Welcome to the 2022 Hadrian’s Wall ‘Virtual’ Networking Days! The festival launched on Saturday 26 February, followed by 3 days of themed workshops and talks on Tuesday 1 to Thursday 3 March. Scroll down to check out the festival schedule, and catch up on the recordings if you were not able to attend.
Schedule
Information about the talks and events that took place during the 2022 festival can be found below.
The full programme can be downloaded here: Hadrian’s Wall Virtual Networking Days 2022 Programme
Saturday 26 February: Launch Event
Launch Event
Speakers:
- Welcome – Lady Jane Gibson, Hadrian’s Wall Partnership Board
- Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project Update – Rob Collins, WallCAP
- UNESCO and World Heritage Sites: 50 years of working towards peace – Matthew Rabagliati, UK National Commission for UNESCO
2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention – but what is it? How does it relate to the 1900-year old Hadrian’s Wall? This presentation will provide an overview of the mission and objectives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the role of World Heritage Sites. It then explores why Hadrian’s Wall is a World Heritage Site, and how the communities and people who live near it can help contribute to UNESCO’s aim of building peace in the minds of women and men.
- Exploring 1900 Years of Hadrian’s Wall – Bill Griffiths, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Bill will introduce the year-long festival and encourage people to consider how they could explore what the wall means to them over the course of the year
Tuesday 1 March: People & Projects
Session 1: Hadrian’s Wall in Your Back Garden: The Great British Dig & Beyond
Speaker: Chloe Duckworth, Lecturer & TV Presenter, Newcastle University
Living with the wall … I didn’t realise until I moved to Newcastle in 2016 just how prominent Hadrian’s Wall would become in my life. The Wall and its forts are woven into the fabric of the city, nowhere more so than in Benwell, where the remains of a temple and part of the vallum are the only above-ground reminders of the Roman fort of Condercum. I could hardly have guessed in 2016 that just four years later I would be searching for evidence of Roman life here, armed only with a spade, a trowel, and a television crew!
Join me for a behind the scenes take on our work in Benwell. What archaeology did we find that didn’t make it onto the show? What has been discovered since, in the post-excavation work? What happens when a local community, a TV comic, a production crew and a bunch of professional archaeologists collide? And what might the future hold for this often-overlooked archaeological gem?
Session 3: What have the Romans ever done for us?
Speaker: Graham Bell, Director, Cultura Trust
The archaeological significance of Hadrian’s Wall as part of the Roman Frontier is well documented and widely appreciated, especially in its landscape. But what does it mean – what difference does it make – in everyday life for people across Europe? Does it enable the folk of Maryport to have something in common with their counterparts in Benwell or Budapest? Cultura’s vision for Alauna in Maryport is both a local and a European perspective on the value of World Heritage in terms relevant to everyone: social, economic, environmental. Bridging 1900 years, it connects the Roman propensity for ingenuity with contemporary priorities for sustainable management of cultural landscapes. The Roman Frontier is no longer the boundary of civilisation but the longest threshold in Europe for sharing everything we hold in common.
Session 5: Youth Ambassadors on Hadrian’s Wall
Speaker: Clare Forsythe, Hadrian’s Wall Youth Ambassador Engagement Co-ordinator
Discover the Hadrian’s Wall Youth Ambassador Programme: what is it, why is it important and why it should be supported! And a reminder of why working with young people in a World Heritage Site is utterly awesome!
Session 2: Volunteering on the Wall – have your say!
Speaker: Marta Alberti, Deputy Director of Excavations, Vindolanda Trust
Have you ever volunteered on Hadrian’s Wall? Did you excavate at Corbridge, joined the WallWatch, guided visitors around Birdoswald? Have you categorised pottery at Corbridge, or helped with a museum clean at Senhouse? Have you ever stopped to wonder what it is you share with the other hundreds of people who do the same each year?
This interactive workshop is a chance to tell your story in a structured yet fun way, and to shape the development of future volunteering opportunities on the Wall. We will use Padlet, an online whiteboard, to tease out the stories of how you started volunteering on the Wall. We will explore what it is you want when joining the great volunteer ‘army’ of the Wall, and what you think heritage professionals want from you. Together, we will investigate where the two fields overlap, and what can each of us do to make volunteering on the Wall a little bit better each year.
Session 4: Uncovering Roman Carlisle – Recent Roman Finds at the Western End of Hadrian’s Wall
Speaker: Frank Giecco, Technical Director, Wardell Armstrong LLP
Following the discovery and community excavation of a Roman Bathhouse in 2017 at Carlisle Cricket Club, in 2021 the Uncovering Roman Carlisle project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, excavated what has proved to be one of the richest archaeological remains in Carlisle.
The ongoing programme of community archaeological investigation, exhibitions, and engagement exploring Carlisle’s Roman remains, has engaged hundreds of volunteers of all ages and from all walks of life. Hear about the excavation of the bathhouse, exciting discoveries, and community dig.
