A temporary structure at Housesteads Fort celebrates 1,900 years of the wall, adding a welcome flamboyance to our writer’s childhood memories
Designed by artist Morag Myerscough with help from the local community, the artwork – called The Future Belongs to What Was As Much As What Is – consists of a colourful, fortress-like structure made from scaffolding. At about 16 metres wide and 9 metres tall, it’s large enough to be seen from the B-road running parallel to the wall, and reimagines the northern gatehouse of this fort, built directly on top of its remains.
A trip to Housesteads was a family favourite throughout my childhood. Back then, mum and dad would pack my two brothers and me into the car – sometimes with a couple of other chaotic children in tow – and drive us out to one of the forts along the 73-mile wall, stretching from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway, once the north-west frontier of the Roman empire, in the hope of providing us with some entertainment.
While Housesteads is often cited as an example of the standard “playing card” plan of a Roman auxiliary fort, its rectangular shape served us with a different – and, in our eyes, far better – purpose. It acted as the perfect perimeter for playing hide and seek. Other forts worth visiting, where I’ve also collected memories to make me smile, include Birdoswald, Chesters and, just down the road, Vindolanda, home to the Vindolanda tablets, some of the oldest handwritten documents in Britain.
Today, my parents and I take the familiar half-mile path to Housesteads, following the natural dip in the land, before a steep ascent to the ticket desk and museum. Just to the south of the fort, near the path leading to its entrance, there are the remains of theAlong the way, Myerscough’s structure bobs in and out of view. Her artwork is arresting, adding a welcome flamboyance to what is often a desolate, grey landscape.
Inside the fort, the installation seems to have injected a garish energy that I’ve not encountered here before. Children play among the remains in the sunshine, tourists take photographs, and a National Trust volunteer carries out a guided tour.
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