The Fourteenth Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimageorganised by the Society of Antiquaries ofNewcastle and the Cumberland and West-moreland Archaeological Society tookplace in July this year. It now happensevery 10 years and was originally started byJohn Collingwood Bruce in 1849. I attendedthe last Pilgrimage in 2009 and was luckyenough to take part again this year joiningover 200 other pilgrims with a wide range ofbackgrounds and from a number of differ-ent countries. It is organised by all the lead-ing experts on Hadrian’s Wall and theserespected academics and archaeologiststransform themselves into tourist guidesand health and safety experts during theweek of the tour.The first part of the event was based inNewcastle with many visitors stopping atthe Station Hotel while locals like me com-muted into Newcastle each day. For me itstarted with pouring rain on the way to New-castle to register and ended the same on avery wet day at Cawfields on Hadrian’sWall. During the week we had mainly dry

weather and amazingly we had tropicaltemperatures in South Shields and Wall-send. In keeping with other pilgrimages thebeginning and end were marked with formaldinners the first being in the BanquetingHall in Newcastle Civic Centre and the lastin the Ballroom of the Crown & Mitre Hotelin Carlisle. The week had a packed pro-gramme of visits to sites where changeshad taken place over the preceding tenyears.

On the first day we all piled into fourcoaches each of which had two expertguides and headed to Brunton Turret and

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Hadrians’s Wall Pilgrimage 2019

Autumn2019No. 22

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Chesters Fort in the morning. At Chesterswe had the first of many packed lunchesbeside Clayton’s amazing museum packedto the rafters with all things Roman. In theafternoon we came back to Newcastle tovisit wall remains at Denton and Benwelland disturbed a peaceful residential areawith a mass influx of pilgrims peering at thefamous Vallum crossing. The day con-cluded with a visit to the Great North Mu-seum.On the second day, at 9.00 am on aMonday morning in Newcastle the coachesexperienced problems picking up 200people at the Station Hotel and it led to adelayed start for a walk from Carrawburghto Black Carts along the Vallum on privateland not normally open to the public. Thisalso presented a major health and safetyproblem in crossing the Military Road aswell as having to climb over a 6 ft. high dry

stone wall. Graham Stobbs provided theanswers by having a temporary timber stilebuilt to get people over the wall and afterraiding his model railway kit he came upwith two flags one green and one red to in-dicate to Bill Griffiths when it was safe tocross the road. Despite witnessing somedangerous speeding drivers and Bill havingto physically restrain some of the more de-termined pilgrims, all made a safe crossingbefore Graham threw the stile back over thefence to deter any unauthorised trespasson the co-operative farmers land. We thenwent for a picnic and a visit to Housesteads.On Tuesday the sun shone on Arbeia Fortand South Shields Town Hall where theMayor hosted lunch before we all as-sembled on the steps for the formal photo-graphs of the pilgrims. The main highlightof the Pilgrimage followed as the coachespulled into Segedunum Museum to visit theBorderline Funny cartoon exhibition afterguided tours to the newly discovered ori-ginal bathhouse and the recently consolid-ated section of Hadrian’s Wall beside the

reconstructed wall. Most of the pilgrims vis-ited the exhibition and much laughter washeard and some complained that the visitwas too short to see all the cartoons.Wednesday was the changeover day whenpeople moved hotels and I took my suitcasewith me ready for a few days in a CarlisleHotel. All the buses headed to Vindolandawhere we stopped all day with members ofthe Ermine Street Guide on site to welcomeus before having a number of guided toursaround different parts of the site. We had aHog Roast in the evening before going onto the hotels.On Thursday we travelled along the wall toBowness and parked on the Solway shoreand walked onto the sands and everyonewas disappointed at the total lack of any-thing to say we were at the start or end ofthe wall unlike at Wallsend. We then calledat Silloth and got lost trying to find the publictoilets and then formed one of the longestqueues ever witnessed in the town! Wedrove along the coast to Maryport andcaused parking problems both at our lunchstop and at Senhouse Museum on anothervery hot day with people looking for shadefrom the sun during tours. We called atSwarthy Hill milefortlet on the way back and

caused major traffic problems on the mainroad as people disembarked and GrahamStobbs had to act as traffic controller again.In the evening we had a visit to Tullie HouseMuseum.

