watch the TV, you'll learn more. So go over to historyhit.tv. We've just upgraded,

relaunched. Thank you for all your feedback. Glad people can now finally watch on Roku. It's all looking pretty good. The relaunch has gone very smoothly, very exciting. You can head over to historyhit.tv. You can sign up to join the world's best history channel. And then you can watch this documentary on Corbridge. But in the meantime, here's Tristan doing his Ancients podcast. Good to get him out and about.

He needs to get away from his decimal. He's out and about in the northernmost town of the Roman Empire. Enjoy. Hi. Hi, Frances. Thank you so much for joining me today. Welcome to Corbidge, or Coria, as it was known in the Roman times. Well, I must admit, one of the most extraordinary things, first of all,

was just how big the site is. Yeah, so we're stood right on the edge and you can see in front of us the remains. However, this is only a small part. So Corbridge, Roman Corbridge, would have been around 50 acres, we think, so it would have covered all the fields surrounding us. And actually, this is a really good point to talk about how it's connected to the rest of Roman Britain.

So over that hill there, Deer Street, the Roman road that ran ran north from York up to Hadrian's Wall and past Hadrian's Wall came down that hill crossed over the river that's just out of view came up this field and then dog legged and came into the site and joined what we call the staying gate the east west road that goes all the way through to Carlisle. And having these two roads right in the centre of this Roman settlement, is that key to why it's here? Not initially. So the Romans came here first as a fort. Well, I say first, two kilometres that way in the late 70s for about 10 years, and it was as part of the move up into Scotland, so to conquer the entirety of the island as the Romans originally tried. And then they moved to here, which was a better point we think maybe better visibility to monitor maybe the bridge crossing

to see Deer Street and it was a fort here from the late 80s until maybe about the 160s and as you know you'll know every fort has a town on the outside of it what we call a vicus when the fort was abandoned the vicus and the civilians in there just took over and it became a town. So that's when the crossroads get really important because we think that's why the town continues rather than just being completely abandoned because it's on such a key point for trade.

So this town, it becomes a town in its own right. It outlives the fort. That seems quite remarkable along the sites of Hadrian's Wall in its own right. Yeah, it's amazing, really. And it's the most northerly town in Roman Britain. At the moment, we're on one of the roads outside the next stage of Corbridge. So Corbridge is a really complex site. So at some point in the second century, after the soldiers have left,

some of them come back again. There's a gap, but there's only a smaller group that come back. So soldiers have gone, some of them come back again there's a gap but there's only a smaller group that come back so soldiers have gone and then they come back but it's not the auxiliary troops who come back who are staffing and manning the rest of Hadrian's Wall these non-citizen troops it's legionaries these citizen soldiers the ones who built Hadrian's Wall and they set up shop or set up camp in what we call these two small compounds, which are kind of like mini forts. So we're walking along the road outside one of them and they slot themselves in to the town. So we'll see when we walk further across site, what are the Romans best known for?

Straight lines, aren't they nice? Square walls, you know, square shapes. They can't do that in Corbidge because they're trying to fit around what the civilians have already made. So Corbidge is so complex and we just don't know, you know, quite why and what that situation came out of. But some canny businessmen and businesswomen to keep the town going. I mean, you talk about that complexity there and you mention the civilians and the soldiers. Does this really suggest that was Corbidge quite a cosmopolitan society? Oh, absolutely. So we've got the soldiers who could be from, you know, any part of the empire,

potentially. We don't know exactly where all the troops came from. We've got evidence of people speaking Greek here. We've got evidence of a man from Palmyra, which is modern day Syria. So people from all over the empire come into Corbidge, like, you know, up on the wall. And they're here, two miles south of the wall, making things, selling things for all of these soldiers up on the wall. You mentioned a man from Palmyra there. Yeah. So that's basically the eastern edge of the empire. Yeah. And he's a trader or, you know, stationed here on the wall.

Yeah, that thing on the, you know, the northwestern edge of the empire. You couldn't really get much further apart really in that time and be still in the same empire. And so what are these remains that we're walking past now? So we're in part of the eastern compound. So this is when these legionaries came in the late 2nd or 3rd century and we're on a little road in between. So it's kind of like a mini fort.

