Cultureshock

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Video transcript

Have you got a favourite road? Well I have and mine has a name as well as a number. It’s the B6318 otherwise known as the military road and it runs across part of Northumberland from Heddon-on-the-Wall to Greenhead. Did you know that stones from Hadrian’s wall could be seen through holes in the road surface? When I was a lad my dad pointed them out to me one day. I wasn’t really interested in that at the time, what I wanted was to keep going over the fantastic humps in the road. Over the years my interest in the military road and parts of Hadrian’s road around it has grown. It was General Wade who demolished much of our end of the wall. At the time he was unable to stop the Jacobite’s marching through Carlisle as he was stuck in Newcastle with his army. He flattened the wall and built a fast military road on top of it. What remains of the wall is really just a pile of stones until you visit places like Hancock museum and as part of that the museum of Antiquities. Is it still just twenty pence to visit the temple of Mithras? These places contain a huge amount of artefacts which bring the history of the wall to life. As far as I’m concerned there is nothing in this country to compare with Hadrian’s wall. In order to get to my favourite road you need to turn off the A1 onto the A69 and head west. Already there are parts of the wall at the road side. You’ve missed plenty of remains by not starting at Wallsend but nevermind. I like to leave the A69 at the turn off for Heddon-on-the- Wall where there is a short section of the wall. This is where the military road starts. The deep ditch at the front of the wall appears at the right of the road and sections of the Vallum keep appearing in the fields on the left. Some of the best bits of the Northumbrian countryside are ahead of us now with plenty humps in the road that makes overtaking a nightmare but are great fun. Shortly after this the military road runs south and the wall rises up over spectacular crags. This is lovely walking country with more spectacular views. Again, another superb fort at Housesteads plus Vindolanda to the south of the military road. One of my favourite places is Steel Rig, the view from here is one of the most photographed. I even stayed late here to catch the sun rise only to be told that I wasn’t supposed to stay over night. OK, I stayed over night but don’t tell anyone! I also swam in the flooded quarry at Cawfields but how many times a decade do you get a chance to get a day hot enough to do that? The military road runs out shortly after this and that is about as far as I like to go. If it’s still daylight the return journey over the himps is just as much fun as it was on the way over.