Walking the Wall: Day 7, Chollerford to Corbridge

 

On the 7th day of our walk we decided to deviate from the wall. We didn't regret it. Our plan was to deviate from the wall trail to see Corbridge. We’d planned to take a 7-mile diversion south, through Acomb and Hexham, but members of our group wanted to walk as much of the wall trail as possible, so we went all the way to Portgate before going south

We began the day with breakfast at The George Hotel instead. Their breakfast was served buffet style, and it had a lot to offer. Highly recommend! The George also packed lunches for us.

We began the day by searching for the penis carved into the base of the Roman bridge at Chesters. I used to teach middle school, and I’ve seen my share of penises carved into desks and drawn into text books. It turns out the Romans were middle schoolers at heart. To them, a penis was (as I assume for many middle school boys) a sign of virility and power. My guess is they carved it into the bridge to keep the bridge upright and strong.

 

After a little over an hour of walking, we arrived at

St. Oswald’s church, site of the battle of Heavenfield. In 633 or 634, a Northumbrian army under Oswald of Bernicia, who later became St Oswald, fought a Welsh army under Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd.  Oswald won after seeing a cross and calling upon it for help.  Heavenfield is the end of the St Oswald’s Way, another long-distance path in Northumberland that goes south from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne to Hadrian’s Wall.

The inside of the church was lovely, and it had an old Roman altar that (I think) was used as a baptismal font at one point, and later as the base for a cross. It's interesting to see how old things have been adopted for new purposes over the millenia.

 Because we continued from this point along the Wall trail, we missed Hexham, which has an Abbey that is worth a visit. The abbey has a good café that comes highly recommended.

 

Instead, we walked through Stanley Plantation, which is a pine forest that has been logged quite a bit and wasn’t particularly pretty. Just beyond that, however, we came to Port Gate, which one had a large Roman gate that let travelers along Rome’s Dere Street pass through Hadrian’s Wall. At the junction, there is now a lovely establishment named the Errington Coffee House which made us wish we didn’t have packed lunches.

We walked a short bit, then turned south at Halton Chester’s Roman Fort (Onum), which is unexcavated, so all we saw were mounds that have now become telltale for us.

 

We then passed through Halton, a little village with a lovely castle and chapel.

 

Corbridge Roman Town is another English Heritage Site. Dating from 86AD when a fort was begun, it grew into a large town known to the Romans as Corstopitum. This was the most northern town in all the Roman Empire. The ruins are well explained with signboards, and the museum has the Corbridge Hoard, a collection of Roman artefacts excavated in 1964. This is the first place we saw a dodecahedron, a mysterious metal doodad whose purpose is still a mystery.

 

In Corbridge we stayed at the Golden Lion. We ate dinner and breakfast there as well, and can heartily recommend it.  hello@goldenlioncorbridge.com 01434 239348 https://www.goldenlioncorbridge.com/

We walked about 13 1/4 miles on this day, so it was one of our longest, but we'd become stronger over the past few days and it didn't seem so bad.