COALS TO NEWCASTLE

“You don’t win battles with hate. Anger and hate can make you brave, make you strong, but they also make you stupid. You end up tripping over your own two feet.” – Emperor Hadrian

Every year, some 4.5 tons of coal are imported to Newcastle, England. That's right, imported. Long the primary coal mining area of the British Isles, Newcastle's industry in that regard died off years ago. However, coal is still needed for some pursuits, so some is imported every year, thus making the epitome of futility, "carrying coals to Newcastle," a bit of irony in the modern era. Now, carrying Nissans to Newcastle may be the better cliche, as the manufacture of those cars has become one of the leading industries of this vibrant and bustling port city.

Newcastle is in northern England, not far below Scotland. In the period in which Rome occupied and governed what is now England, this area was the line of demarkation between the Roman Empire and the land of "barbarians" (aka, anyone who wasn't Roman). Rome first invaded Britain during the first century AD, and in the second century gave up trying to expand further northward and instead built a wall dividing its territory in the south from the area occupied primarily by the Picts in the north. Completed in approximately 12 years, the wall, which became known as Hadrian's Wall after the Roman emperor at that time who ordered its construction, extended 73 miles from Brownee-on-Solway on the west coast to the River Tyne on the east coast (near modern-day Newcastle). Hadrian's wall was not like a medieval town wall that was meant to protect those within its gates. It was more akin to the Berlin Wall, meant to separate the Romans and the barbarians.

A roadside section of Hadrian's wall, which today appears to be used
as a neighborhood dog park

Hadrian's wall is integrated into the landscape in many
parts of England's Northumbria

A gate or watchtower was installed about every mile along the wall, and trenches averaging ten feet in depth (sometimes deeper, sometimes shallower) were dug on each side.  Seventeen forts were built at strategic intervals, where hundreds or even thousands of troops were stationed to govern/rule the British.  While senior officers were Roman, many of the troops were from other lands under Roman rule who signed on for terms of 25 years, after which they would be awarded Roman citizenship. They were not allowed to marry under the terms of their enlistment. However, villages sprang up near the forts, and the soldiers often formed liaisons with women in those villages, and children were born of those relationships. However, when they were transferred to other posts, those families generally were abandoned, leaving offspring throughout the area.

Barracks section of the ruins of a fort along Hadrian's wall

By the early 400s, Roman interest in Britain had faded, and that section of the empire was left largely to govern itself. By 407, Rome stopped sending pay chests, and so the soldiers wandered off to other pursuits.

By the 14th century, thanks to constant warfare between England and Scotland and something of a lack of allegiance to either, this English-Scottish border region became largely lawless, and pillaging, murder, arson, robbery, and other criminal activities became the culture of the region. Known as "border reivers," the families of the area were loyal only to their own clans, and became synonymous with raiding and pillaging. Indeed, if you have a family name of Armstrong, Maxwell, Johnston, Graham, Bell, Scott, Nixon, Kerr, Crozier, or Robson, chances are good that you are a descendent of reivers.  Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson (whose original family name was Johnston), Billy Graham, and Neil Armstrong are among the famous Americans whose ancestors were known to be reivers.