Recycled Roman Stone in Penshaw Monument from a Lost Roman Weir on the River Wear

By Crasterfarian

Introduction

Crowning the top of Penshaw Hill stands one of the North East’s most iconic landmarks. Penshaw Monument was built in 1844 as a memorial to John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham. However, beneath its neoclassical columns lies a lesser-known story embedded in its foundations.

Evidence suggests the reuse of Roman stone, likely salvaged from an ancient engineering structure.

Evidence: A Filled Lewis Hole in the Base

A photograph taken at the monument shows a filled lewis hole in one of the base stones. This detail may go unnoticed to most, but to a trained eye, it offers a crucial clue.

The lewis hole is a rectangular recess carved into heavy stone blocks, allowing them to be lifted vertically using a specialised tool called a lewis. This was an ingenious device, inserted into the hole, expanded under tension, and then used with a crane or hoist to raise the stone safely and precisely.

Almost every single one of the large base stones has the same feature filled in and despite the monumental task of getting these stones up there, it would have saved a lot of time and money in doing so.

What Are Lewis Holes?

Lewis holes were used by the Roman engineers to move large blocks into place. There are many Roman sites in the North East where they are visible, particularly on the eastern bridge abutment at Cilurnum Fort (Chesters) near Chollerford.

Using this method of lifting, huge blocks could be moved and manoeuvred and precisely placed. The mass of the stone acting downward creates the lateral holding force within the taper of the slot. There are various types (e.g. dovetail, chain, split pin), but the key feature is the centrally positioned recess that allows upward lifting without dragging or damaging the stone’s edges.

In Roman infrastructure, these holes were used for:

• Building aqueducts, ports, and weirs,
• Erecting columns and heavy ashlar blocks,
• Moving stones vertically into tight, precise positions.

The Penshaw base stones showing filled-in lewis holes suggest they were not freshly quarried in the 19th century, but reclaimed from earlier monumental architecture, likely Roman, given their engineering characteristics and context.

The Roman Weir and Port at Sunderland

At the mouth of the River Wear, underwater archaeology at North Hylton has uncovered:

• Stone anchors,
• Roman coins and pottery,
• Possible remains of a weir or dam-like structure.

It is postulated that a 2-metre-high weir was used to raise water levels for a Roman port at Sunderland.

This port would have supplied:

• Vinovia (Binchester Fort)

• Concangis Fort (Chester-le-Street) with the small tributary of the Stella Gill running almost past the front of the fort.

Both sites lie upstream along the Wear, making Sunderland a likely logistics hub.

The weir would have ensured suitable depth for flat-bottomed Roman vessels, so they didn’t ground at low tide in the port and allow access further upstream.

A Roman Presence at Durham’s River Loop?

Durham Cathedral sits on a natural defensive peninsula of the Wear. Archaeologists have discovered Roman Samian ware beneath the cathedral kitchens, supporting theories that the site may have hosted a Roman Fort, lookout, shrine, or signal station, making the Wear a thoroughly Romanised river corridor from the sea to other forts.

This site being Roman would mirror the use of the loop in the River Coquet at Warkworth and the possibility of a Roman fort under the castle there.

Recycled Heritage: From Rome to Penshaw

With Roman infrastructure long collapsed or dismantled, it’s entirely plausible that Roman ashlar stones were salvaged, complete with their lewis holes and repurposed centuries later in Penshaw Monument’s base.

The filled holes we seen today preserve a physical trace of their first life as part of the Roman construction project that shaped the region.

Conclusion

The filled lewis holes in Penshaw Monument’s base stones aren’t just quirks of construction, they are fossils of Roman engineering practice. When paired with archaeological evidence of a Roman weir, port and inland supply system, they offer a compelling case that the foundation of this 19th-century monument is literally built on Roman foundations, not metaphorically, but stone by stone.

Clearing and dredging of the mouth of the River Wear will have been imperative in the 19th century to make way for the development of the Victorian port and its shipbuilding industry. These stones will have been hauled out and reused by the canny people of Sunderland to save money and base the foundations of this monument in real history.

Lastly, was the River Wear named after the weir at its mouth? No, ‘Wear’ is thought to come from the Celtic word uisero or wera, meaning ‘water’ or ‘winding stream’, rather than anything to do with a physical weir.

With Love from the Crasterfarian XX