Planetrees on Hadrian's Wall, nr Wall, Northumberland
Planetrees is a 15 metre long stretch of Hadrian's Wall. It shows a change of mind during building to do with the thickness of the Wall. The stone wall was initially designed to be 10 Roman feet wide, sections of which are now termed 'broad wall', but a change in plan led this to be reduced to 8 feet, now termed 'narrow wall'. Hadrian's Wall was built by the Romans between AD122 -128. It stretched 117km across Northern England from the river Tyne to the Solway Firth. At every ‘Roman mile’ (approx 1.5 km) along the wall a milecastle was built. These were small forts for up to 50 men. Between each of these were two turrets. There were also at least 16 major forts such as Wallsend, Housesteads and Vindolanda on or near the wall. Around 2,000 soldiers were needed to patrol the wall. This site is now in the care of English Heritage (2010).
