Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Thursday, 26 January 2023

Hadrian’s Wall - a 1900th anniversary summary


Hadrian’s Wall should need no introduction but it is worth stating that it remains a remarkable and fascinating monument, a series of sites and places in which one can sense the pulse of life in the past.

Hadrian began hisWall in 122 so this is its 1900th year and it continues to yield archaeological material that augments our knowledge of life under Roman rule.

Country Life has a good summary of the history of the Wall, of our increasing knowledge derived from it, and of how to see and appreciate not only it but also the wild and majestic countryside through which it runs.


When I was younger I was fortunate over a number of years to have visited sites along the Wall and to have acquired some sense of what an achievement it was to create and maintain it for almost three centuries. If you have not visited Hadrian’s Wall I would urge you to take the time to do so, and to see the other historic sites in the Borders, and the sweeping and dramatic landscape that was once the very edge of the Roman Empire.


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