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On Friday we headed east to Banks Turretand Pike Hill Signal station before we had awalk along the former Turf Wall from Apple-trees to Birdoswald Fort for tours and lunch.After lunch we walked east and across theRiver Irving at Willowford Bridge to see theimpressive remains of the Roman bridge.We then walked on to the well preservedMilecastle at Poltross Burn at Gilsland.The final full day of the Pilgrimage was alsothe wettest and luckily involved a visit insidethe Roman Army Museum to dry out after atour of Carovan fort by Andrew Birley. Wethen had a wet walk in heavy mist along partof the dramatic wall as it climbs up anddown the crags but as pilgrims kept fallingover and we could not see past our nosesthe walk was eventually abandoned. Wewalked back along a farm track with a riverrunning down it and I discovered my water-

proof boots weren’t. Back on to the steamycoach to eat our lunch, after queuing in therain to collect our picnic from caterers shel-tering under a windswept gazebo. Our lastvisits in the afternoon were to a temporaryRoman camp then on to the famous ‘silly’Milecastle 42 built on a precipice where sol-diers needed to climb up a rope to get in themain gate. David Breeze, the Chief Pilgrimwho was celebrating his 75th Birthday gavethe closing speech at the dinner that nightand the ‘Borderline Funny’ exhibition wasreferred to in the speeches and got its ownround of applause.On Sunday 26th July everyone departedCarlisle with heads spinning from all the Ro-man facts (or drink from the night before)and looking forward to 2029 to do it allagain.Ken Hutchinson

The afternoon of Monday September 9th saw some ofthe world’s top riders and teams who were taking partin the Tour of Britain passing Segedunum before con-tinuing to Newcastle city centre, with a spectacular fin-ish on Grey Street. Elected Mayor of North TynesideNorma Redfearn CBE said: “It was fantastic to see theprestigious race come to North Tyneside and I was de-lighted to see so many residents and schoolchildrenline the streets and watch the riders come through.“This was a wonderful opportunity to showcase ourwonderful borough to a national audience who maynever have seen some of the amazing landmarks we boast, including St Mary’s Lighthouse,Spanish City and Segedunum – to name just a few.”

Tour of Britain passes Segedunum

Evans on the WallAs featured in our last Newsletter - the café at Segedunum is now offering ten per discountto Friends on production of your membership card. They offer a wide range of food andsnacks using mainly local ingredients. It’s great to have full café service once again so whynot pop in and give them a try...

Hadrians’s Wall Pilgrimage 2019 ..............1Tour of Britain passes Segedunum...........3Evans on the Wall .....................................3Borderline Funny Review..........................4Meet the Committee..................................5What is a Cartoon? ...................................5Books to look out for .................................6Friends of Segedunum Committee2019/20 .....................................................7

Friends of Segedunum Programme..........8Wallsend Local History SocietyProgramme ...............................................8Ancient Kamiros........................................9From the Fort...........................................10Around the Wall .......................................11Notes from the Chairman and CommitteeOctober 2019...........................................12

