Ant 'n Chris's Wall Walk Diary



Day 1 - Wallsend to Heddon on the Wall, 12 1/2 miles
The first leg of our walk was basically a days journey across Newcastle. We set out on Sunday 15 August 1999 at 9.30, hoping to be able to reach Heddon in time to watch the second half of Newcastle's match with Southampton in a pub over a beer. This was also the first day of the Pilgrimage to the wall mentioned above, which we found out was also starting at 9.30, so we were there promptly to avoid any crowds and set off on time. We met one lone archaeologist waiting for the rest.

Our starting point was Segedunum Fort in what is now Wallsend. Unfortunately the fort itself wasn't open to us though a new visitor centre has opened and I'll be checking it out as soon as possible! (check these links an official site (I think!) and a site with some good pictures - it looks like a very interesting visit). The fort itself is sited right next to the entrance to Swan Hunters shipyard, home of many a giant building project of its own kind. Before we left we got some photos of our expedition's beginning and visited a section of restored wall which had been opened for the pilgrimage. After a bit of persuading we were allowed in and got to see the scale of the wall in its prime. As we left we saw the coaches of the pilgrims arriving (a recurring sight over the next few days!).

We walked from Segendunum Fort more or less straight up the Fosseway (built on the line of the wall) towards Byker. On the way we passed a couple of well known pubs; The Turbinia ,named after the first turbine driven ship in the world (built on the Tyne of course! It was built at Swan Hunters from a design by Charles Parsons, I believe you can still see it inside Newcastle's Discovery Museum); and The Fosse which takes its name, as does the road it is situated on, from the Latin fosse meaning 'ditch lined road'. As you can see from the picture of me on top of the reconstructed piece of the wall, to the north (the side the Romans were trying to keep out) there was a ditch which added to the defensibility of the wall. The Fossway is built on the line of the wall...hence its a ditch lined road! The morning had started off quite cloudy but as we walked it was quite bright and this was to become one of the nicest days of the week.

We reached the end of the Fossway and joined Shields Road in Byker. When we did the walk I was still Co-ordinator of the now defunct Newcastle Shopping Service, set up to provide shopping for housebound people in Newcastle, and it made a change to be on the usually busy Shields Road without having to do soemones shopping! The line of the wall at this point is believed to run under the shops on the south side of the road. At the end of the shops we headed down into the Ouseburn valley, bypassed above by the main road into Newcastle. It had been a very long time since either of us was down here. Its the site of the city farm and also of several warehouses and workshops from Newcastle's early industrialisation. After so long we'd both forgotten about all this and it was ceratinly a side of the city neither of us had seen for ages. This area was also due to be redeveloped.

We walked up the hill from Ouseburn and along New Bridge Street for a while before heading down to the river - past segments of the city wall and one of its towers and also past the old HQ of Newcastle trams (just round the corner from where I used to park for work, and I never knew). We emerged on the Quayside near the new law courts and walked through the sunday market and on under the Tyne Bridge, pausing to take a couple of photos. Then up the steps from the Quayside to the Castle keep. There another set of steps on the other side of the hill - and we're not quite sure which were the ones used in the Michael Caine film 'Get Carter' - a very hard hitting film set in the city (recently remade with Stallone and set in Detroit!). Anyway we stopped at the keep and went in. Again it was ages since we had been in (Chris perhaps never had) and we found the displays on the history of the place very interesting. This stop was rounded off by going to the top and standing on the roof - the view was brilliant and the weather was pretty good. To most Geordies a trip across the City will sound less than thrilling (and I've had the mick taken about this more than once) but I think Chris and I would both agree that this was a highlight of the trip and that the day as a whole was a good one - maybe because we did not have high expectations of a walk across Newcastle. We made our way out of the keep - down the requisite difficult spiral staircase - and outside into the square where luckily enough The Bridge pub is situated. This became pub stop number one in Chris's pub diary - I had a pint of Theakstons (I think because Chris subsequently lost aforesaid diary in a psion data loss tragedy) and Chris had probably the best pint of the trip (which I need to confirm the name of by a 'research trip' back to The Bridge!). It was from a small local brewer - and on our way across the country we were hoping to sample more local brewery output but unfortunately the pubs we stopped at just seemed to stock the big brewers produce, which was pretty disappointing. The whole stop was rounded off by a seat in the samll garden all by ourselves with a view of the Tyne bridge and the river on what was at the point a beautiful summers day.

Unfortunately we just had time for the one pint - I think that the pair of us would have been quite happy to make it a longer stop. But a lot of walkign was left to be done. We piled out and after a short look at the outside of the Cathedral (and an entertaining conversation with a local tramp) we started off down the Westgate Road (handily dead straight as it was built more or less on the line of the wall). This wasn't exactly the most thrilling part of the trip and the weather clouded over a bit. We made a trip off the line of the road to look at the remains of the fort at Benwell (Condercum) before making our way further to Benwell Hill Cricket Club where we stopped and ate sandwiches and bought a drink while we watched a cricket match.

I think we were both beginning to feel tired and this refreshment was a help. We pressed on down the hill. Passed Denton Burn (approximately 3 miles from the City Centre) and on to the City's western bypass and over into West Denton (or rather under as we did not feel like playing chicken with the traffic). Once on the west side of the bypass we walked on up the road and past a small stretch of wall. The we followed our guidebook and went through Sugley Dene (which the guide informs us translates as 'valley of birdsong'). We could have simply continue up the road and I don't think either of us would have felt we had missed anything - an elysian vale it wasn't! And the whole trip into and out of it took a fair amount of time. Eventually we rejoined the road at a point it would perhaps have taken us 10 minutes to walk to rather than the 30 we had taken - all vital time when we were hoping to see Newcastle kick off against Southampton at 4pm.

We made our way down the old West Road through Walbottle - looking at the depth of the remains of the Roman Wall's Vallum outside the school and on into Throckley. Here we walked past the turn off to Throckley Co-op - scene of much hard work for the sake of my former project the Shopping Service.

We then pressed on on the last leg of our journey. Up to this point I was thinking we were nearly at our goal. I had started getting tired in the last mile and it was a bit of a shock when we looked at the guide and saw we had 2 miles to go. This was all on concrete pavement and we were both nursing very sore feet when we got to Heddon. As we entered the village we walked past the most impressive stretch of wall of the day that survives (except for Wallsend's renconstructed bit). Journeys end was of course a pub, where we had a couple of pints and caught the second half of the Newcastle match against Southampton. Unfortunately this was during the ill fated start to the season that was the end of Ruud Gullit's career on Tyneside and we managed to give up a lead. After the match we got a lift home where we stayed over for our first night, were well fed and managed to discover the delights of the previously underrated footbath purchased by parents. This was a godsend - we were able to start the next day very well refreshed, which was not altogether predictable given the state of my feet at the end of day one!


Day 2 - Heddon on the Wall to Acomb, 15ish miles.

Day 3 - Acomb to Once Brewed, 15ish miles.

Day 4 - Once Brewed to Greenhead, 6 1/2ish miles.

Day 5 - Greenhead to Brampton, 8 miles.

Day 6 - Brampton to Carlisle, 15 miles.

Day 7 - Carlise to Bowness on Solway, 12 1/2 miles.
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