They would have had some barracks it's quite tricky to see because then after the legions we left again so they've come and they've left again these buildings get taken over again by civilians but there's um small barracks over there would be a headquarters if we go into western compound later we'll be able to see a really good headquarters but you can see and i'm sure you'll have noticed all the walls going up and down yes any thoughts wood underneath little dips absolutely so we are now as we are in most of the site on top of the original fort so when the fort was abandoned in the 160s perhaps we think the barracks seemed to be wooden they were demolished and just flattened not

removed and then everything was flattened for them to build whatever's on top obviously as you know wood rots so the lines there are where the wood's been put down and so kind of shoddy workmanship so the Romans are showing a different face at Corbridge aren't they you know they're known for their straight lines really routine and square shapes which we don't have here. Plus not necessarily the best workmanship. Someone's left that although you know the legionaries wouldn't have noticed that. That's only happened after the Romans left. Francis next took me outside of these mini forts to show how they were slotted in to Corbidge's already existing town layout. So this is the outer edge of the eastern compound. Now, if you ask anyone to describe a Roman fort,

it'd be plain card-shaped, all very straight lines. However, if you look here, it curves around and then doglegs along and along. And that's because these buildings here, which you can just see a little bit of, they're strip buildings facing the street front, probably shops, which would then have workshops in the back and perhaps accommodation upstairs.

They're already there when these legionaries come back. And for some reason, because you presume the army would have the power to kick them out, they don't. I quite like to think it's just because they know someone would get really annoyed and it'd cause too much hoo-ha, and they know they're going to be here and they've got to live alongside them. But you see, this is another one.

This is a short building and they've taken it right up to the edge. So they haven't evicted this person, but they've probably annoyed him because that's like someone building a conservatory, isn't it? Right up to your conservatory. It's quite intimidating, ancient intimidation. Yeah, because if you walk up here, we cannot socially distance because look how narrow it is. walk up here we cannot socially distance because look how narrow it is so they didn't encroach on his space or her space but yeah it's quite interesting though how you see legionaries

and shops traders side by side once again and they're not tearing down the shops no they're building around them exactly and so we talk about in the third century Corbridge is a little bit like a garrison town so people talk about Catterick don't they nowadays with the huge Catterick garrison and the soldiers and their families living in the town and that town thrives because of that market. At Corbridge we've got soldiers and civilians living side by side and these civilians are going to be supplying both these soldiers

and the soldiers upon the wall so it's a really symbiotic relationship. Probably all these traders at Corbidge wouldn't have survived if the wall wasn't there because that's their market, you know, all these men being paid money but nowhere to go to spend it other than potentially Corbidge. So even though Corbidge isn't on the wall itself, it has this strong connection to the wall. That's right. Mercantile connection, economic connection.

Yeah, yeah. I'm sure lots of the merchants here would have had contracts with the army, personal links with the army, because the army's up on the wall for almost 300 years. Claim to fame Corbett is here for longer, but, you know, we don't like to make too much of that. And so they benefit from each other. The army gets supplies and people here make money.

It's pretty astonishing how close together the shops and these mini barracks were in Roman Corbridge. And from there, Frances and I headed on to Staingate Road, this main arterial route which ran through the heart of Roman Corbridge. And talking about communication routes, this is a major Roman route during the Roman occupation of Britain. Absolutely, yeah. So you can see all the way back, it goes into that field

and continues on all the way to Carlisle, which is about 30, 40 miles. We don't know the line the whole way. It's a bit of join the dots at some points, but we know it went all that way. And as we walk back, we can see the different levels so when they excavated here so here we're about kind of fourth century core bridge and then if you go down we're in earlier levels because obviously the Romans built on top on top and top so we can see the development of the site and its topography

there's a really good dip that we can have a look at by the granaries which when the excavators dug it it was a nice straight section you know so they could see all the layers we've had to obviously slope it out because health and safety you know but it shows you how much build-up over time there is they didn't strip back and resurface they just resurfaced on top and this road's been used by the Romans for 300 years plus before they left. And what is the archaeology telling us about the shops that were situated alongside this main arterial road? Well, probably a good time to take you to Site 11. Absolutely, let's have a look.

And, I mean, Site 11's a bit of a rubbish name, isn't it, for a site? It's not like the granaries or the compounds. But it's because no one will commit to what we think it was or what it was meant to be. Site 11 is an absolutely massive area in Roman Corbridge, almost 100 metres by 100 metres in size. It takes up an absolutely vast amount of the site. And in the middle, you've got these two buildings which are made of much smaller stone than the rest. So they are earlier buildings that

haven't been fully demolished so you know we said we're on top of the plan of the old fort yes they are the headquarters and the commanding officer's house of the old fort and someone's flattened most of this site to build site 11 but not finish those and got rid of them so what they're one of the clues that we know this building was never even finished. Because if you're building some grand structure, you don't leave two ruins in the middle. It was in this area of Roman Corbridge that archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery. What's the most exciting find that you've uncovered in Site 11? Well, it's found on Site 11, but not on Site 11. So when the object was buried that you're asking about,