In this edition

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The last Newsletter announced the start of the Borderline Funny Exhibition and this onereports on how successful it has been over the summer.The exhibition finished on 22nd September and has been a great success. We had a lot ofgood publicity with TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, facebook, trip advisor and even themetro advertising it. Segedunum Museum has seen an increase in visitor numbers with14,567 visitors to the museum as the exhibition was on. The visitor book for the exhibitioncontains a wealth of complementary comments on the exhibition.The off the wall exhibition brought a smile to a lot of people trying to escape from Brexit andother false news and the exhibition even featured a certain American President who has aninterest in walls.One of the biggest positives from the exhibition was the engagement with local children. Weemployed a Beano Cartoonist to work with a local school and then with the public duringEaster which led to the production of scores of children's cartoons. We then invited kids todraw their own cartoons when visiting the exhibition and this was a great success and hasled to over 700 cartoons being produced which we have put in folders as the project pro-gressed.The Beano cartoonist, Nigel Auchterlounie, was then inspired to produce a Dennis the Men-ace cartoon strip based on Hadrian's Wall which appeared in the Beano in July. After con-tacting the Beano they allowed us to produce a blown up panel of the cartoon strip that wemounted in the children's area.Before the exhibition ended other museums were approached to see if they would like todisplay the cartoons in another exhibition. A number of museums showed an interest andthe good news is that Vindolanda have agreed to use the cartoons in a forthcoming exhibi-tion within the next 2 years and we have packed the panels up in bubble wrap to transportthem to Vindolanda.Following further discussions with Museum staff at Tyne and Wear it has been suggestedthat a 'Son of Borderline ' exhibition could be held to exhibit the best children's cartoons inGallery 3 at Segedunum early next year after the Christmas closure.Following the closure of the exhibition a celebratory evening was held at Segedunum on 26thSeptember to thank the volunteers for all their work and they all kindly searched through thechildren’s cartoons to select the best for the new exhibition. We still need a punchy title forthe ‘Son of Borderline’ Exhibition so put your thinking caps on and let us have your sugges-tions. During the evening Ken presented the raffle winners with the two cartoons donated byTony Husband. He deliberately mixed up the two cartoons to see if anyone would notice(false news) but luckily someone did! Susan Austin and David Alsymer who are bothFriends of Segedunum, but had not been involved in the exhibition, had bought tickets tosupport the museum and got an unexpected bonus.

Susan and David being presented with their cartoons by Friends’ Chairman Ken Hutchinson

Borderline Funny Review

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Meet the CommitteeGlenn has been a resident of Wallsend area for many yearsinterspersed with periods overseas as well as in other parts ofthe UK.After leaving Newcastle University, Glenn first worked in a lawfirm in Barrow in Furness, before moving into Shipbuilding,later was company solicitor at Parsons, Heaton in the earlyto mid 90s and in most recent years General Counsel andHead of Contract Management for the GE’s power / energydivision based in Switzerland.

Glenn sort of retired in September 2018 and now spends time as legal andbusiness consultant when not supporting The Friends of Segedunum and Chairing theMyWallsendTown Community Group etc.He spends his time between North East and South East where most of the family reside.An avid follower of the non-league football scene, the arts community and when feelinghalf fit trudging the hills. Oh and then there is real Ale......

What is a cartoon? It is a drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorouslyexaggerated way, especially a satirical one in a newspaper or magazine. This summer sawthe successful execution of the Borderline Funny Exhibition at Segedunum Fort in Wallsend.Contributions came from Private Eye, Viz, the Beano and many others. With hindsight itmight have been a good idea to record the chuckling and laughing voices of the hundredsof people who came to see it.‘The gift that keeps on giving’ is how Beth Adams describes Hadrian’s Wall in one of the twovideos that ran throughout the exhibition. ‘Walls are having a bit of a moment – thanks toTrump’ was another of her pertinent remarks as well as ‘Hadrian was living Trump’s dream.’This lively and quirky video brought a contemporary view of Hadrian’s Wall to visitors.The variety of visitors was impressive – from young children to elderIy and I was proud toencourage my family and friends to visit the exhibition. Many travelled from far and near –from Australia and from around the corner in Wallsend. Hundreds of cartoons were carriedout by children (and adults) in the section provided for them and a follow up exhibition ofselected ones will be on display in the near future.It was my pleasure to be a volunteer for the exhibition and I enjoyed interacting with visitorsas well as overhearing their comments and chuckles. Segedunum is a special museum withspecial staff – Liz and Daniel always made me feel welcome. Being a Friend offers manyopportunities at many levels. This has certainly been a enjoyable and successful projectand I am sure that Hadrian and his soldiers would have been very proud of both its contentand presentation.Marie Rice

What is a Cartoon?

