Chesters Bridge

Chesters Bridge stands beside the River North Tyne at Chollerford in Northumberland, close to the remains of the Roman fort of Cilurnum. The fort once guarded Hadrian’s Wall and appears in the Notitia Dignitatum, a late Roman document listing military units. The bridge carried the Military Way road behind the wall, linking forts and supply routes. Its massive masonry abutments still rise from the riverbank, though the western side was lost to a shift in the river’s course. A footpath from Chollerford Bridge leads visitors to the eastern remains, first identified in 1860. The site offers a rare glimpse of Roman engineering adapted to a shifting landscape. The bridge’s history includes at least two major structures. The first, built about AD 122–4, spanned the river on eight hexagonal piers spaced four metres apart. The second, from the early 3rd century, had four arches and a wider carriageway, supported by three river piers. Evidence such as lewis holes and iron ties shows how the Romans lifted and secured the heavy stones. An inscription found in 1978 mentions a cavalry wing named Augusta, stationed here for its valour. A male fertility symbol carved into the abutment adds a curious detail to the ruins. Visitors walk past the exposed eastern abutment, its splayed wing walls still standing firm. The river now flows closer to the western bank, covering what once supported the bridge. Nearby, the grassy slope once landscaped by Nathaniel Clayton now leads down to the water. The site’s reinterpretation suggests the southern abutment may have been a wharf for loading barges, linking the fort to river transport. Though public access to the abutments is currently closed, the setting remains a quiet place to imagine Roman supply lines and defences. The remains stand as silent witnesses to the Wall’s purpose and the river’s changing course.