Location Summary
Museum displaying the history of the local Roman fort, Roman Culture and Hadrian's Wall.
Creative displays to keep the younger audience entertained.
A 9 storey high viewing tower that has amazing views down on to the remains of the fort and along the Tyne.
Website: Segedunum Museum
Getting There: Easiest by Metro. It is near to the Wallsend Metro Station.
Fee: £3.80 (2024)
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Captain's Log
Roman Centurion Guards The Carpark
01/07/24
First Visit
Segedenum translates as 'strong fort'. I suppose that would let the enemy know what they were in for if they intended to attack. It was the last fort along Hadrian's Wall. It is a curious thing that the Wall wasn't extended to Tynemouth so that it really was a coast-to-coast barrier. The reason lies with the Arbeia Fort on the south bank of the Tyne (currently South Shields) that provided a secure stronghold from the opposite bank of the river. See Sand Dancing From Souter To South Shields where I failed miserably to sweet talk my way into that particular museum.
There is now only an outline of where the buildings used to be located within the Segedunum fort. The stones had been removed and used to build other stuff in later centuries.
An impressive 35 metre viewing tower dominates the sky above the museum. It is possible to go to the top of this from within the museum.
There is a wonderful metal statue of Sentius Tectonicus near to the museum's entrance. Sentius was the name of the centurion responsible for supervising the section of Hadrian's Wall near Segedunum. A stone inscribed with his name was found near the fort. Tectonicus refers to the sculpture's design as an architectural man.
It is amazing to think that it only took the Romans 6 years to build the initial version of the 80 mile Wall and supporting infrastructure. That was some achievement. It was built using paid soldiers.
I walked into the museum expecting to find a ticket office. Instead I found the museum itself which was a bit weird. It was only later when I'd taken a tour of the museum that I stumbled across the ticket office. It seemed that they'd had to move the entrance door due to some renovation work. I confessed that I'd already wandered around the museum and so paid the token £3.80 entry fee. I say a token fee because I think the museum offered a lot more value than that.
Roman Crapper Had Thankfully Been Cleaned
For instance, as soon as I came into the museum I came across a stone Roman crapper. The holes in the construction looked uncomfortably close. Maybe privacy wasn't a big issue in those days. I'm not sure I'd have liked to have sat down on that cold stone on a frosty morning. I wondered if they'd had their own sit mats to make it a little more comfortable. The information note next to the display was rather diplomatic on the details.
The next area was how Roman surgeons used to treat injuries. They showed a replica skull that had been excavated near here and a sword mark was clearly visible in the skull. The skull had grown back a bit and so the owner had survived the encounter. There were cabinets of various medical instruments that had been found. I remember listening to a radio documentary once that said a lot of the Roman surgical instruments would actually be familiar with surgeons today. It said that people like Galen perfected their knowledge of anatomy by treating the injuries of gladiators or even performing live dissections on slaves. In fact, Galen's views were so comprehensive that they dominated medical science for 1,300 years. I cringed looking at some of those instruments.
Replica Skull With A Sword Mark
Surgical Instruments
Sentius Tectonicus
The museum was rather dark and I had trouble seeing some of the smaller artefacts such as coins and jewellery. A display showed the sleeping quarters of a soldier. The bed looked rather small to me. If they were that short I'm not sure why the rogue parts of the western world couldn't defeat them.
It was amazing looking at all these artefacts and thinking that they formed part of the day-to-day culture around 2000 years ago.
After I bought my ticket to go around the museum that I'd already been around, the ticket vendor said that it also allowed me to go to the top of the viewing tower. I couldn't resist that and so took the lift to the top. When it says viewing tower, it really means a viewing tower. There were banked rows of seats up there where you could just sit and watch. The problem was that unless a boat was going up the Tyne, or a bus along the road, the view was a bit static. Nevertheless, there was no denying that it was an absolutely stunning view down on to the fort and along both directions of the River Tyne.
Back at the ticket office I decided to treat myself to an ice-cream. I opened the fridge and saw that I had a choice of a Twister and...well, another 30 Twisters. I decided to opt for a Twister. 'Ah a Twister! I love Twisters' said the ticket man as I scanned my credit card. 'Well, that's lucky for you then' I thought.
As I departed the museum, I noticed that there was an Asda across the road and so I went across to form some sort of lunch from its Meal Deals. This was an unfortunate distraction since I totally forgot to visit the reconstructed wall near to the fort. I'd actually been looking forward to seeing this over the whole length of the trail, to get an impression of what the wall would have actually looked like in Roman times. I guess my distraction does give me a chance to revisit Segendunum at a later date, which I will surely do.
View Along The River Tyne From The Top Of The Tower. Some Of The Remains Of The Segudunum Fort Can Be Seen On The Right.