44 REPORTS OF MEEiTINGS FOR 1909 



itinerary, and members repaired at 1-30 p.m. to the entrance 

 gate, where carriages were waiting to convey them to Cor- 

 bridge and the Roman excavations, a mile or more West of 

 the town. 



Crossing the Tyne by a handsome stone bridge of seven 

 arches, which was constructed in 1674, and was the only one 

 on that river below Hexham which withstood 

 Corstop= the tremendous floods of 1771, the party drove at 



itum. once to the Romano-British site of Corstopitum, 



where they were received by Mr R. H. Forster, 

 r.S.A., London, for the time superintending the work of explor- 

 ation conducted under the auspices of the Corbridge Excavation 

 Fund. Remarking at the outset that the area of the military 

 station extended over 24 acres, only 7 of which had been 

 overtaken, he recalled its position in respect of the famous 

 Wall about 2| miles further North, and defined its apparent 

 pvirpose as a supply-base for the soldiers garrisoning its 

 numerous forts. It lies on the North bank of the Tyne at 

 the point where a Roman bridge, half a mile West of the 

 one by which the party had crossed the river, carried Dere 

 or Watling Street Northwards by Risingham (Habitancum) 

 and High Rochester (Bremenium) to Newstead and the wall 

 of Antoninus Pius beyond it ; and is mentioned in the Itinerary, 

 or Road Book of Roman Britain, as the first halting-place South 

 of Bremenium (Plate V.). Its site occupies an open piece of 

 country belonging to Captain J. H. Cuthbert, D.S.O., Beaufront 

 Castle, who has yielded ready consent and practical assistance 

 to the work of excavation. By the aid of the operations that 

 have been conducted some conception of the plan of the place, 

 the direction of the streets, and the character of the buildings 

 has been formed, as may be judged from the accompanying 

 map (Plate VI.), from which is deduced the conclusion that 

 in Corstopitum there had been established a civil community 

 with features partaking of a definitely military character. 

 This conjecture is the easier of acceptance from the fact that 

 as yet no reliable evidence of regular fortifications has been 

 produced, the suggestion being hazarded that the proximity 

 of the river and of the great Wall to the North sufficed as 

 means of defence. The work undertaken in 1907 included 



