Turret 10B (Throckley) was one of the standard interval watch towers built into the fabric of Hadrian's Wall, situated between Milecastles 10 (Walbottle Dene) and 11 (Throckley Bank Top) in the sector west of Newcastle. Like other Wall turrets, it would have been constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian and remained in use, with periods of abandonment and repair, into the later 2nd or 3rd century. It would have been a small stone tower roughly 4–5 m square internally, projecting from the rear (south) face of the curtain wall and manned by a small detachment drawn from the garrisons of nearby forts (in this sector, probably Rudchester).
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As part of the regular system of turrets spaced at one-third of a Roman mile, it provided observation, signalling, and frontier control across the relatively low-lying ground west of the Tyne, linking the milecastles into a continuous surveillance chain. It has no particular individual fame, but contributes to understanding the consistency of the Wall's design across this central-eastern sector.
Very little has been recorded for Turret 10B specifically; the line of the Wall through Throckley has been largely overbuilt by the modern A69 corridor and suburban development, and the turret has not been the subject of significant modern excavation. Its existence and approximate position are inferred from the standard turret spacing along the curtain rather than from substantial surviving structural remains
Turret 10B (Throckley) was one of the standard interval watch towers built into the fabric of Hadrian's Wall, situated between Milecastles 10 (Walbottle Dene) and 11 (Throckley Bank Top) in the sector west of Newcastle. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 10B (Throckley) is classified as a Roman watch tower — a military site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Turret 10A (Throckley East) (0.5 km), Milecastle 11 (Throckley Bank Top) (0.5 km), Milecastle 10 (Walbottle Dene) (1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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