Archaeology

The Roman Milecastle
I was employed originally at the Newcastle Arts Centre to set up and run the architectural ceramics project, to produce mainly decorative floor tiling as part of the overall restoration of a group of old derelict buildings. Prior to my studying art and ceramics and eventually becoming a potter, I was greatly interested in Archaeology and spent a lot of my early years going on ‘digs’ and I almost did my degree in the subject. So learnt a lot about the subject as well as identifying and dating pottery. The builders at the Arts Centre when digging a drain trench threw all the rubbish and a lot of Roman pottery on a skip in the street outside , I spotted it identified and rescued all the pottery from the skip. I then conducted/dug a proper test trench and immediately found Roman  stone foundations.  Subsequently I with the help of my ceramics team excavated as much of the site as time  would allow. I discovered the only part of Hadrian’s Wall to ever been found and properly excavated in the centre of Newcastle; not only that but it turned to be a Milecastle and in the wrong position too. My discovery was recorded and published by Barbara Harbottle, the City Archaeologist. See a synopsis of the report below, the full report is available on request please email me.
Once discovered and reported it was immediately listed/scheduled as an ancient monument. As it was about 2 foot below the modern day courtyard surface I carefully reburied it as it couldn’t be left exposed(maybe some time in the future it could be) I covered it in poly sheeting then sand then rubble then the new courtyard surface, what you see today is the reconstruction we built of what we found and made it into a decorative garden.
The site is open for the public to see in the Blackswan Courtyard of the Arts Centre right outside my pottery and art studio.
Also see the English Heritage listing for the Milecastle. - National Monuments Record
-also see   Wikipedia   Milecastle No.4
-and also   newcastle.gov.uk
-and also  Pons Aelius
A plan showing the layout of the Milecastle. The area in black is what I excavated, from an inner corner to the milecastle south gateway, measuring from the inner corner to the Gateway  gives us the dimensions of the whole Milecastle, as this one is a ‘long axis’ type – putting Hadrian’s Wall itself under the pavement on Westgate Road.
THE WESTGATE ROAD MILECASTLE – no number
B. Harbottle, R. Fraser and F.C. Burton, Britannia 19 (1988) 153-62.
Stone foundations, interpreted as part of a milecastle on Hadrian’s Wall, were uncovered in 1985 during the conversion into the Newcastle Arts Centre of 67-75 Westgate Road (NZ24526401). The initial discovery was made, and almost all the subsequent excavation carried out, by David Fry, the resident potter at the Centre. The recording on site and publication were undertaken by the Tyne & Wear Archaeology Unit. The evidence for the milecastle consisted of a flagged foundation course 2.90m wide, a fair stretch of the first ashlar course and fragmentary remains of the core of the second, which together formed most of the south-west corner of the structure. The footings of the south wall extended 6m eastwards from the angle to end in a straight edge against a spread of smaller stones, which perhaps marked the position of the south gate. Most of the datable pottery from this layer, and from possible internal construction or destruction deposits, has been ascribed to the second century.   This Milecastle, probably of long-axis type, was unusual in several respects. It was built on a buried ground surface which had not been cultivated, and the ard marks must therefore have been made while clearing the land before construction. It was probably dismantled before the end of the second century. And, though sited on the presumed line of the Wall, it was found to be c.730m east of the suggested site of Milecastle 5, and some 580m west of the supposed Milecastle 4. In conclusion, it must be clear that the evidence for these two is unsatisfactory. Barbara Harbottle 1988.
My discovery
Pictures of the Roman Milecastle as it is reconstructed now and my garden outside my studio.
my excavation team also my ceramics team