31 March: Abbotsford House and Hadrians Wall

After our glimpse of Melrose Abbey and a good night's sleep in Melrose, we were ready for Abbotsford House.

Abbotsford House

Abbotsford House was the home of the 19th century Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott. He is the author of timeless classics such as 'Waverley', 'Rob Roy', 'Ivanhoe' and 'The Lady of the Lake'. In 1811 Sir Walter bought the property which was to become Abbotsford, on the banks of the River Tweed. The building of Abbotsford took six years, and was completed in 1824. 

Abbotsford House was opened to the public in 1833, five months after Sir Walter's death. The house contains an impressive collection of historic relics, weapons and armour, including Rob Roy's Gun and Montrose's Sword. In addition the library contains over 9,000 rare volumes.

Unfortunately Abbotsford House was closed for renovation when we went to visit the house (due to re-open 4 July 2013), which was rather disappointing. However, the visitor centre contained a very interesting exhibition, giving us an insight into Abbortsford House and the life of Sir Walter Scott. Outside the visitor centre there was a woodland playground, which was great for the boys.

Lunch at Corbridge

From Abbotsford house we made our way across the English border, to the charming village of Corbridge, close to Hadrians wall. Corbridge grew from the Roman town of Corstopitum, a supply town for the troops on Hadrian's Wall.

In the thirteenth century Corbridge was second only to Newcastle in wealth and its citizens were heavily taxed to help pay for Edward 1's Scottish wars. The town's mediaeval street plan is much the same today as it was in the thirteenth century, making it a very quaint and picturesque town.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at one of the local tea rooms in Corbridge, where I had the most fantastic sandwich, while the boys were thrilled with their 'luxury hot chocolates".

 

Hadrian's Wall

After lunch and sight seeing in Corbridge, we drove on to the southernmost attraction of our four day Easter trip; Hadrian's Wall. Our youngest son had been learning about the Romans at school for many weeks, so Hadrian's Wall was the perfect destination for our Easter trip.

But first something completely outside of topic: On our way to see the wall we had to stop at a local bar to use their facilities. It was when I saw the sign in the picture you see here that I really knew I was in England. Where else in the world would you ask people not to put tea bags down the toilet?

Finally we arrived at Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall, formerly home of up to 800 Roman soldiers. Hadrian's Wall was built by the Romans and stretches 117.5 km across the north of England from from Segedunum (close to Newcastle upon Tyne), via Carlisle and Kirkandrews-on-Eden, to the shore of the Solway Firth, and ending a short but unknown distance west of the village of Bowness-on-Solway.

Construction of the wall was begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, and completed six years later. It was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall in Scotland. The Antonine Wall is lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.

In addition to its role as a military fortification, it is thought that many of the gates through the wall would have served as customs posts to allow trade and levy taxation.

Housesteads Roman Fort was built around AD 124 and is the best preserved of all the Roman forts along Hadrian’s Wall. At this fort we saw excavated remains of all the different types of buildings within a typical fort – barracks, headquarters block, commander’s house, granaries, hospital, toilets and a complete circuit of walls. Best conserved are the latrines, complete with cistern and a flushing gully to take away the waste.

Housesteads Roman Fort is also next to one of the best-preserved sections of wall, with wonderful views over the Wark Forest and the moorlands to the north. Our plan was to take a long walk along the wall, but as usual there are so many things we want to see and so little time, so our walk had to be cut down drastically. We all enjoyed our little walk though, and our youngest son kept on urging us to keep going because he enjoyed it so much. In the end we had to turn around to avoid being completely famished by the time we found a place to have dinner.

 

Brampton

We managed to find a place to eat in the charming village of Brampton and fortunately we were also lucky enough to find a room in a Bed & Breakfast called The Oval House. The owner was an artist named Jane Streames, who had decorated the hall and dining room with her own paintings. She also sold prints and cards. This was the first time we'd stayed at a Bed & Breakfast and we decided that this certainly was much more fun than staying in hotels.