Notes compiled by Percival Denny
Edited by Dr. Stella Barrows
INTRODUCTION
and OVERVIEW
The visible remains of Chesters Roman Fort comprise a
headquarters, the commanding officers house and the best-preserved military
bath house in Britain.
The fort guarded Chesters Bridge, which carried the Roman
Road behind the wall across the North Tyne
River. Although the bridge is long gone, the massive abutments survive.
‘Cilurnum’ (as it was known by the Romans), was a cavalry fort for over 200
years. There was also a thriving civilian settlement outside the fort in the
second and third centuries. The fort lay empty after the Romans departure from
Britain in the early fifth century, but between 1843 and 1890 the antiquary
John Clayton excavated many hundreds of items from the site and the surrounding
area.
Because of its proximity to the river, sonic phenomena in
the area are likely to have been generated by the movement of subterranean
water and the sedimentation of sound within alluvial deposits.
NOTE:
Subterranean sonic phenomena have been detected in this area by NISG members,
which might offer a rational scientific explanation for longstanding local
folkloric reports of music from below ground, the sounds of swords, marching
and horses.
GEOLOGY
The area around Hexham and Chollerford lies on stone from
the Yoredale Group, which consists of limestone, sandstone, siltstone and
mudstone.
Organised quarrying and extraction of stone in Northumberland
on a large scale commenced during the Roman occupation, with the construction
of Hadrian’s Wall (begun in AD 122), and its associated forts and associated
forts, milecastles and turrets. Romans selected sandstone as the main
construction material and together with limestone for making lime mortar, the
sandstone was obtained from various quarries along the course of the Wall
(there are rare examples of quarries near to Chollerford which can be
identified as being of Roman origin).
Following the departure of the Romans, Hadrian’s Wall
provided a ready source of building stone, and the distinctive squared blocks
produced by the Roman masons are today recognisable in a range of structures, including
castles, churches, farm buildings and even drystone walls.[1]
The solid geology of Northumberland is dominated by
Carboniferous sediments. These sandstones and limestones have been quarried
extensively for building purposes throughout Northumberland, and their use in
vernacular architecture contributes much to the variety of the local built
heritage and landscape. In his report on Otterburn and Elsdon, Miller (1887, p.
122) noted that the area was ‘... remarkable for the abundance of excellent building-stone
existing in the freestones and grits of the Carboniferous Formation. There is
scarcely an estate in which quarries might not be opened.’
The Carboniferous sediments have been intruded by a number
of distinct igneous rocks and it is suggested that this geological trait of the
landscape might cause a sonic buffering effect – which ultimately collects and
reflects the sound back to the ground level, releasing detectable sonic
phenomena, in the manner of repeated echo-type, induction, and auricular
events.
NOTE: Sonic
Geology clearly benefits from the subterranean disruption caused by quarrying in
terms of the release of new data and the stimulation of hitherto unknown Deep
Stratum sonic activity.
PRE-ROMAN HISTORY
There is a Neolithic cup-marked rock which has been built
into the Chesters Roman Bridge abutment, but traces of the original setting for
this stone has been long lost through it’s reuse by Roman builders. Its
presence makes it seem likely there was some settlement in the area. A number
of later Bronze Age burials have been found in the parish including one found
when the Railway was built at Chollerford and the earliest evidence of a
prehistoric settlement in the area dates to the Iron Age with a defended
settlement above the village of Wall with six houses inside an enclosure.
LATER
SETTLEMENTS: CHOLLERTON CHURCH and BELLS
The Church of St. Giles in Chollerton, is around two miles
from our site, just north of Hadrian’s Wall. It was built in the 12th Century
and consists of a chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a tower, heightened by
the addition of a belfry stage, containing two bells, only one of which is
currently ringable. The older bell was made by Thomas Mears of the Whitechapel
bell foundry of London in 1791.
Four large Roman columns, believed to come from Cilurnum,
may be seen supporting the south aisle in the church of St Giles at Chollerton,
a couple of miles upstream from the fort. There is also a Roman alter which has
been re-used as a font.
Subterranean shifts in the geology that have in turn
allowed remarkable sonic phenomena to be detected and recorded, particularly in
the area of Chesters Roman Fort. A late 10th or 11th century Anglo-Saxon cross
has also been built into the walls of the church. Fewer than 30 people
inhabit Chollerton now, although in Victorian times it had a population of over
5000. Farming and quarrying have dominated this area for centuries.
Subterranean shifts in the geology,
possibly caused by the local quarrying, have allowed remarkable sonic phenomena
to be detected and recorded, particularly in the area of Chesters Roman Fort.
Hadrian’s Wall may have been a site of conflict, including
for retaliatory raids into barbarian areas north of the wall during Roman
times, but also later conflicts with the Scots and border families (The
Reivers) took place in the surrounding area. Such highly charged sonic events
may well have percolated into the surrounding rock.
ARCHEOLOGICAL
EXCAVATIONS AND THE CLAYTON MUSEUM
The Sounding Space has active status as a Scheduled
Monument. As one might expect; this site has a rich history! As mentioned, occupation
and activity in the immediate area can be traced back thousands of years.
The Clayton Museum, at the edge of the
site, displays hundreds of archeological objects. John Clayton, the man largely
responsible for saving significant portions of Hadrian’s Wall in the 19th
Century, bought sections of the Wall to save the monument from stone robbing
and quarrying and carried out extensive archaeological excavations.
NOTE: A key
research question surrounds the extent to which archaeological objects may emit
charged sonic signals that have been stored within them as a result of human possession
and transportation.
[1] We have found this desecration of
ancient standing stones in numerous places around Great Britain; as an example
Avebury where sarsen stones were smashed by the Puritans of the late 17th
and early 18th Centuries and used for house building