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Books to look out for“Wallsend at Work” Ken HutchinsonAnother work from our prolific chairman has recently beenpublished. It is a well researched study of the town’s work andindustries ranging from the 2nd to the 21st century and is ap-propriately dedicated to “everyone who has worked in Wall-send”.It is a slim volume of just under 100 pages but it iscomprehensive and very readable. I read it through in a singlesession. I found the first two chapters on the 2nd to 5th Cen-turies and the 6th to 11th Centuries particularly interesting asalthough I am fairly knowledgeable about the Roman periodthere were several gaps in my knowledge of the other periodswhich the book has filled. And it is not just the text - the pho-tographs illustrating each period are well chosen for their clar-ity and interest.Good use is made of photographs ofSegedunum and Arbeia sites to illustrate the Chapter onSecond to Fifth Centuries and I particularly liked the advert-isements for “Monitor Safety Devices” and “Parsons Tur-bines” in the chapter on the 20th Century. Looking forward to the next one Ken!

“Tyne Anew Celebrating Public Art in North Tyneside”Peter Dixon and Keith Armstrong

Friends who were involved in curating the BorderlineFunny exhibition will know Peter from the excellentwork he did in maintaining the database of cartoonsand generally helping with the curation of the exhibi-tion. This is also a short volume of around 60 pagesbut it is a fascinating study of the vast amount of pub-lic art in the Borough commissioned by both publicand private organisations. Some pieces are wellknown such as our own “Sentius Tectonicus” but oth-ers such as “the Dudes” and “Total Policing” may beless so. It was interesting to read the words inside“Total Policing” which are not easily seen as you rushpast it. But what makes this book really interesting isthat the authors have included poems which relate toeach piece of public art.The poems are all by localpoets and relate well to text and descriptions. So youget great photographs, informative text and local po-etry. And at a very reasonable price.

“The Northumbrians North-East England and its People” Dan JacksonIf you were fortunate enough to hear Dan’s excellent talk in September last year you willwant to buy this great book. Dan was commissioned to write it in 2016/7 and it was publishedon 26th September 2019 by C Hurst & Co at RRP of £20. It is available on Amazon and wasimmediately marked there as a Best Seller. And with good reason.I bought my copy as soon as it was published and so far I have read half of the book so thisis the first part of the review and I hope to have read it all by the time of our first 2020 News-letter.The work is concerned about the distinct identity of the people living in Northumberland andDurham, an area stretching from the Tees to the Tweed, and the factors which influence thatidentity. Although the treatment is generally chronological it is not merely a list of events andbattles but instead is divided into several themes starting with “Understanding the Northum-

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brians” and ending with “Upon a Bleak Northumbrian Moor”The style is relaxed and easy to read however if you wish topursue any issue further there are footnotes to help withyour research.I particularly enjoyed the chapter on “The Northumbrian En-lightenment”. This opens with a paragraph on J.M.W.Turner’s famous 1838 painting “The Fighting Temeraire” butthe author concentrates on a little known but significant as-pect of the painting which “came to symbolise the eclipse ofthe age of sail and the coming world of iron and steel”. Thepaddle tug “Monarch” towing the “Temeraire” to the breakersyard, was built on the Tyne at South Shields. The tug beingpowered by steam and “Temeraire” powered by sail. Thischapter covers a number of innovations in UK science andtechnology many of which are well known to us such as thesteam turbine which powered “Turbinia” but others whichare not. The author also reminds us that there was a thriving intellectual environment asillustrated by the founding of the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle in1793 withsimilar institutions formed in North Shields and Seaham and Sunderland’s “Athenaeum”.The next chapter has the intriguing title “The Sparta of the North” and relates to the author’sstatement “If Edinburgh is the Athens of the North, then Newcastle is the North’s Corinth, orbetter still its Sparta.” We are now considering Northern architecture.. A fair proportion of thechapter, nearly 9 pages, deals with North Shields and its environs. I began this review bymentioning Dan’s talk to the Friends last year and you can find a more detailed treatment ofthis subject in this chapter in the sections “Deepest Tyneside”, “Geordie Shore”, “WhitleyBay and “Oh, Delaval is a Terrible Place”.So having read half way through the book I must close this Review and recommend you tobuy the book as I have hopefully stimulated your interest in what is the first new history ofour area for some time. Part 2 of the Review will appear in the next Newsletter.Mike Halsey

