Planetrees

Planetrees marks a surviving stretch of Hadrian’s Wall near a farm of the same name. The remaining section measures about 35 metres and stands close to the twentieth-mile stone. It was once much longer, but in the early 19th century a landowner began dismantling it for building work. William Hutton, a traveller and antiquary, arrived and persuaded the man to stop. Hutton argued that scholars across Britain would condemn the destruction of such an important ancient monument. The wall here shows two different building styles joined together. The eastern part is the Broad Wall, ten Roman feet wide, while the western part is the Narrow Wall, eight Roman feet wide. The foundations under the Narrow Wall were laid for the wider design, revealing a change of plan during construction. A culvert runs beneath the narrow stretch, built at the same time as the broad foundations. Archaeologists noted the shift from narrow to broad wall when they surveyed the site in 1989. Visitors reach Planetrees on foot along the Hadrian’s Wall National Trail. The surviving stones rise clearly above ground, showing the join between the two wall types. The site lies open to the sky, with no modern structures obscuring the view. Standing there, one can trace the line of the frontier as the Romans first planned it and then altered it. The place quietly testifies to the empire’s shifting ambitions and the efforts of early antiquaries to preserve what remained.