it was not Site 11. So again, we're like complex kind of chronology. So in the second quarter of the second century, so 125, 140-ish, somebody buried a chest. In that period, in the second century, there were barracks around here, so we've got in our earlier fort and underneath the road outside a barrack someone we presume a soldier buried a chest so about this sort of size wooden chest with iron binding and leather cladding and then filled it

full of armor and the lorica segmentintata, you know, that famous armour, I always say it looks a bit like an armadillo, with some personal possessions, with tools, with all sorts of, and we call it very imaginatively, the Corbridge Hoard. You're listening to Dan Snow's History Hit. We got Tristan on with an episode of the ancients. More after this.

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entrepreneurs and politicians. Get Douglas Adams' The Ends of the Earth now at pushkin.fm slash audiobooks or wherever audiobooks are sold. The Coppice Horse, and so this was buried by a soldier before Site 11 became what we now know as Site 11. Yeah, exactly. So Corbridge Hoard is an absolutely fascinating find, but it's also a really good example of it's found here, and we now talk about Site 11,

but when it was buried, it wasn't Site 11, so it can confuse visitors. But there were barracks and streets underneath here before site 11 was built and we don't know why he buried it so modern day army you know you've got the royal engineer corps etc and specialists in other things in the roman army within a legion and within an auxiliary troop soldiers have all the skills so there would be masons would be architects there would be medics clerics would also be armourers so our best guess for the corbidge hoard is that it was the spares and the tools of an armourer who was

also a soldier so there was parts of six suits but no complete suit there was 20 or 30 spearheads so the iron bit but none of the halfs all but all bundled together, and then his tools. And so if one section of your lorica, your lorica segmentata, breaks, it's really clever, you can just take that one section out and replace it with another. So it makes real sense that the armourer, he'd be collecting all his spares, wouldn't he, so that he could repair his suit.

So it's absolutely fascinating, because before that, so before 1964, we knew about that type of armor you know it was known but no one found very much they didn't really understand you know how you might make a suit how you might wear it how you might repair it which is really quite key when the army are out and about and because so much was found at Corbis they were able to reconstruct it for the first time which is you know in the geeky world of Roman military equipment really exciting but also in the wider world quite exciting because to understand how these things were worn and used

we found leather straps which held the bits of metal together so it shows how flexible it was because before people had seen it on sculptures and been like well i don't know if that's really very practical but because of this find we were able to well not me obviously you know we were able to find all this out, which is amazing. So we have this possible legionary slash blacksmith to thank for burying all this equipment that we've now found almost 2,000 years later. And then you've got the mystery of why did he bury it?

Why did he not come back? Mysteries abound, don't they? From Site 11, we headed across to see the remains of one of the most important structures from Roman Corbridge, arguably the lifeblood of Roman Corbridge. Right, so we're going to go and have a look at the aqueduct. So all Roman forts and towns would require water supply, obviously, but it's rare to have the aqueduct surviving.

So you can see where it's been robbed, the width of it. So it's rare to have the aqueduct surviving so you can see where it's been robbed the width of it so it's a really big construction because obviously water is really important to the you know functioning of a town the romans understood to some extent about germs and things not to say we would but they knew that running water was better than stagnant water so when we get to the fountain we'll see they had settling tanks so the water wasn't sitting because they knew running water much healthier much better and so i'm now in the aqueduct but it's been completely robbed by later generations modern core bridge over there a lot of it's built out of roman core bridge as francis mentioned the water from the aqueduct, it flows down into the tanks right next to a fountain,

a fountain which was crucially important to the people of Roman Corbridge. So I'm below the level, but you can see here, this is part of the platform, and so there would have been at least two tanks until the tank where people could come and get the water. Ah, OK, yes. So it runs down. So we've got some of the decorative stonework.

But it's just, again, an absolutely vast construction. Absolutely. Isn't it? And those stones there, which are really worn, that's from where? From people leaning over and dragging their buckets. So we know these things were used for a really long time. And you will not see a fountain in a Roman fort.

You might see a well or a tank, but not a fountain like this, so this is something really unique. I love what you said about that scratching there. So the scratching that you can see, or the wearing away, that is from 2,000 years ago from people reaching over, trying to get water for them. Absolutely, yeah. So some of them are quite smooth over time.

