A Roman town near to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland

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HADRIANS WALL WAS constructed by the Romans in about 122 AD. Its purpose was to separate Roman Britain to the south of it from the ‘barbarians’ who lived north of it. Before it was built, they built a fort at a point where Dere Street, a major Roman road that ran in a north-south direction met Stane Road, a road that before the construction of Hadrian’s Wall marked the northernmost boundary of Roman Britain. This fort, established in the 80s AD, was called Coria, for short, and its full name might have been Corstopitum or Corie Lopocarium or, even, Coriosopitum, Corsopitum or Corsobetum. The site where they built the fort is near the town of Corbridge in Northumberland. Archaeological evidence suggests that the site of Coria had been occupied in the Iron Age, long before the Romans arrived.

After the construction of Hadrian’s Wall and its forts, Coria ceased to be a military centre, and began to be developed as a Roman town for civilians. It is believed from archaeological investigations that the town had temples, granaries, a fountain house, and a civic forum. Additionally, the place had residential buildings, both grand and modest. The town served as a supply centre for the military as well as being a market place for the lead, iron, and coal mined in the neighbourhood. After the Romans left Britain, their town fell into decline. Nearby Corbridge was founded by the Anglo-Saxons sometime after the Romans had cleared out of England.

It was not until 1861 that the first excavations that revealed remains of the town were discovered by Mr Coulson. Between 1906 and 1914, more extensive archaeological work was carried out by Francis J Haverfield (1860-1919) and Leonard Woolley (1880-1960). After working at Coria, Woolley travelled to the Middle East, where his excavations in Mesopotamia were to make him famous. Later, the site of the Roman town became Britain’s first training site for young archaeologists.

Today, the remains of the town, mostly stonework, are in the care of English Heritage. The site is well-cared for and labelled with useful information panels, without which one might have little idea about the nature of what one can see. Next to the sight, there is a small museum filled with beautiful artefacts found in and near the town. Most of them are stone carvings, and all of them are well displayed. Whereas a visit to Coria does not give one as much of an impression of Roman architecture, as does, say Ostia near Rome, it is a pleasant place to visit and quite thrilling to consider that you are in what was once the northermost part of the Roman Empire.

An artist from Germany who uses paint spraying techniques

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ABSTRACTION IN ART is not to everyone’s taste, but I enjoy viewing it. Maybe, this is because I was brought up by a parent, my mother, who created abstract sculptures. Until 31 May 2026, the White Cube Gallery in London’s Bermondsey is holding an exhibition of abstract works by Katharina Grosse, who was born in West Germany in 1961.

Grosse was educated at art schools in West Germany including Kunstakademie Münster and Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Currently, she divides her time between Berlin and New Zealand. Since the 1990s, soon after qualifying at the art schools, she began making creations using acrylic paint applied with an industrial spray gun. Often, she sprays onto canvases, but also on other things. For example, in 2004, she sprayed the bedroom of her flat in Düsseldorf — everything in it including the bed, floor and the clothes, books and shoes strewn across it — in rainbow-hued acrylics. At the White Cube, one large gallery has been filled with piles of rubble. These piles, the floor, and the walls of the room have all been sprayed with coloured paints, producing an environment that looks psychedelic.

In the other rooms at White Cube, one can view huge canvases on which she has created abstract compositions using her paint sprayer and a variety of different coloured paints. I liked most of these creations. They look good as a whole and, also, when examined in detail. Using her paint application methods, she has produced many visually intriguing effects.

The gallery’s website explained:

“Since the late 1990s, Grosse has primarily worked with acrylic pigments and an industrial spray gun, creating marks that register not only the image, but also the movement of her body as she makes it. The spray gun allows her to extend her body beyond its reach, as far as her eyes can see. In this way she proposes a correlation between the act of looking and the act of painting, an approach informed, in part, by her early exposure to street shows and experimental theatre – productions that dismantled the traditional division between stage and audience.”

I like the idea that what can be seen in the paintings is a record of the movements she made while creating them. Of course, this is the case with every artist’s paintings, but in Grosse’s pictures, the results are not images of objects or ideas but documentation of her movements whilst creating the images.

Apart from being a vibrant and exciting collection of artworks, this show introduces the viewer to an exciting approach to artistic creation.

