The Ancients - Edges of Empire: Rome's Northernmost Town

Episode Date: January 31, 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/

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like The Ancients ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. It's The Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. And in today's podcast, we are talking about the northernmost town in Roman Britain,

Corbridge. Now, a few months back, I was fortunate enough to head up to Hadrian's Wall to do some filming for History Hit TV. And one of the places that we visited, that we had to visit, was Roman Corbridge. I was lucky enough to get shown around the site, have a tour with Dr Frances McIntosh. She is an English heritage curator based on the wall, and she was absolutely fantastic. Here's the podcast. Hi. Hi, Frances. Thank you so much for joining me today. Not to Corbridge 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 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 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'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 ford 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. 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, 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. So that's basically the eastern edge of the empire. And he's about to trade or, you know, stationed here on the wall. You mentioned a man from Palmyra there so I mean that's basically the eastern edge of the empire and he's perhaps 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 and the

late second or third century and we're on a little road in between so it's kind of like a mini fort so they would have had some barracks it's quite tricky to see because then after the legions 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 Dibs? 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. Frances next took me outside of these mini-forts to show how they were slotted in to Corbridge'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 dog legs 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.

Because if you 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 3rd 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 Corbridge wouldn't have survived if the wall wasn't there because that's their market. All these men being paid money but nowhere to go to spend it other than potentially Corbridge. So even though Corbridge 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 Corbridge 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 And from there, Francis 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 4th century core bridge. And then if you go down, we're in earlier levels because obviously the Romans built on top, on top, on 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 buildupup 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. 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 finished those and got rid of them. So 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, with that 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 our 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 a'r gwirionedd oedd yn ystod y cyfnod. Felly, o'r math hwn o fes, cest o'r llythyr, gyda'r llythyr a'r llythyr o'r iron, a wedi'i ffynnu'n llawn o armwr. Y Lorica Seguin Tartar, y ffynus armwr, mae'n edrych fel armadillo. Gyda phosesiynu personol,

gyda'r gwaith, gyda'r holl ffynion, ac rydyn ni'n ei alw'n ddiddorol, y Gwrbryd Hord. possessions with tools with all sorts and we call it very imaginatively the Cor's Hoard, and so this was buried by a soldier before Site 11 became what we now know as Site 11. Yeah, exactly. So Corbett's 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. ond mae hefyd yn enghraifft da iawn o'r ffordd y mae'n cael ei chyfarfod yma ac rydym nawr yn siarad am Cyngor 11 ond pan oedd yn cael ei garu nid oedd yn Cyngor 11 felly gallai'n amgylchu ymweldwyr ond roedd

barraithau a straeon o dan yna cyn cyntaf Cynog 11 a dydyn ni ddim yn gwybod pam ei fod wedi'i garu felly ar yr Armeryddol ddyddol rydych chi'n gwybod mae gennych chi'r Cwrs Enginyddol a'r arbenigwyr a phethau eraill yn yr Armeryddol Romen o fewn Lleidydd ac o fewn trwb argyfwngol roedd ymddygiadau ganddyn nhw felly byddai'n gweithwyr, byddai architecht, byddai'n masons, byddai'n architecht, byddai'n meddygion, byddai'n clerigion, byddai hefyd yn armorydd. Felly ein gwestiwn gorau ar gyfer y Gwrbyd Hordd yw bod yn y sbair a'r gwaith o'r armorydd sy'n hefyd yn ymddygiad. Felly roedd yna rhai o ddwy gwrtau ond ddim yn gwybodaeth. Roedd y was 20 or 30 spear heads so the iron bit but none of the hafts 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 replace it with another so it makes real sense of 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 Felly mae'n gwneud gwirioneddol o fod y llawyr, byddai'n casglu'r holl ffyrdd, felly gallai ei gwerthu ei gwrthu. Felly mae'n hynod o ddiddordeb, oherwydd cyn hynny, cyn 1964, roedden ni'n gwybod am y math hwn o llawr. Roedd yn gwybod, ond doedd unrhyw un wedi dod o hyd i'r fawr. Doedd nhw ddim yn deall sut y gallech chi wneud gwrthu, sut y gallech chi ei ddewis, sut y gallech chi ei gwerthu, sy'n bwysig iawn pan mae'r armei ar gael ac ar gael. Ac oherwydd bod llawer o'r gwaith wedi cael ei gael o hyd i'r cor, roedd yn gallu ei adeiladu ar gyfer y tro cyntaf, 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 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 the extent 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 was much healthier, much better. And so I'm now in the aqueduct, but it's been completely robbed by later generations. Modern Corbridge over there, a lot of it's built out of Roman Corbridge. As Frances 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 so it runs down so we've got some of the decorative stonework but it's just again an absolutely vast construction 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, is it? Exactly, yeah. As Frances 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 recognisable 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 the sorts of grains, but then maybe bread, but also perhaps wine or olive oil, other food stuff 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 it 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. Interestingly, 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 it's 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 center 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 really impressive structure these galleries. Absolutely and in regards to these stones yeah of course the wall is made quite a lot from local stone and is it the same core ridges as 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 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 we'll walk 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 so again monumental construction these were built to last and what's really nice with these walk along here is you can see these windows while they're not windows but through into the ground 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 Palmymyran was based in syria and then came over here and set up at houses you know exactly where everything was laid out because

a fort was a fort was a fort the commanding officer's house and the headquarters be in the middle everything will 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 there are small amounts given how huge the site is how much have we still got to uncover how much much have we got to learn? Well, so we have this site here that the visitors can see that was given to the nation 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 the edge of the town. But then in between where we know the town is and the cemeteries is the modern town, which is maybe covering up 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. Very exciting to hear for the future. Yes. I hope you enjoyed this slightly different Style of Ancients podcast today. The whole tour, Francis and I going around Corbridge, can be viewed as a documentary

at History Hit TV newly relaunched at access.historyhit.com The documentary is called Hadrian's Wall, Settlement and Supply. Thank you.