#Alongthewallin80days - Day 68

Plantrees Roman Wall

Planetrees is an extant section of Hadrian's Wall named after the farm located around 250 metres (270 yd) to the west. The interesting thing about the Planetrees section of the Wall is that the wall is narrow, and is set upon very broad foundations. This illustrates clearly the change in plans that was implemented partway through the construction of the Wal, when the initial wide Wall design was downsized to allow for a much narrower wall layout.

 English Heritage

The first design for Hadrian's Wall designated a thickness of 10 Roman feet. Sections built to this plan are termed 'broad wall'. This plan was later altered to call for only 8 Roman feet in width. These sections are termed 'narrow wall'. At Planetrees the east end of the section is set on broad wall foundations 2.8 metres wide, while the west end is narrow wall, only 1.75 metres wide. The Planetrees section of the Wall was constructed shortly after 122 AD. The surviving section is stagering 35 metres (115 ft) in length.