The project is ongoing, being led by a partnership of Carlisle City Council, Carlisle Cricket Club, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery and Wardell Armstrong.
Wednesday 2 March: WallCAP & Condition of Hadrian’s Wall
Session 1: The WallCAP Excavations – Some Interim Conclusions
Speakers: Dr Jane Harrison, WallCAP
WallCAP have conducted a number of excavations and archaeological investigations along the length of the Wall over the last two years. The results are beginning to come together and this presentation considers why what we’ve learned matters for the future of the Wall.
Session 3: A Digital Crossing of Hadrian’s Wall National Trail highlighting Works Past, Present & Future
Speaker: Gary Pickles, National Trail Ranger – Northumberland National Park
A journey along Hadrian’s Wall National Trail looking at opportunities and challenges that have arisen in the last few years and how we work with partners to help manage the path.
Session 5: Mapping Hadrian’s Wall – the WallCAP WallGIS
Speaker: Kathryn Murphy, WallCAP
WallCAP has designed, populated, and built a Wall-wide geodatabase and GIS (Geographical Information System) with the help of crowdsourced data and research by our volunteers. The WallGIS is bringing together detailed information for each turret, milecastle, fort, and every mile of linear features, and will also include information from geological layers, quarry sites, and structures with re-used Roman stone. The underlying database has bespoke construction to account for many of the unique features of the Wall, and data was collected from a range of sources, including excavation reports, and newly acquired field data. At the end of WallCAP, the WallGIS will be made freely available to the public and researchers alike.
Session 2: Stories in Stone
Speakers: Dr Ian Kille, WallCAP
The relationship between people, the landscape in which they live and the resources which they extract from it, is as old as humanity. We can see it in the flint axes used by hunters and the knowledge they would have had of the landscape in which their prey lived. We can also see it in the enigmatic cup and ring marks placed with seeming deliberation within dramatic places in the landscape.
This talk will explore these Stories in Stone in the landscape of the Wall. It will include the obvious relationship between Hadrian’s Wall, the landscape it sits in and the very fabric it is made of. It will also take in the more recent ways that the rocks under the Wall have been exploited and how they may be used to help resolve some of the consequences of that exploitation.
Session 4: WallCAP Exhibitions: Our work with the Great North Museum, the Sill & Tullie House
Speaker: Dr Rob Collins, WallCAP
WallCAP has been able to work with the Great North Museum: Hancock, the Sill Discovery Centre, and Tullie House Museum Trust to deliver two permanent exhibitions and one temporary exhibition during the course of the project. These were all successfully delivered and launched in 2021, though each exhibition was bespoke to the space and collections of each venue. The talk will provide an overview of these exhibitions.
Thursday 3 March: Celebration of World Heritage Status
Session 1: Hadrian’s Wall 1900 – How to Get Involved
Speakers: Abigail Cheverst, Hadrian’s Wall 1900
2022 marks 1900 years since the commencing of the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. Find out how you can get involved in this year-long and wall wide festival to celebrate this remarkable and enduring achievement. But Hadrians Wall 1900 is not just about the stones; it’s a thread that runs through the landscape and its inhabitants as well as our histories, both as communities and as individuals. We want the festival to celebrate this and we are calling on the communities of Hadrian’s Wall to join us in celebrating 1900 year in whatever way feels most appropriate to them.
Session 3: World Heritage Sites & Peace Project
Speakers: David Brough, Heritage Consultant
David will provide an introduction to the World Heritage Sites & Peace project, its background, what has happened to date, what’s happening next and what it is hoping to achieve.
Session 5: Wrap Up & Looking Forward
Speaker: Lady Jane Gibson
Session 2: Jubilee Beacons & Hadrian’s Wall
Speaker: Jez Light, Hadrian’s Wall Beaconmaster
Find out more about the plans to light 70 beacons across the communities of Hadrian’s Wall at 10pm on 2nd June 2022 to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The session will provide an overview of the project, explain why Hadrian’s Wall is central to the Pageantmaster’s plans for the UK-wide community celebrations and will end with an opportunity to share ideas for beacon-led events in your local community.
Session 4: World Heritage in the UK, An Overview and Current Status – Challenges & Opportunities
Speaker: Chris Blandford, World Heritage UK
From the early iconic monument WHSs, the UK list has evolved to include more extensive, diverse, and complex cultural landscapes and cityscapes. Improved approaches to management, partnership, and stakeholder involvement have in part been successfully achieved to support these. However, significant challenges remain: the low awareness of World Heritage values, reduced public spending, and increased pressures for change and development in WHSs and their buffer zones. The WHSs as a whole have become a central part of the national cultural inheritance but a more coherent strategy and vision to promote their role as global assets and to ensure sustainable management in the future is now needed. The recent and comprehensive WHUK Review of UK World Heritage -Asset for the Future has now set out the blueprint for this.
