Resident blogger Phoebe (aged 7 ¾) won a competition to become Empress of Hadrian’s Wall for a year. As part of her reign she’s been visiting Roman sites, castles and abbeys across the North East and blogging along the way. This time she’s been exploring Corbridge Roman Town…

"Corbridge is a Roman Town, which is laid out along a main road with buildings either side. It is easy to see how it would have been and all the fields round and about must have been full of crops to feed all the Roman soldiers and their families who lived there.

The museum has its own sort of time capsule. It is a chest full of armour and weapons that a soldier buried 2000 years ago, which is pretty cool. I wonder who he was? We spent time following a trail around the museum looking at things chosen by Grricola the Corbridge Lion, My favourite thing was a big stone showing Hercules fighting the Hydra.

^{Phoebe explores Corbridge Roman Town and the 'Corbridge Hoard'}

After lunch on the picnic tables overlooking the town, we played with the Corbricks, a kind of giant lego kit, which let us build a replica of some of the Roman buildings in the town and then we followed another trail around the ruins looking for Roman soldiers. We even got a certificate for finding them all.

This was a good place to learn about Romans with lots to do and even my little brother had fun. It isn't far from Hadrian's Wall so we could carry on to one of the forts afterwards."

^{The Roman streets of Corbridge Roman Town}

How I Became an Empress

"I won an English Heritage competition to become Empress of Hadrian's Wall for a year. To enter you had to think of a rule or law that you would make if you were in charge. My rule was 'Every cake should be chocolate cake!' I made that rule because my sister likes carrot cake and I think it is yuck! When mummy told me I had won I was very excited."

Visit Corbridge Roman Town

Follow in Empress Phoebe’s footsteps and walk along the original streets of the Roman town of Corbridge on Hadrian’s Wall. Nearby you can also explore Housesteads Roman Fort and Chesters Roman Fort and Museum.