Professor Rob Collins

And then Roman might be third or fourth.

So, you know, identity is such a complex thing.

That is a fantastic question, and we really don't know.

It's difficult to know when the wall curtain itself is collapsing.

And it will partly depend, I suspect, on the quality of build.

There are a few pieces of evidence I can point to that will give us a few hints.

So one of the bits of evidence which suggests that the wall curtain is still standing, at least into the early fifth century, is there's a coin hoard that was found buried under the tumble of collapse of Hadrian's Wall.

And that hoard dates to the very late fourth century.

And it's tough to say how long it took for the bits of wall to fall on top of the ground where it was buried.

But the other thing is that when we've done a few excavations here and there, when we think about the longer-term history of Hadrian's Wall, there is, I think, a combination of natural processes of ruin and collapse that's also going to be combined with episodes of stone robbing as well.

And so...

The honest answer is the state of the wall, how quickly the structure itself falls apart, might vary considerably based on its location.

So in places where they are building in stone in the early Middle Ages, and usually that's Christian churches, really.

And so the Northumbrian church, the kingdom of Northumbria that starts building its churches in stone from the 7th century,

they're definitely reusing Roman stone.

And so the key places where that's happening relative to Hadrian's Wall, you've got Gero, which is going to be near the fort at South Shields, but south of the River Tyne.

So Hadrian's Wall and the fort at Wall's End is across the River Tyne.

But when you look at the church, we can see stone that looks to be from the fort at Wall's End, as well as the fort at South Shields, and quite possibly also the stretches of Hadrian's Wall attached to Wall's End.

So, you know, that's one location where you might get quicker robbing of the wall.

Maybe around Corbridge and Hexham, they might be stealing Roman stone from Hadrian's Wall.