Wrekendyke Roman road

Wrekendyke Roman road

HER Number
277
District
Gateshead and S Tyneside
Site Name
Wrekendyke Roman road
Place
Wardley
Map Sheet
NZ36SE
Class
Transport
Site Type: Broad
Road Transport Site
Site Type: Specific
Road
General Period
ROMAN
Specific Period
Roman 43 to 410
Form of Evidence
Documentary Evidence
Description
It is generally agreed that this Roman road connected the fort at South Shields with the Roman road from Chester-le-Street to the Tyne. A considerable stretch of the road is still in use, from Jarrow Slake to Wrekenton at NZ 2812 5926. West of there it is now largely built over. Wright obtained a section at NZ 310614, where it was 16 feet wide, and another on the east side of Long Bank, Wrekenton, where it was 19 feet across. Until comparatively recently long stretches of the Wrekendyke formed parish boundaries.
Easting
435250
Northing
564800
Grid Reference
NZ435250564800
Sources
<< HER 277 >> W. Hutchinson, 1787, History of...Durham, II, pp. 487-9
R. Surtees, 1820, History of...Durham, II, pp. 102, 136
J. Hodgson, 1832, Observations on the Roman Road called Wrekendyke, Archaeologia Aeliana, 1, II, pp. 123-36
W.H.D. Longstaffe, 1858, Durham before the Conquest,Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute, Newcastle, I, pp. 59-60
R.P. Wright, 1940, The Wrekendike and Roman road-junction on Gateshead Fell, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XVII, pp. 54-64
R. Selkirk, 1983, The Piercebridge Formula; P Bidwell and M Snape, 2002, The History and Setting of the Roman Fort at Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th Series, vol 31, p 257; DH Heslop, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead before 1080, in Diana Newton and AJ Pollard, Newcastle and Gateshead before 1700, p. 7