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BRUNTON TURRET

ALTERNATIVE NAME:

TURRET 26B

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The site of Brunton Turret, also known as Turret 26b. It is preserved with upstanding remains up to 2.8 metres high, and forms part of a 69 metre long section of Hadrian's Wall. Within the turret is a free-standing altar. The turret was first excavated by J. Clayton during 1873 and later by T. Hepple in 1930. It has since been consolidated. The turret measures twelve feet nine inches by eleven feet six inches internally, and is recessed about four feet into the wall. It has a doorway nearly four feet wide. The side walls of the turret are two feet nine inches thick. Hadrian's Wall forms the north wall of the turret, which was standing eleven courses high in 1947. Its south wall is nearly four feet high. On the east side of the turret the broad wall wing is joined by a narrow section of wall, indicating that the turrets were built first and the Wall was then built up to them. Near to Brunton Turret a centurial stone was found in situ with the inscription COH IX > PAV.APRI ('The century of Paulus Aper of the ninth cohort').

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[NY 9216 6983] Turret [G.S.] (Excavated A.D. 1873)
Roman Altar [G.S.] (1-2)

"The Turret, 26B, measures internally twelve feet nine inches by eleven feet six inches, and is recessed about four feet into the wall. It has a doorway nearly four feet wide. The wall, which forms its north wall, is standing eleven courses high, giving an elevation of eight feet and a half. The side walls of the turret are two feet nine inches thick. Its south wall is nearly four feet high. Altogether this is one of the finest specimens of a turret anywhere on the Wall". (3-4)

"About half a mile east of the station at Chesters (Cilernum), while laying bare one of the Wall turrets (in March 1880) a centurial stone was found" in situ "with the inscription COH IX > PAV.APRI ("The century of Paulus Aper of the ninth cohort"). The stone was retained by the owner of the land. [Turret 26B is the nearest to the siting given.] (5)

Correctly described above, and published survey (25") correct. See GPs. AO/65/157/5 & 6. The altar is free-standing within the turret. No further information concerning the centurial stone. (6)

First excavated by Clayton in 1873 (7a-b). This turret, up to 2.8m high, is consolidated and under guardianship. Revised NGR NY 9215 6983. Centurial stone now recorded under NY 96 NW 56. (7)

Brunton Turret, also known as Turret 26b, forms part of a 69 metre long section of Hadrian's Wall. Within the turret is a free-standing altar. The turret was first excavated by J. Clayton during 1873 and later by T. Hepple in 1930. It has since been consolidated. On the east side of the turret the broad wall wing is joined by a narrow section of wall, indicating that the turrets were built first and the Wall was then built up to them. (8)

There is a Roman altar preserved within Turret 26b (Brunton) (NY 96 NW 6). (10)

Depiction in the James Irwin Coates Archive (1879) shows the turret and 3 altars. (11)

An apparent inward curve of the ditch is possibly a remnant of the original arrangement of the Wall ditch converging with the Wall at the sites of turrets, the extra-wide berm that accommodated obstacles narrowing at these points and the obstacles themselves being ommitted immediately in front of the turret. This arrangement is not normally seen on the ground, because the Wall-ditch seems to have been recut on an alignment parallel with the Wall. (12)

Located on the English Heritage map of Hadrian's Wall 2010. (13)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

6" 1925

( 2) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

25" 1922

( 3) General reference

Handbook to the Roman Wall, 10th edition. 1947 (JC Bruce) Page(s)76

( 4) Archaeologia Aeliana : or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity

Series 2; vol 9 p234, vol 10 p57

( 5) Royal Archaeological Institute The Archaeological Journal

(W Thompson Watkin) 38, 1881 Page(s)277

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F1 RWE 11-JAN-66

( 7) Field Investigators Comments

Keith Blood/07-SEP-1989/RCHME: Hadrian's Wall Project

( 7a) Archaeologia Aeliana : or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity

Simpson F G and Birley E 'Excavations on Hadrian's Wall between Heddon-on-the-Wall and North Tyne in 1930' 8, 1931 Page(s)134

( 7b) by J Collingwood Bruce; edited and enlarged by Charles Daniels 1978 Handbook to the Roman Wall with the Cumbrian coast and outpost forts

Page(s)105

( 8) Scheduled Monument Notification

14-JUL-1997

( 9) compiled by A Rushworth and C Lucas 1997 Hadrian's Wall at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Planetrees, Brunton and Black Carts

(10) Field Investigators Comments

Keith Blood/12-SEP-1989/RCHME: Hadrian's Wall Project

(11) Tony Wilmott (Ed) 2009 Hadrian's Wall: archaeological research by English Heritage 1976-2000

Page(s)16

(12) N Hodgson 2009 Hadrian's Wall 1999-2009

Page(s)107

(13) English Heritage 2010 An Archaeological Map of Hadrian's Wall, 1:25,000 scale

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