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22 C O N T E X T 1 7 9 : M A R C H 2 0 2 4 ALEXANDRA FAIRCLOUGH What happened to Hadrian’s Wall? Some of the fabric of Hadrian’s Wall can no longer be seen and some of what can be is reconstruction, but its former stones can be found in many buildings near its route. Hadrian’s Wall may well be reduced to rubble in places, but the stones that the Romans quar- ried, transported and used to build it have not necessarily been lost. Some of the softer stone crumbled over the centuries but the harder stone was incorporated into the nearby structures that followed. Many of these structures survive today and elements of Roman material can still be seen. The world heritage site includes many of these buildings within the buffer zone and most, if not all, are statutory protected. Together with the German Limes (Germanic frontier, inscription date 2005) and the Antonine Wall (inscription date 2008), Hadrian’s Wall (inscription date 1987) forms part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site. Unesco describes it: ‘The Roman Limes represents the border line of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretches over 5,000 kilometres from the Atlantic Coast of northern Britain through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic Coast. The remains of the Limes today consist of vestiges of built walls, ditches, forts, fortresses, watchtowers and civil- ian settlements. Certain elements of the wall have been excavated, some reconstructed and a few destroyed.’ In 76 AD, Publius Aelius Hadrianus (Hadrian) was born in a Roman town in Spain called Italica, near Seville. He was the son of Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer, a senator of praeto- rian rank and his wife, Domitian Paulina, St Michaels, Burgh by Sands. The grey stones (probably spolia) were quarried some distance away, the local substrata being clay and red sandstone. (Photo: Alexandra Fairclough)