Benwell (Condercum) Vallum Crossing

The vallum is a series of earthen ramparts and ditches (read more here) that runs roughly parallel south of the wall itself. At Benwell the vallum was diverted around the southern end of the fort, and the causeway was about 50 metres directly south of the fort’s southgate. The way in which the gate would have worked shows that it was closed from the north, indicating access was controlled from the fort.

Downhill from the south gate of the Benwell fort, lies the vallum crossing. The crossing had vertical sides of dressed ashlar and was spanned by an arched gateway with double doors to bar wheeled traffic coming from the south. The stonework on the crossing shows that it supported a monumental gateway. The vallum was infilled during the Severan restoration of the Wall and buildings were erected over it but the gateway was maintained in working order throughout the remainder of the Roman period.

Six periods of road are known. The first is Hadrianic, together with the gate. Pivot stones were discovered in this layer and the fifth layer only. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the doors were removed under Lollius Urbicus, later to be refurbished in the fifth period to fortify what remained of the stone-built vicus built on the vallum. The obliteration of the vallum had at first made such gates obsolete.