06-05-2009, 11:09 AM
Duncan. I now can't remember the exact dates but Raymond Selkirk did indeed do excavations at Bywell where Roman coins were found on the north bank of the river above the bridge. Then there was also his other excavations some 500 yards north of the river in the woods at Bywell where he revealed the crossroads of his "Proto Dere Street" going north and the "Stanegate Road" that travels east from Corbridge and at this point there was also a roman road leading away south to the Churches at Bywell one of which is full of roman stone work that did not as assumed come from Corbridge.
With reference to the dam it has a poundlock that allowed barges to travel up river, this lock has slots cut into it's walls for the raising and lowering of gates as also does the sluice channel next to it, there have been comments in the past about how good the "WEIR" at Bywell was for the catching of salmon but not that it was built for such it is indeed a reduction of a roman dam that becomes a weir and then of course it was removed entirerly in the 19th century however the lock on the south side of the river still remains at some 6-8ft' above river level.
The so called by-pass canal you refer to is infact a barge harbour and not only at Bywell but many other rivers in this country show these type of canals and coincidently near to roman establishments.
With reference to the dam it has a poundlock that allowed barges to travel up river, this lock has slots cut into it's walls for the raising and lowering of gates as also does the sluice channel next to it, there have been comments in the past about how good the "WEIR" at Bywell was for the catching of salmon but not that it was built for such it is indeed a reduction of a roman dam that becomes a weir and then of course it was removed entirerly in the 19th century however the lock on the south side of the river still remains at some 6-8ft' above river level.
The so called by-pass canal you refer to is infact a barge harbour and not only at Bywell but many other rivers in this country show these type of canals and coincidently near to roman establishments.
Brian Stobbs
