Hadrian's Wall Path #1: Wallsend to Heddon on the Wall 18/05/14

Self at Segedunum, Wallsend

Spring Jollies arrive and that's a cue to travel far from my normal walking comfort zone, and to utilise the generosity of my parents for travelling and boarding purposes, and it's to Northumberland we head, basing ourselves in Corbridge for my first National Trail, as I should feature at least one before my initial three year odyssey ends, and that is going to be the Hadrian's Wall Path. Established as a National Trail in 2003 and 73 miles long, it follows the coast to coast route of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site, and as a geographical and historical feature, it really should not need an introduction, but I will provide one in case you haven't been paying attention. Constructed on the orders of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD122, it was an 80 mile long defensive border and customs facility between Roman Britannia and the troublesome provinces of Caledonia (subject of two unsuccessful military campaigns in the preceding century), marking one of the first established frontiers anywhere in the world and of the beginning of the end of the centuries of expansion of the Roman Empire. Now it endures as a fascinating historical curiosity which has left a band of remnants across a broad stretch of Northern England, which should demand the attention of anyone who has an interest in the ancient history of these islands.

Hadrian's Wall Path #1: Wallsend to Heddon on the Wall  15.8 miles


Segedunum Fort

Getting to Wallsend turns out to not be quite the feat of navigation that we feared it might be, but travelling on a Sunday morning means the way ahead on the A186 is largely clear and we can arrive at the Segdunum museum at 10.am, a fort that has proved to be a remarkable survivor, established in AD127 and abandoned around AD400, and after having been forgotten beneath farmland for 15 centuries, both coal mining and shipbuilding encroached on the area in the 19th century before being found to be largely extent after the terraces covering it were demolished in the 1970s. It may have the A187 running through it now, but it is now home to one of Tyneside's best museums, and a reconstructed bathhouse and defensive formation, a place that I would happily linger but when I have a long day ahead of me, I can only stay long enough to pick up my Hadrian's Wall passport and the leave my parents to enjoy the history, departing Segdunum by the back door and walking up to the start of the path that leads to Bowness on Solway. Immediately we are presented with relics of a much more recent age, as our path meets the cycleway that was formerly the 1839 NER line from Newcastle to North Shields, which operated until 1973 (and missed out on becoming part of the Tyneside Metro by less than a decade), whilst between there and the riverside is the remains of the Swan Hunter shipyard, operational from 1842 to 2006 and now derelict reminder of the industry which dominated the river Tyne for more than a century. Before we move on though, attention has to be focused back to Segdunum, to note the monument to the construction of the Wall, featuring all the unearthed names of the Roman engineers and soldiers who completed the whole enterprise in only six years, and to the remaining stub of the wall leaving the southern edge of the fort and diving beneath the old railway down towards the Tyne, quite literally the Wall's end, and once beyond the bathhouse we depart on a route that won't be seeing much of the Wall, instead taking a much greater interest in the riverside, and surely providing a prettier walk than pacing the pavements along the A187 and A186 through Newcastle Upon Tyne.

1,000 Miles Up Country!
at White Road Bridge, Walker

Not many steps have been taken between the industrial units along the riverbank and the playing fields and estates inland before I realise just how busy this cycle route is, even at this hour on a Sunday morning and relatively far away from Tyneside's major centre, really good to see all the folks out cycling, either fancying themselves as the next Bradley Wiggins, taking in a stretch of National route 72 or just working off the previous night's ales. It's a pleasant a green space as could be created in this corner of the city, and at the first road crossing we are boldly welcomed into the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, and the path continues on in much the same vein, with road crossings and remaining railway bridges in equal quantity until another notable milestone is reached. The bridge over White Street marks my 1,000th mile of walking in the North, my second 1,000 mile target for the year, and whilst it is one that I would rather have achieved in Yorkshire, I have completely randomly managed to reach this target at the most appropriate of places, at the northern end of the former railway station for the district of Walker, but sadly I haven't managed to find a single sign to pose beneath whilst wearing a toothy grin so I'll have to go one without such a souvenir (I'm also pretty certain that it's pronounced with a hard L too, but as I'm not local I can get away with not saying it correctly). Sunshine makes the burgh look like it has its good face on as I pass the most recent housing developments in Walker and then depart the line of the railway and move on into the greenery of the Walker Riverside park, where the paths divide off in a way that could be confusing, but I keep on with the intention of meeting the riverbank, which eventually appears far below and a long hairpin is taken down the bank to meet the path at the edge of the river, one of those slopes that would prove to be no fun at all to cycle or walk up.

