The charge of the cavalry
THIS summer, Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site is hosting a major new exhibition celebrating the cavalry regiments that once guarded this famous North West frontier of the mighty Roman Empire.
Hadrian’s Cavalry explores the role and daily life of the Roman army’s cavalry forces in a unique wall-wide exhibition that stretches the full 150 miles of the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site area – from Maryport in the west to South Shields in the east, across 10 museums and venues. The exhibition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for visitors to admire a unique range of remarkable and finely decorated Roman cavalry objects including ornate helmets, armour and weapons on loan from national and international museums, which will be shown alongside objects from museums across the Wall.
Alongside the exhibition, there’ll be dramatic demonstrations of cavalrymen and their horses in action, hands-on family activities and – at English Heritage’s Chesters Roman Fort and Museum – a specially commissioned piece of contemporary art titled Cavalry 360°.
Open to the public from Wednesday 26 July, Cavalry 360° is a vast site-specific musical instrument that converts the force of the wind flowing across the site into the sound of horses’ hooves hitting the ground. The artwork creates an ever-changing soundscape that describes the 500-horse cavalry that used to occupy the site.
The 10 museums taking part in Hadrian’s Cavalry are: Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum, Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths and Museum, Great North Museum: Hancock, Corbridge Roman Town and Museum, Chesters Roman Fort and Museum, Housesteads Roman Fort and Museum, Roman Vindolanda, Roman Army Museum, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery and Senhouse Roman Museum.
The main funder of Hadrian’s Cavalry is the Arts Council England’s Museum Resilience Fund.
Find out more at hadrianscavalry.co.uk.