The Elephant Man and a town in Derbyshire

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THE DOCTOR AND SURGEON Sir Frederick Treves (1853-1923) is famous for many achievements in the field of medicine. He was a pioneer in the surgical treatment of appendicitis, and saved the life of King Edward VII when he suffered from this disorder just before his coronation. In 1884, he first saw Joseph Merrick, the so-called ‘Elephant Man’, and in 1886, he took this man to live and be cared for in the London Hospital. Treves cared for him until he died in 1890. Among his other roles, Treves worked in a field hospital in South Africa during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).

Prior to the above-mentioned, Treves, having trained at London Hospital Medical College and the Royal College of Surgeons, worked as a general practitioner, becoming a partner in a medical practice in Wirksworth, Derbyshire. It was in this small town that his daughter was born in 1878.

We stopped briefly in Wirksworth, an attractive place clinging to a steep hillside. After visiting the fascinating parish church, which contains wonderful, ancient stone carvings, I spotted a house with a commemorative plaque. It recorded the fact that Frederick Treves had lived in this building. The house on Coldwell Street is now named ‘Treves House’. After working in Wirksworth, Treves moved to London.

Wirksworth describes itself as “Pearl of the Peak District”, and from what little we saw of the place, it is a gem – maybe not a diamond, but a perfectly formed pearl.  

The town clerk who helped to save a wall built by the Romans

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HADRIANS WALL WAS commenced in 122 AD to fulfil the order of Emperor Hadrian, who wanted to separate Roman Britain from the so-called barbarians who lived in what is now Scotland and parts of Northumberland. The wall stretched 73 miles west from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend (next to Newcastle) on the River Tyne. Soon after it was built, it began to decline, and over the years, people used some of its stones to construct their own buildings.

Had it not been for the efforts of people like John Clayton (1792-1890), much of what we can see of Hadrian’s Wall today might have been lost forever. After having had a classical education, Clayton was a Town Clerk of Newcastle-on-Tyne and an antiquarian.

In 1796, John’s father, Nathaniel, bought the Chesters Eastate, through which part of Hadrian’s Wall runs. In its grounds, there stands a mansion, which was built in about 1771. After his father’s death in 1822, John inherited Chesters. John, who was keen on antiquities, excavated the Roman ruins on his land. These included what was left of a Roman fort known as ‘Cilurnum’. He also discovered the remains of a Roman Bridge that traversed to Tyne from the fort. After 1832, Clayton purchased other pieces of land on which there were remains of the Wall and its associated forts.

We visited Chesters, which is maintained by English Heritage. In addition to its well conserved remaims of the various parts of the Roman fort, there is a wonderful museum that contains many roman sculptures and inscribed stone discovered by Clayton. The museum, which is filled with many fine carvings, is delightfully old-fashioned. The museum was built after John Clayton’s death, but I am sure that he would have approved of the way his finds have been displayed.

A place name in England that has fascinated me since childhood

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AS A YOUNG CHILD, maps fascinated me, and they continue to do so. When peering at maps of England during my childhood, the name Worksop caught my attention. I cannot imagine why this name interested me, but it did.

 

Until 1 May 2026, I  had never visited Worksop. As we were not too far from this town in the northwest of Nottinghamshire,  we decided to drive through it so that I could ‘put a face’ to the name that has been in my mind for many decades.

 

The name Worksop is derived from an Old-English name ‘Weorc’ and ‘hop’ meaning valley. Prior to visiting the place, I assumed that the town would be unattractive and devoid of interest. How wrong I was.

 

During our short sojourn in Worksop, we stopped at the Priory Church of Saint Mary and Saint Cuthbert.  This Anglican parish church is usually known as ‘Worksop Priory’. The Priory was established by the Augustinians in 1103, and dissolved during the reign of King Henry VIII. Much restored,  the church has a modern spire above the crossing, which was rebuilt in a modern style in the 1970s, and designed by the architect Laurence King. The church stands near the to a pleasant park in which the Priory’s mediaeval gatehouse can be found.

  Time did not allow us to explore the rest of Worksop,  but if the Priory is anything to go by, another visit to the town might prove interesting.

