Abstract
A NEW museum of Roman antiquities from Hadrian's Wall at Housesteads Camp, north-west of Hexham, was opened on July 23 by Prof. G. M. Trevelyan, vice-chairman of the National Trust. The cost of the building has been defrayed out of funds which have accumulated as a result of the greatly increased number of visitors, who now go to inspect the camp. In 1935 they numbered no less than 15,000. Housesteads, or Borcovicus, which on its north side abuts on the Wall, covers an area of five acres. It is not only one of the finest sites on the wall, but it is also one of the most completely excavated Roman camps open to view in Great Britain. During the excavations, a number of important finds were made, and these, with other antiquities, will be housed in the new museum. The site of five acres, a milecastle and three quarters of a mile of the wall itself were presented to the National Trust in 1930 by the owner, Mr. J. H. Clayton, a well-known Northumbrian antiquary. The site is now under the management of a committee, the members of which include Prof. G. M. Trevelyan and Mr. J. A. Richmond, who for some years has been one of the most active of excavators on Roman sites in Britain. In this connexion may be mentioned another addition to the Roman sites held by the National Trust. Segontium, a Roman fort in Caernarvonshire, has been bequeathed to that body by Mr. John Roberts of London, a native of Caernarvon. The antiquities, pottery, coins and implements, which were found when the fort was excavated by Dr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler in co-operation with the Office of Works, are housed in a museum which is bequeathed with the site.
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Roman Sites and the National Trust. Nature 138, 156–157 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138156d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138156d0