Discovering Bremenium

Today I drove out to the Northumberland National Park. The route there never fails to remind me that this is England’s most rural county: through farms and narrow roads lined with dry stone walls, over little stone bridges that remind me of the opening sequence to Postman Pat. On and on and on.

The landscape is a patchwork of fields and forest. After an hour, there is a right turn, up a hill to a farm that really feels like it is in the middle of nowhere. And yet it wasn’t always like this…

I am working with Redesdale Archaeology Group and The Archaeological Practice Ltd. to evaluate their new National Lottery Heritage Fund project which is excavating the Roman fort at Bremenium. Digging started yesterday and already they have recorded some interesting finds. It blows my mind that this quiet corner of Northumberland was once busy with Roman soldiers: a defended garrison at the fringes of the Empire (most important outpost north of Hadrian’s Wall).

Today was my first visit for this project (although I have visited before as part of the Revitalising Redesdale programme). I’m really looking forward to watching it unfold.