Roman Stones Missing from Mill Dam Roundabout, South Shields
6th Jan 2025 by Luan Hanratty and Gary Holland
Update 2: South Tyneside Council have made a real dog’s dinner of this, in more ways than one. Read the Facebook comments:
Update: This story has made it onto the BBC News website:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crl3lxk8xx7o
An array of large and possibly Roman building stones previously decorated the busy roundabout between Asda and the BT Building.
They were said to contain Lewis holes—deep grooves expertly cut by Roman stonemasons in order to carry and clasp blocks into place, something you can see in the walls of the Strong Room at Arbeia Fort up the road.
They look big enough to have formed part of an ancient dock. Where have they gone? This is how the Historic Environment Record (#5190) describes the stones:
“Stones displaying Lewis holes (for the lifting devices of Roman cranes), chisel facing and drill holes were noticed by the Northern Archaeology Group [pdf below] decorating the roundabout at the junction of Mill Dam, Commercial Road, Station Road, Coronation Street and Ferry Street in 1998.
Several dozen similar stones border the flowerbeds at one side of the carpark in Coronation Street.” [These, I’m also unable to locate]
However, at some point since February 2024 an edit has been made to this entry with the following text:
NB re-evaluation of photos of the stones in 2022 suggests that there is nothing distinctively Roman about them. The stones have been removed and their present location is unknown.”
Lots of questions need answering:
- On what basis are the stones now deemed not to be Roman?
- Why is there no authoritative reference given for this conclusion?
- Where are the stones?
- Why have they not been returned?
- It’s fair to ask, that as with similar stone artefacts, have they been ‘lost’ and ended up in someone’s garden? Have they gone in a landfill?
- Why have the Council/Highways Agency just grassed over the roundabout leaving it bare and devoid of features?
- Why was the effort made to clear them from the roundabout in the first place?
References:
https://www.twsitelines.info/SMR/5190
STC Archeological Assessment (2014) prior to building of the Word Central Library, this mentions the stones: https://planning.southtyneside.info/MVM.DMS/Planning%20Application/720000/720469/ST064914LAA%20Archaeological%20Assessment%20300614.pdf
Similar Stones with Lewis holes found at West Boldon and Roker harbour:
https://www.twsitelines.info/SMR/5189
Northern Archaeology Group, 1999, Everyday Signs Newsletter, Vol 2, number 5, 4/5/99, p 6
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No air-built castles, and no fairy bowers,
But thou, fair Tynemouth, and thy well-known towers,
Now bid th’ historic muse explore the maze
Of long past years, and tales of other days.
Pride of Northumbria!—from thy crowded port,
Where Europe’s brave commercial sons resort,
Her boasted mines send forth their sable stores,
To buy the varied wealth of distant shores.
Here the tall lighthouse, bold in spiral height,
Glads with its welcome beam the seaman’s sight.
Here, too, the firm redoubt, the rampart’s length,
The death-fraught cannon, and the bastion’s strength,
Hang frowning o’er the briny deep below,
To guard the coast against th’ invading foe.
Here health salubrious spreads her balmy wings,
And woos the sufferer to her saline springs;
And, here the antiquarian strays around
The ruin’d abbey, and its sacred ground.
Jane Harvey
From ‘The Castle of Tynemouth. A Tale’ (1806)
Photograph: Lee Stoneman
Photograph: Lee Stoneman
No air-built castles, and no fairy bowers,
But thou, fair Tynemouth, and thy well-known towers,
Now bid th’ historic muse explore the maze
Of long past years, and tales of other days.
Pride of Northumbria!—from thy crowded port,
Where Europe’s brave commercial sons resort,
Her boasted mines send forth their sable stores,
To buy the varied wealth of distant shores.
Here the tall lighthouse, bold in spiral height,
Glads with its welcome beam the seaman’s sight.
Here, too, the firm redoubt, the rampart’s length,
The death-fraught cannon, and the bastion’s strength,
Hang frowning o’er the briny deep below,
To guard the coast against th’ invading foe.
Here health salubrious spreads her balmy wings,
And woos the sufferer to her saline springs;
And, here the antiquarian strays around
The ruin’d abbey, and its sacred ground.
Jane Harvey
From ‘The Castle of Tynemouth. A Tale’ (1806)
