Turret 3B was one of the regularly spaced observation towers built into the fabric of Hadrian's Wall, positioned in the eastern sector between Milecastle 3 and Milecastle 4, in the vicinity of Newcastle upon Tyne. Like other turrets on the Wall, it was constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian and would have been a small stone tower roughly 4–5 m square internally, projecting from the rear of the curtain wall, occupied by a small detachment of auxiliary soldiers for signalling and surveillance until at least the later 2nd century, with intermittent use thereafter.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As part of the regimented system of two turrets between every pair of milecastles, Turret 3B contributed to the close visual surveillance of the Wall corridor in its easternmost stretch approaching the bridgehead and fort at Pons Aelius (Newcastle). Its location in what is now built-up Tyneside means it has no individual historical prominence, but it formed part of the densely garrisoned eastern terminus of the frontier.
The eastern turrets between Newcastle and Wallsend are very poorly known archaeologically, as the line of the Wall here is largely buried beneath modern urban development, and I am not aware of any published excavation specifically identifying Turret 3B on the ground. Its existence is inferred from the standard Wall numbering system rather than from confirmed structural remains.
Turret 3B was one of the regularly spaced observation towers built into the fabric of Hadrian's Wall, positioned in the eastern sector between Milecastle 3 and Milecastle 4, in the vicinity of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 3B 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 Milecastle 4 (0.4 km), Turret 3A (0.5 km), Pons Aeli (0.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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