Walker Riverside Park

The River Tyne shows of it's hugeness right from the get go, and it's quite unlike all the other rivers of the eastern side of the north, being wide and deep for a much greater distance inland and dominating the landscape in a way none on the others can achieve, it's also tidal at this point, so even though my trail started seven miles short of the east coast, there is still sea water in the channel, as well as seaweed and the associated horrible smell. I ought to dip my boots in the water as a coast to coast walk should require, and the shore is accessible but the signage requests that I don not do so as years of industrial pollution have rendered it a risk to health and well being. So onwards I go along the riverside promenade, enclosed by a blue railing and feeling like a rare spot of untouched greenery along this most industrial rivers, with the Akzo Nobel plant on the south bank providing the sights and sounds of enduring industry. Of course, this bank couldn't possibly have endured as a green space for over a century, utilised only by cyclists, anglers and dog walkers, it turns out to be the site of St Anthony's lead works, which worked on this site from 1846 to 1932 and now provides a reminder of how comprehensively land use can change in time. The next bend of the river gives immediate clues of which city we are walking towards as the shape of St James' Park looms high above the city centre, like it has fallen from the sky, and I'm sure if Newcastle United's stadium is allowed to get any bigger it will cast shadows across the whole city. Passing out of the greener stretches of the lower Tyne, the riverside starts to gain waterfront developments, and the St Peter's marina development has our route going through it, and it's not the most attractive of developments, but boating wharves are rarely my style anyway, and you do wonder why the marina office has been painted to look like a branch of McDonald's. The path departs the waterside for a stretch, among the houses on Bottlehouse Street and then between the industrial units on Glasshouse Street and St Lawrence Road, possibly one of the least attractive stretches of any national trails, but the curious walker can still peer in through the open doors to take in that smell of milled steel and oil, which brings back all sorts of childhood memories for me.


The Baltic, The Sage, the Millennium
Bridge & the Tyne Bridge 

Meeting the road called Quayside, the view towards the city opens out properly and in short order all the major features of the Newcastle and Gateshead riverside appear in short order, but getting towards them takes a while as there's a long car park to walk alongside before we arrive at the bicycle hire centre at the mouth of the Ouseburn, a branch river canalised with a vertical lock and the former railway viaduct rising above it. Then its on to the Newcastle riverfront, where the bustle of pedestrian traffic starts to really thicken, alongside the apartment developments and commercial buildings that have developed up the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, with it's famous tilting motion, which leads over to the Baltic Centre for the Contemporary arts, the former flour mill reinvented as the North-Eastern take on Tate Modern, and the Sage, the concert hall that is home to the Northern Sinfonia and which looks like a silvery armadillo to nearly all eyes. Crowds grow so thick around the Pitcher & Piano, that my pace slows to a crawl, and it looks like whilst Saturday night in Newcastle has ended, everyone still has it in their minds to come out to play on a Sunday lunchtime, though the large groups of pink fairies might have me thinking otherwise (it's Tynemouth & North Shields Asda staff out on a charity drive, I think). A continental market has set up all along the Quayside down to the Tyne Bridge, so evasive manoeuvres are necessary to get any sort of pace up, though life is much harder for all the riverfront cyclist, and the camera has to be elevated to get a good shot of the bridge of 1928, the Sydney harbour bridge in miniature and the defining symbol of Tyneside, and impressively scaled structure loved by pretty much everyone, except Pevsner, oddly. Then comes the low level Swing bridge of 1876, by William Armstrong, of Cragside fame, on the site of the various original Tyne bridges and the Roman Pons Aelius bridge too,  and the High Level rail - road bridge of 1849 by Robert Stephenson, the six arched monster that was the first major Bowstring in the world. Tear my eyes away from the bridges to take in the other sites of the city centre, notably the Guildhall and the fish market, as well as the few older building that have endured, especially the Quayside Wetherspoon's, dated as old as the 14th century,  and the crowds thin out but the cyclists remain as the riverside continues, and the bridges keep on coming, the Queen Elizabeth II Metro bridge, the King Edward VII rail bridge and the Redheugh road bridge in short succession.