But yeah, so it's really staggering. And we know, so the big pillar behind you here and its sister on the other side they would have held statues so it was ornate it was decorative it wasn't just functional it was a big statement not bad for the northernmost town in roman britain exactly yeah as francis and i headed back towards the entrance there was one more building which we wanted to talk about and this building is one of the most recognizable buildings that you would see in any roman fort across the length and breadth of the empire the granaries what have we got over here these look like the base of some amazing pillars yeah they're really vast aren't they and that's because they're here

to hold up a covered portico or a canopy to protect the entrance to the granaries. So the granaries store foodstuff, not just grain, but, you know, it could be any form of wheat or barley, all those all the sorts of grains. But then maybe bread, but also perhaps wine or olive oil, other foodstuffs that you want to keep away from predators and pests. that you want to keep away from predators and pests. Because if you look around, you can see, again, we're talking about the floor level. That's the floor level there. So you've got what looks like the remains of stone slabs above these channels underneath. That's right. So it's raised floor to keep the airflow, so to keep damp away, but also to keep pests away, to rats and mice and other things and so really good

construction there interesting we know these granaries were occupied and used for at least 200 years and they're repaired some of our lovely inscriptions that we found that are on display in the museum were found either repaving the road or repaving the granary in here but people often think this might be underfloor heating because one of those things the Romans are famous for but no this is just another form so we do have underfloor heating obviously up on the wall but no this is just to keep the air flow. Is that a key difference that you need to realise sometimes that with these ancient sites what are the sites are the granaries where it isn't the underfloor heating it was to

keep away pests and the other places where it is underfloor heating and is it quite interesting to try and figure out which is which? Yeah so you would generally expect underfloor heating in bath houses we can see them up on the wall at the Chester's bath house but also perhaps in the commanding officer's house in the centre of the fort so you'll see that in some of our forts because they're the ones that have got that you know the luxury to be able to afford underfloor heating but I mean it's the same sort of technology. It's keeping air flow, but this is to keep dry and keep away from the pests. But, no, it's a really impressive structure, these granaries.

Absolutely. And in regards to these stones, of course, the wall is made quite a lot from local stone. And is it the same core ridges? Is it all quite locally quarried? Absolutely, because quarrying and moving stone is a huge amount of work. So you want to get it from as close as possible because it saves on money and time. So we know there's quarries kind of locally dotted around.

Sometimes it's difficult to know for certain if a quarry was used in the Roman period, because often if it was used in the Roman period, it was used in the medieval and the post-medieval period also, and they erase all the signs of the Roman working, but people are starting to look at the geology and see if they can match up the geology of stones but no as local as possible. Fantastic and keep going over that way. Yeah so this is our eastern granary and it's got a pairing with the western granary and what's

really nice along here is you can see the buttresses that have been built on both it so again monumental construction. These were built to last. And what's really nice, if we walk along here, is you can see these windows, well, they're not windows, but through into the granary, again, to allow airflow. So really rare that these have survived in situ. So these are old Roman vents, as it were? Yes, yeah, yeah.

Brilliant. And because it seems to be a staple of Roman forts throughout Hadrian's World, South Shields also to the east, you have all these granaries, don't you? And it all seems to follow this quite similar design. They knew what they wanted to do when they were building these. Yeah, so if you went to a fort in Syria,

say Barates, our Palmyran, was based in Syria and then came over here and set up at houses, he'd know exactly where everything was laid out. Because a fort was a fort was a fort. The commanding officer's house and the headquarters would be in the middle. Everything would be laid out on a grid system. And it's partly, I think, Roman efficiency, everything must be the same, but also it's quite sensible because if you got woken up in the middle of the night with an alarm, you know, someone's coming, you're always going to know how to get out because you're always going to be

stationed in a fort that's laid out the same. So it's good military tactics as well. Given how much of Corbridge has been uncovered, the small amounts, given how huge the site is, how much have we still got to uncover? Well, so we have this site here that the visitors can see that was given to the nation in the 1930s, but every field outside of it has got room in Corbridge and we've seen that either through excavation in the 1930s but every field along outside of it has got Roman Corbidge and

we've seen that either through excavation in the Edwardian periods or by geophysical survey or aerial photography so the site's at least 50 acres we know where some of the cemeteries are so we know that's definitely edge of the town but then in between where we know the town is and the cemeteries there's a modern town which is maybe covering up some of it so we really just don't know it's just vast. That's very exciting to hear for the future yes hope you enjoyed the podcast just before you go bit of a favor to ask i totally understand if you don't want to become a subscriber or pay me any cash money, makes sense. But if you could just do me a favour, it's for free. Go to iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. If you give it a five-star rating and give it an

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