A new guide for Corbridge

(2015)

The new English Heritage Guidebook for Roman Corbridge: Fort, Town and Museum (2015) is now available. The text is by Nick Hodgson who has also written the new guide for Chesters Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall.

This replaces the earlier guides for the site by Eric Birley (1935) — that remained as the Department of Environment ‘blue guide’ — and John Dore (1989), reprinted as recently as 2013. The title has evolved from Corbridge Roman Station (Corstopitum) to Corbridge Roman Station, and now to Roman Corbridge: Fort, Town and Museum. 

There are three main sections to the new guide: Tour of the Site; Corbridge Museum; and History of Corbridge. There are seven special features: The Corbridge Hoard; Roman Water Supply; Roman Legionaries at Corbridge; Oriental Cults at Corbridge; Shorden Brae Mausoleum; Septimius Severus: an African Emperor in Britain; and Hexham Abbey. There are several reconstructions of the site: c. 142 (pp. 4-5); c. 225 (pp. 42-43).

The publication, perhaps unknowingly, marks the centenary of the death at Gallipoli of one of the original excavators, Leonard Cheesman, a former student of the British School at Athens. (The contribution of students of the British School at Athens to the archaeology of Roman Britain is discussed in Sifting the Soil of Greece (2011)). The excavations at Corbridge are illustrated with some early photographs as well as the famous image of (Sir) Leonard Woolley and T.E. Lawrence at Carchemish.

Some of the most imposing structures are the Severan granaries constructed at the end of the second century.

Severan granary at Corbridge © David Gill