Elswick Waterfront

Beyond the city centre all is quiet again, which is a shame as I could listen to Tyneside accents all day, even the roughest of them sound like the people are singing, and so attention turns to keeping the pace up and admiring the enormous timber coal staiths and tidal basin on the southern bank, I've got no reason to stop as a check in my bag reveals that my lunch is still in the fridge in Corbridge. Passing through the business park in Elswick, various noticeboards attract the attention as this most prosaic of sites was once home to the Armstrong & Mitchell shipyard and munitions works, one of the major employers and engines of the growth of Newcastle in the 19th century, and despite leaving only the slightest of relics behind the riverside offices, it's something that the city is ensuring doesn't pass from the memory. Five miles along the Tyne ends as the path pulls up the bank to meet the A695 Scotswood Road, a journey along which in 1862 was commemorated in the song 'Blaydon Races', the unofficial anthem of Tyneside, and a road walk follows, illustrating that we are on the opposite side of the Tyne from the Gateshead Metrocentre, and the we meet our next cycle path and railway walk, this time along the original alignment of the NER Tyne Valley line of 1839, another leafy and pleasant stretch all the way down to site of Scotwood station and junction, from where the iron bridge across the River can be seen, it's decay causing the abandonment of the line in 1983 (and if I were a North Easter resident it would be the bridge I'd keep on about desiring to preserve). Also visible here, as we pull further away from the river is the Scotswood Road bridge, and a memorial to the Montague Main colliery disaster of 1925, a recent steel sculpture of a pitman leading his pony, with two children upon it, representing the past, present and future, which explains why one of the kids is taking a selfie. Move up along the A191 before detouring off through the Denton Dene playing fields and across the valley itself, one of the few authentically long standing green spaces along the Tyne within the city of Newcastle, so it was a natural choice when the Western Bypass was constructed in the 1980s to send the A1 right up through it after crossing the Blaydon bridge.

Northumberland Road Bridge,
Lemington

Descend through the parkland on the other side of the A1 and the housing quality starts to look much more like suburbia, but a noticeboard by the side of Neptune Road wants to trumpet Lemington's history as an industrial settlement, so eyes are opened for industrial relics as another railway walk starts up, along the NER 1876 North Wylam Loop line, servicing the coal industry and the towns on the north bank of the Tyne until 1968, and it's another well used cycle track, though the signage seems to suggest the paths have motorcyclist problem. A couple of good overbridges and retaining walls remain on the line, as does the main building of Lemington station, and you could think you were slipping into rural surroundings until various views out present the local leisure centre and the terraces that give away the presence of the collieries, and the odd cone shaped structure near the river is the last remnant of the glass works, and a pause for watering opposite the electrical substation has me facing the site of Stella North Power station whilst behind me is the parkland developed on the site of Percy Pit, the choice of trees being a dead giveaway. Press on down the line, for much longer than I had expected, running parallel to and then over the A6085, before it drops me out at the banks of the Tyne again by Newburn bridge and the Boathouse inn, and so it's back to riverside walking for a while, admiring the bold souls carrying their sculls down to the river from the Tyne Rowing Club on the southern bank. My path then rolls into Tyne Riverside park, and my attention to immediately drown to the cluster of interpretative boards on the other side of the car park, telling the story of the Battle of Newburn Ford, where on 28th August 1640 an army of Scottish Covenanters defeated an English force in the major action of the Second Bishops War, after Charles I's attempt to impose his reforms on the Church of Scotland. The subsequent Scottish occupation of Newcastle and ransom demands led to the  recall of the Long Parliament which ultimately set the course towards the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, proof if you ever needed that the motions of history can be found in all sorts of unexpected places.


