Hadrian\'s Wall I

[mcbishop]

Okay, it's time for the first of my Christmas presents to RAT members. There will be several over the next few weeks, but don't be greedy and don't tear the wrapping paper off and leave it in a pile in the middle of the room!

So what do I have for you first? It is a set of photographs (and some woodcuts) of the upstanding parts of Hadrian's Wall. You may find it particularly useful if you are settling down over the festive season to read the new edition of the Handbook to the Roman Wall, since each image is referenced to that tome.

The images are organised by Wall Mile (starting at 0, Wallsend, and ending at 79, Bowness) and have been ordered in a linear progression within that as if you were walking from east to west. The coverage is by no means complete, and I shall soon be adding the forts from scanned slides as a temporary measure, although these too will be replaced by new digital images in due course. I hope also to add an aerial component, but more of that at another time. They have also been geotagged (with some difficulty) using Flickr's lowres Yahoo maps (virtually impossible for the central sector, but I did my best) and a few have been experimentally geotagged to Google Maps. The Flickr GUI is a bit of a mess (to put it mildly) so you may have to do some digging to find them on a map, but trust me; they are there.

In keeping with my advocacy of the open source philosophy, the photos are published under a Creative Commons licence which (in brief) means you are free to copy and re-use them as you see fit for non-commercial purposes (sticking on your websites or in newsletters, using in lectures or school projects, and so on). Read the simple blurb on the CC website if you have any doubts.

Your next present will be along in about a week's time.

Mike Bishop

[caiusbeerquitius]

Great!

[richsc]

A most wonderful and thorough collection of photos! Many thanks Mike!

[Tarbicus]

You missed a bit :wink:

(That was a joke btw)

Wonderful stuff.

[mcbishop]

You missed a bit :wink:

Well I'll confess I didn't put my waders on and go looking for the mythical Wall Mile 80 to the west of Bowness. Seriously, though, the new edition of the Handbook does indeed imply I have missed a bit on the outskirts of Newcastle in the forecourt of a filling station (and one – embarrassingly – which I have used occasionally, although it is a b*gger to get the Landie into and out of, since it is on a roundabout). I shall remedy my omission next time I am down in Geordieland (vis-à-vis the filling station, not the waders!).

Mike Bishop

[markusaurelius]

Thanks for the great pictures!

[Robert Vermaat]

Great collection Mike!

[Kate Gilliver]

Thanks, Santa :wink:

For something in the way of aerial context, [url:1n40zilj]http://maps.live.com/[/url] is worth a go - recommended by someone on my walking forum a couple of weeks ago, and for some areas of the UK better than Google Earth.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Thanks Mike, great pics of theWall! So much to see yet! 8)

[mcbishop]

Thanks, Santa :wink:

For something in the way of aerial context, [url:21da4cqx]http://maps.live.com/[/url] is worth a go - recommended by someone on my walking forum a couple of weeks ago, and for some areas of the UK better than Google Earth.

Watch this space ;-) Micro$oft have bought up the Getmapping coverage (map-corrected vertical aps) of England and (most of) Wales for maps.live.com (or local.live.com), but it is still deficient in Scotland and is a work in hand, apparently. Google have only satellite coverage, so whilst the first 11-and-a-bit miles in Tyne and Wear are highres, the rest of the Wall is lores landsat coverage and of limited value.

Compare the short length of curtain wall in Byker on Google and on live.com and then look at the Heddon-on-the-Wall stretch on Google and live.com.

Still, things in this department only seem to get better so a little patience may be rewarded. Google Earth is certainly slicker than the Virtual Earth thing (which only works in Internet Exploder... and then clunkily).

Mike Bishop

[Robert Vermaat]

For something in the way of aerial context, [url:2qtg7khb]http://maps.live.com/[/url] is worth a go - recommended by someone on my walking forum a couple of weeks ago, and for some areas of the UK better than Google Earth.

Indeed Kate! I could follow my beloved Wansdyke all the way from Lacock westward (where Google shows me nothing) across the Roman road' midsection. Thanks!

[Flavius Promotus]

Great images!

[M. Demetrius]

Great pictures. Te laudo.