The home of a viceroy of India and an architect from Scotland

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KEDLESTONE HALL WAS built on the 1760s for Nathaniel Curzon. It was designed by the Scottish architect Robert Adam. It contains many finely decorated rooms designed by Adam.

The edifice was inherited by Nathaniel’s descendant George Nathaniel Curzon, who was Viceroy of India between 1899 and 1905. I was hoping to see items related to Curzon’s time in India, but saw very few during my visit to Kedlestone Hall.

 

The absence of Indian ‘souvenirs’ is easily compensated by the splendour of the magnificent rooms designed in styles influenced by Ancient Rome and the Italian architect Palladio. Adam not only designed the rooms, but also many of the furnishings including,  for example,  door knobs and fireplaces.

 

I am glad I visited Kedlestone Hall but was disappointed by the paucity of memorabilia from Curzon’s time in India.

A railway station without trains on which you can travel

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I LOVE SECONDHAND bookshops, and Alnwick in Northumberland has a remarkable example. Called Barter Books, this treasure house of used books is housed in a former railway station, the Terminus of the Alnwick branch line.

 

The station opened in 1887, and was closed in 1968. Stuart and Mary Manley established Barter Books within the old station in 1991. Its stock of books is amazingly large. The friendly people who work in the store are both knowledgeable and helpful. They assist customers looking for particular books. There is also a computerised catalogue that customers can use.

 

At first sight, the shop seems overwhelming. However, unlike many other secondhand bookshops, the Books at Barter are beautifully shelved in a well organised way.

 

Apart from the books, the former station has a superb refreshment area – the former station buffet, where everything from beverages to full meals are available.

 

Although trains neither arrive nor leave the former station, there are trains within it. These are model trains that run along tracks attached to the tops of some of the bookcases.

 

Finally, the name ‘Barter’. The store is happy to receive books brought in by customers. After assessing them – a process that takes about 10 minutes – the store offers a price for those volumes it is keen to buy. This payment is in the firm of a credit note, which can be used to pay for books sold at Barter.

 

Luckily, for an avid book buyer like me, Barter is not too close to home: it is 310 miles away from our dwelling.

A castle, a chapel, and cider in Northumberland

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ETAL CASTLE OR what is left of it can be found southwest of Berwick on Tweed,  a few miles of the A1 trunk road. Constructed in about 1341, by 1603, it  had fallen into disrepair and was abandoned.  Now the remains of this fortification are maintained by English Heritage.

 

Etal Castle

Next to the ruins, stands the former Presbyterian chapel. Once a place where people concentrated on the Holy Spirit, it now deals with a different kind of spirit. Currently,  the chapel contains a ‘cidery’, a place where alcoholic ciders are manufactured  using apples grown in Northumberland. Visitors are encouraged to sample some of the  ciders produced in the repurposed chapel, and bottles are available to purchase.

 

The old castle is picturesque, as is the small village that includes a row of whitewashed houses. In the village, there is a pub and a very pleasant tea room that also serves as the village shop and post office.

Where Scotland meets England and a curious gift shop

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THE MITFORD SISTERS were daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale. The A68 road that runs from Edinburgh in Scotland to Darlington in England cosses the border between the two countries at Carter Bar. This pass in the Cheviot Hills is a few feet higher than the source of the River Rede, which flows through Northumberland (England) in a valley named Redesdale. The Mitford sisters’ father and grandfather were the Barons Redesdale.

 

Pipers Gift Shop at Carter Bar

Carter Bar, the place where the A68  crosses the Anglo-Scottish border is named after a toll gate that used to stand on the frontier, but has been removed or demolished.  At 1371 feet above sea level, the views over both Scotland and England are spectacular.

 

On each side of the road, there are large rocks. Each one has “England”  inscribed on one side, and “Scotland “ on the other.  The stones were sculpted by Eddie Laub.

 

When we visited Carter Bar on 28 April 2026, we saw a car parked there. Its boot was open, and filled with souvenirs for passers-by to purchase. The car bore a banner that read “Pipers Gift Shop”. An elderly man sat forlornly in the driver’s seat, and did not appear to hear us when we addressed him.

 

Carter Bar is certainly worth visiting not only to enjoy the views but also because the road leading to and from it runs through wonderful scenery.