Friends of Segedunum Committee 2019/20Chairman: Ken HutchinsonVice-chair: Mike HalseySecretary: Liz Liddle (secretary.segedunumfriends@gmail.com)Treasurer: Liz LiddleNewsletter Editor: John Fleet (newsletter.segedunumfriends@gmail.com)Membership Secretary: Liz ShawOther Officers: Phyllis Benoist, Anne Baxter, Shirley Mortimer,

Glenn Duffy, Jean CleatheroTWAM Representatives: Geoff Woodward; Trevor WilsonNTC Representative: Cllr Andy Newman

Anyone interested in serving on the committee is welcome to attend meetings as anobserver. We meet at Segedunum, usually in the week before a main Saturdaymeeting

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Friends of Segedunum ProgrammeSpeakers at our meeting at Segedunum in 2019 - 2020

November 23rd Jellicoe of Scapa Prof John DerryJanuary 25th The Northumbrians Dr Dan JacksonFebruary 29th Working together -

Beamish & its Friends Ian BeanApril 11th AGMMay/June Dates and subjects tbcJuly 18th Friends summer outing - Coach Trip - details tbcSeptember 5th Speaker and subject tbcOctober 17th WallCAP Dr Rob CollinsNovember 28th (tbc) Prof John DerryFollowed by Christmas LunchAll meeting start at 11 am on the Saturday, with refreshments available from 10.30 amFree to Friends. Visitors always welcome - £2 For more information, contact our Secretary– Liz Liddle

Wallsend Local History Society ProgrammeSpeakers at our meetings in St Luke’s Church Hall, Frank Street in 2019 - 2020

November 11th A Northumbrian Quiz Geoff HughesDecember 9th The Top 100 Geordies Anthony Atkinson

January 13th Annual General Meeting & Archives DisplayFebruary 10th Tynemouth Priory Sophia StovallMarch 9th The Half Shilling Curate Sarah ReayApril 6th Aircraft Carriers. Malcolm ByrneMay 11th Glovers Row Ed YoungJune 8th The Swinging Sixties Freda Thompson.July 9th Edith Cavell Prof John DerryAugust 10th WW2 Memories Brian Robson & Barry Martin

& Archives DisplaySeptember 14th Second Industrial Revolution Robert Forsyth.October 12th A Trip from Tyne to Tweed George NairnNovember 9th The Tyne Bridge at 90 J Michael TaylorDecember 10th Songs and Stories of Christmas Geoff Hughes

Also Christmas Festivities & CelebrationsAll meetings start at 7.00pm. Followed by Committee meeting.

All Welcome Visitors £2 per meeting

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Friends John Fleet and Vivianne Buller recently visited the site of Ancient Kamiros (orKameiros) whilst holidaying on the Greek island of Rhodes.The city is very ancient having been first established by the Dorian Greeks in the early firstmillennium B.C. At that time, three city-states controlled the island and its shipping: Ialysos,(where we stayed - we can recommend the Hotel Oceanis!) Kameiros and Lindos. Around400 B.C. the three entities joined to form a single state and built a new capital on the site ofthe present day Rhodes town. Kamiros continued as a thriving community rebuilt by theHellenes after an earthquake in 227 B.C. That rebuilt city nestles into the natural contoursof a hill side overlooking the Aegean Sea and we were able to see the remains as they aretoday following excavations during the last century.Of particular interest to us was theevidence of Roman occupation,most notably the remains of two bathhouses; the Large Thermae and therather better preserved Small Ther-mae. At its entrance there is a smallatrium which leads to a narrow cor-ridor with a fountain at the far end.Opening off the corridor, along itslength are the familiar chambers ofRoman Thermae: the frigidarium forthe cold bath, the tepidarium for thewarm baths and the caldarium for thehot bath.

Next to the caldarium was the prae-furnium, a narrow passage in whichburnt the fire that heated water in ametal cauldron. A pipe whichpierced the wall separating the cal-darium from the praefurniumchanneled the hot water to the bathtub. The generated hot air circu-lated under the floors of the tepid-arium and the caldarium heatingthe rooms; it escaped through clay

vents built into the walls. A triangularcistern supplied water to the bath tubs inthree chambers, along pipes that perfor-ated the walls of the cistern. The similar-ities with ‘our’ own bath house atSegedunum were striking, although onemight imagine that rather more fuelwould have been needed to keepSegedunum’s caldarium up to temper-ature and conversely the frigidarium inRhodes was almost certainly rather lessfrigid that its northern equivalent!

