Ryton, River Tyne, wooden wheel

HER Number:
509

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Ryton, River Tyne, wooden wheel

Place:
Ryton

Map Sheet:
NZ16NW

Class:
Transport

Site Type: Broad:
Vehicle Component

Site Type: Specific:
Wheel

General Period:
Prehistoric

Specific Period:
Iron Age

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
In 1926-27 flooding of the Tyne scoured the south bank near Ryton, close to Clara Vale, revealing a wooden wheel some 150 yards west of the log-boat found in 1926. It lay on gravel, under 16 feet of alluvial sand and clay. The wheel had a hub 15.5 in long, with an external diameter of 5.75 in, swelling to 8.5 in at the centre where the 9 spokes were inserted. The spokes were 12.5 in long, and the diameter of the whole wheel was 38.75 in. The remains of an iron tyre were visible. The wheel, which could not be preserved intact, was suggested by Piggott as Roman or earlier in date, a product of the Pre-Roman Iron Age tradition.

Easting:
1388

Northing:
6548

Grid Reference:
NZ13886548

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 509 >> O.G.S. Crawford, ed. 1927, Recent Events, Antiquity,I, p. 485 S. Piggott, 1949, A Wheel of Iron Age Type from Co. Durham, Proceedings Prehistoric Society, New series, Vol. XV p. 191 and pl. XXVI W. Dodds, 1964, The Ryton dug-out canoe, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XLII, p. 285 D.J. Smith, 1966, Accessions to the Museum of Antiquities in 1957-1959, 1963 and 1964, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XLIV, p. 245 R. Miket, 1984, The Prehistory of Tyne and Wear, p. 13 no. 3 and p. 119 pl. 1