Turret 7B, known as Denton Turret, is one of the regularly-spaced observation towers built into the fabric of Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 7 and 8 in the western suburbs of modern Newcastle upon Tyne. Constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian as part of the original Wall scheme, it would have been a small stone tower roughly 4–5 m square internally, projecting slightly from the rear (south) face of the curtain wall, and was likely manned by a small detachment from the auxiliary garrison of a nearby fort, probably Benwell (Condercum) or Newcastle (Pons Aelius).
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As one of the easternmost surviving turrets, it formed part of the continuous signalling and surveillance system along the Wall, providing line-of-sight communication with adjacent turrets and milecastles and monitoring movement on the Wall's berm and the area to the north. It is also significant for preservation reasons: a stretch of Wall and the turret stub here is one of the few visible Wall remnants surviving within the urban fabric of Newcastle.
The site was identified and consolidated for display, with a short adjacent section of curtain wall (the "Denton Wall") visible alongside the West Road (A186); the turret foundations and lower courses survive but the upper structure is gone. Like comparable turrets on the Wall, occupation appears to have been relatively short, with abandonment
Turret 7B, known as Denton Turret, is one of the regularly-spaced observation towers built into the fabric of Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 7 and 8 in the western suburbs of modern 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 7B (Denton) 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 7A (0.6 km), Milecastle 8 (West Denton) (0.6 km), Milecastle 7 (Benwell Bank) (1.1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
Aubrey Research generates detailed historical reports for any location in Britain, incorporating Roman heritage, Domesday Book records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and much more. Enter a nearby address to begin.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Turret 7B (Denton)