Ancient Kamiros

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I wanted to begin by saying thank you to the Friends for delivering the brilliantly engagingexhibition Borderline Funny. I know that a huge amount of hard work went into the wholeenterprise. It was a wonderful to hear visitors chuckling and giggling in the galleries – itcertainly brought a lot of extra fun into the visitor experience. Now we have a newly trainedup team of exhibition curators I look forward to the next collaboration! I understand thatanother Hadrian’s Wall venue is interested in showing the exhibition at a future date whichis great news and a fine legacy. At Segedunum we too will be following up Borderline Funnywith an exhibition in Gallery 3 of cartoon work produced by children. There were certainlysome excellent examples produced in response to the summer exhibition, so I’m very muchlooking forward to that.Visitor numbers have been very positive over the summer with 22,958 visitors between Apriland the end of September. Admission income and shop sales have been healthy too, andEvans on the Wall’s cafe offer continues to flourish. I recall when we first met with theowners they talked about the importance of providing a quality cup of coffee – I would agreewith that sentiment and for one can vouch that Evans does indeed provide excellent coffee!If you haven’t sampled their fare yet do come and try it. Our NE28 initiative (free admisisonfor residents living in Segedunum’s postcode) has also proved sucessful. Up until the endof August we had 1119 residents taking up the offer since we launched it at the beginning ofApril. It’s really great that local people, for whom the admission charge may be a substantialbarrier, are able to access the heritage venue at the heart of Wallsend.At the beginning of September the cycling Tour of Britain came to North Tyneside and I wasdelighted that the route took the Tour to Wallsend with the riders (accompanied by a veryimpressive cavalcade of high speed police motorcyle outriders), racing right past the gatesof Segedunum and along Buddle Street across the World Heritage Site. I don’t imaginethere are many cycle tours that actually go through World Heritage Sites! I’ve included aphotograph that capturessomething of the excitement of theevent.Now we are fast approaching ourannual Fireworks from the Fort (5November), which I’m sure willagain be a stunning affair. There issomething very special about thespectacular fireworks set againstthe background of the Romanremains, the silhouette of thereconstructed bath house and theRiver Tyne. As always we wouldwelcome any volunteers from theFriends to help us on the day to helpand manage the crowds, encouragedonations and promote the benefitsof the venue. Next year we arehoping to attract sponsorshiptowards the cost of the fireworks. As Segedunum and TWAM expands its business networksand connections more opportunities for sponsorship and support of this kind will arise.There is much to look forward to in 2020. We will be celebrating 20 years since Segedunumfirst opened and are planning an exciting summer exhibition about gladiators, chariot racingand Roman games in general. We are also looking forward to the outcome of theHemingway Design feasibility study and seeing how the site and museum might developnext. We’ll be sharing details of all this in due course.

Geoff WoodwardMuseum Manager North & South Tyneside

From the Fort

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A few things you may have missed in the newspapers, TV and social media:Our Wall has won two more awards….

“Countryfile Magazine” in May 2019 gave Hadrian's Wall “Landmark of the Year” award -“Hadrian’s Wall isn’t just one of the most important historical structures in Britain, it’s also theone with the most stunning natural setting."

“Lonely Planet” published its first list of 500 unmissable experiences in the UK and Had-rian's Wall was fifth “ Only 10% survives today, but what does makes an unforgettable im-pression.” The Wall came 5th behind the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, British Museum, Giant’sCauseway and the Roman Baths at Bath.

