Today I am out in freezing temperatures photographing a riverbank. Mist, which we call “clag”, swirls over the higher ground and I cannot see any of our livestock that are overwintering on the hills.
The reason I’ve turned photographer may come as a surprise: on Low Borrowbridge farm we have a Roman fort and civilian settlement dating to the first and second century AD, including what is thought to be a Roman parade ground and cemetery. The remains are extensive, covering at least 12 hectares (30 acres) under the ground. Since Victorian times, there have been successive excavations, most recently in 2011-12 when a mansio (a guesthouse for people visiting the fort) was found. A geophysical survey has also located the headquarters building and the commander’s house.
Unfortunately, the cemetery is under threat from the River Lune, which flows through the farm. In 2019, the Highways Agency became concerned about the river hitting the edges of Salterwath bridge, another listed structure on the farm. To protect the bridge, gabions of stone were installed in the river upstream. But this has altered the watercourse, sending it into the riverbank and endangering the field that contains the remains. The riverbank is now eroding at an alarming rate, with trees and clumps of earth being carried away in recent storms.
I have been trying to find funding to shore up the riverbank for a couple of years. Now Historic England is interested in helping and, as part of my application, I need to take photos of the offending patch of bank.
As I do, I can hear the distant hum of trains and motorway traffic. Thousands of people pass through our valley each day, but few venture off the main corridors into the quiet of the Lune Gorge – I have seen no cars pass by this morning. Archaeologists have debated the name of the fort for years– they have never found an inscribed sign. The most likely theory is that it was called “Alone”, from which we get the name of the River “Lune”. I can’t decide if Alone is an appropriate name today, in this isolated gorge, or ironic with thousands of people passing by in cars and on trains through the hills of Cumbria to Scotland.
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