Excavation Experts at Chesters Roman Fort

We recently visited Chesters Roman Fort on Hadrians Wall as they had a special event on entitled Children's Archaology Detectives on.  I am always looking for something to get the kids involved with history, it is my favourite thing and my husband and I are both passionate about encouraging a love of history within the children.  This sounded perfect, what better way to get the kids involved than a bit of digging! Chester's Roman Fort is near Chollerford, it took us about 30 minutes to get there from Killingworth, straight down A69 and its easy enough to find, also is well signposted off the military road (B6318).

We arrived just after opening time, there is quite a large car park and if you take your ticket into the visitor centre, as long as you are visiting the fort, you will get your car park fee refunded.

Once inside, there was a notice board with all the events on and the times, so we were able to plan what we were going to do.

There is a small museum to explore which is full of roman artefacts and pieces of the wall, lots to look at but probably better for the older children. By now it was time for our first activity, The Great Dig.  The children had lots of fun getting on their builders vests and hard hats and digging for hidden treasure.

 

Afterwards the children took their 'finds' to a big table where they were discussed and explained about by an extremely knowledgeable member of staff.  Infact all the staff were brilliant, very enthusiastic and certainly knew their stuff.

We chose this time to break for lunch and enjoyed a picnic in the picnic area. There were plentiful tables and lots of room for lively children to run about and burn off some energy.  After lunch it was Roman Military Drill.  This was excellent, great fun, my children had a great time, I was particularly proud of 3 year old Luca who was the tiniest soldier in the line up but he did really well.  We learnt a lot about how Roman Soldiers went into battle and all the equipment they had to use.

The activities were repeated at various times throughout the day to give plenty of opportunities to join in.  After our drill, it was time to explore the fort.  Chesters is fabulous, it is 2000 years old and is the best preserved fort on the wall.  So much to look at and the views over the River Tyne are just stunning.  There is plenty of information plaques within the fort to explain exactly what part you are in and what they were used for. We spent a long time running from room to room and then down to the magnificent bath house. Those Romans knew how to live!

The Archaeology Detectives event is running right through the holidays up until Bank Holiday Monday (25th August) so plenty of time to get along and experience Roman soldier life for yourself.