The Dark Sky Discovery Centre at Walltown CragsNew and improved visitor facilities have officially been opened by the Northumberland Na-tional Park Authority in August this year at Walltown Country Park, a designated Dark SkyDiscovery Site, following significant investment from the European Agricultural Funds forRural Development which provided 80% of the £108,000 investment.The intention is to strengthen Northumberland National Park’s Dark Sky Programme withnew facilities as part of a planned multi-site “Hadrian’s Wall Observatory” featuring The Sill,Cawfields and Walltown Country Park.The newly refurbished visitor facility has new washroom and toilet facilities with 24-hour ac-cess. Visitor Welcome Assistants will be available to provide information at key timesthrough the week and staff a small kiosk selling refreshments including hot and cold drinks,cold snacks and a small range of merchandise

Damage to Hadrian's WallThe structure of the Wall is under serious threat from visitors walking on it and from metaldetectorists illegally removing artefacts and stones. A section of Steel Rigg – a popular vis-itors' spot collapsed in May probably caused by tourists scrambling on the structure to take“selfies”.And the illegal removal of artefacts and stones has been a longstanding problem caused bythese “nighthawks”. There has been a spate of ‘nighthawking’ incidents at Roman Wall sitesat Corbridge, Housesteads and Steel Rigg over the past three years and last year HistoricEngland reported a serious incident when more than 50 holes made by nighthawks werefound at Brunton Turret.And finally some items which may be of interest- GlampingPlans to install three glamping pods on a field to the south of Rising Sun Farm, on KingsRoad in Wallsend have been submitted to North Tyneside Council. According to a designand access statement submitted to the council the three timber structures will promote tour-ism in the area and create new jobs.The Council will consider the application in January nextyear.

Sale of Durham CathedralStones removed during restoration work on the cathedral’s central tower have been sold byauction at the Cathedral and raised £125,782 which will be put into the cathedral’s restora-tion fund, a £10million endowment fund to cover the cost of annual repair work to the 1,000-year-old Norman building.

Around the Wall

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Contact Details:Friends of Segedunum:

Secretary: Liz Liddle: secretary.segedunumfriends@gmail.com

or mobile: 07960 409 003Newsletter Editor: John Fleet: newsletter.segedunumfriends@gmail.com

Notes from the Chairman and Committee October 2019We have had three meetings and a coach trip since the last Newsletter.In JuneAlan Fidler, the driving force behind the very successful Northumbria World War Oneproject, told the Friends a moving story about how one family had been affected by the war.The Brown brothers from North Shields had written accounts of what life was like on theFront and in a prisoner of war camp.In July the annual coach trip took place with an almost full bus made up of Friends and mem-bers of Wallsend Local History Society. The first stop was Arbeia Roman Fort and everyonelooked round the recent refurbishments and improvements on the site taking in the re-con-structed west gateway, the barracks and the Commanding Officers house and also the mu-seum. We then drove down the coastline to the National Glass Centre at Sunderland to lookround and also have lunch overlooking the River Wear. The group then had a tour of theancient St. Peter’s church. The bus then drove over the Northern Spire Bridge to Washing-ton Old Hall for a visit and refreshments before returning to the museum.In September Ken Hutchinson stood in for Dan Jackson whose book The Northumbrian’shad not yet been published. Luckily Ken’s book ‘Wallsend at Work’ had been published inJuly and members heard about Wallsend’s impressive industrial background where it led theworld on many occasions. Starting with Salt Pans at Howdon, Wallsend industries includedglassmaking, whaling, rope-making, chemicals, mining and shipbuilding to name but a few.In October Bill Griffiths filled the Daniels Room as usual and attracted probably our oldestever guest who at the grand age of 101 persuaded his family to bring him along to hear theentertaining talk on the Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimage. The talk was very well received andFriends were delighted to hear that Bill thought that the Borderline Funny Exhibition was oneof the best exhibitions the Pilgrims have seen in recent times.The committee have been beavering away in the background and John Fleet and VivianneBuller have offered to take over the Treasurer’s role from Liz Liddle and Jean Cleathero hasagreed to take the minutes of the meetings.Committee members Mike, Phyllis, John and Ken have been heavily involved in the Border-line Funny cartoon exhibition along with many other Friends. A rota of room stewards wasset up by Maggie Wakeley and a lot of Friends have helped out in many ways making theexhibition a success. The engagement with children was very positive and led to over 700children’s cartoons being produced. This has now led to ‘the Son of Borderline Funny’ or afuture exhibition of the children’s cartoons next year in Gallery 3 at the museum.Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Newsletter and thanks again to John forputting it all together so professionally.Ken Hutchinson