The Wylam Waggonway

I carry on through the riverside park, and I'm happy to report that Tyneside has come out to play in force, a bright and warm Sunday afternoon is good for that, taking the kids out to use the playgrounds or to go cycling, and the adults can soak up the rays or set up for a picnic, whilst the path is almost as busy as it was in the town centre several hours ago. I pull away from the riverbank at the Blayney Row terraces and return to the line of the railway, for some heavily shaded walking through the trees, but the interpretative boards are eager to stress its before the NER absorbed it, as this was originally the Wylam Waggonway, originally constructed in 1748 to transport coal from Wylam to the upper limit of navigability on the Tyne at Lemington, becoming notable for being one of the first steam hauled lines in the country where George Stephenson and Timothy Hackworth, notable local engineers of later national reputation first made their innovations in railway locomotives. The history just keeps on coming along this route, and it seems so much more preferable to seeking out the fragments of Roman remains in Newcastle, be they the sites of Pons Aelius or Condercum forts or the tiny remnants of wall, vallum or temples among the side streets, the downside is that I am at the riverside and my finish point is at Heddon on the Wall, not too far away on the ground but 100m of elevation away, and that's not the sort of climb you want to take on after 14 miles of steady going. Still it's time to call in my ride before the climb begins, then setting off through the many playing fields at the valley floor on the very first dirt track of the day and then up through the golf course, and along a steep wooded path before meeting the walled garden that enclose Newcastle University's Biology Field study site. At Close House the path hairpins up a steep rough track and then along a farm access road, and the burning sensation I get in my side is the first attack of stitch I have suffered in a long while.

The Broad Wall, Heddon on the Wall

At the top we meet the nice houses on the southern edge of Heddon, which has an excellent view of the river valley in both directions, and I wonder why Tynedale is not a word that has gone into general usage, as this river has a valley of considerable substance, and once the view has been enjoyed, the last haul has to be made along Heddon Banks to the village centre. I get immediate sight of my finish point but my route deviates away from it to go up The Towne Gate, past The Swan inn, and St Andrews church, and Anglo Saxon consecration which has been dated as far back as AD680, and then we detour slightly from the path to visit what we have come to see on this walk, some Roman wall. Considering it's location, it is remarkable that this is the longest extent stretch of Hadrian's Wall built at it's originally planned width of 10ft, six courses of masonry high and over 100m long, with the north ditch and vallum still extent on both sides, it surely should have been robbed away for dressed stone and ploughed away at some point during the last 16 centuries, or destroyed by military road builders in the 18th. That focuses the attention away from the recent history of Tyneside and takes us back as far as the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, for that is where the next couple of days of my spring jollies will be taking place, and with that the cue to wrap the day appears, and I retrace my steps back to Chare Bank to rise through the expensive commuter houses of Heddon to pass between the church graveyard and the war memorial garden to cross over the B6528 to end my day outside the Three Tuns pub. My parents can be found in the car park behind it, and I'd asked them for a 6 hour window to complete my day's travel and what time do I roll up? 3.55pm, because I really am that good with distance and time these days.

Next on the Slate: 15 miles along the Military Road.


1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 1093.9 miles (2014 total: 180.7 miles)

(Up Country Total: 1014.5 miles)
(Solo Total: 895.5 miles)
(Declared Total: 885.7 miles)