Signalfire’s Story Come to Life
One of the most common questions asked by our clients is, “where does the name Signalfire come from?” The answer involves some explanation about me. Being an avid lover of history, the Roman occupation of Britain fascinated me—especially Hadrian’s Wall. To help guard against the native population of Britain, the Romans built a wall running east to west in 122 AD.
The Romans built fortlets, known as milecastles, along the Wall at intervals of one Roman mile. Between each milecastle, and spaced one third of a Roman mile apart, were a series of turrets. The plan is to create a point of light where all the milefortlets and turrets were located, with an additional point of light between each of them.
These forts garrisoned irregular troops and when attacks from native Britains would come, fires would be lit passing the alarm to the other forts. These signal fires would pass this simple message across the entire northern frontier of the Roman Empire in shockingly fast time. The logo and name Signalfire symbolizes these fires.
2010 represents the 1600th anniversary of the Roman departure from Britain and to celebrate this, torches will be lit along the entire 80+ mile wall. From Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall:
Plans have been unveiled to create a spectacular line of light from coast to coast, along the length of Hadrian’s Wall. This once in a lifetime event will take place on Saturday 13th March 2010 and will follow the route of the 84 mile long Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail.
There will be around 500 individual points of light, placed at 250 metre intervals. The first one will be illuminated at Wallsend in the North East, with the line of light then making its way along the Wall to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria over the following hour.
For Signalfire, this event is thrilling. While we wish we could be there standing post at one of the torches, sharing the story will have to do for now.
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Hi, Living near to the Wall this is a great time for all of us. The heritage and history of the Wall is much neglected as visitors head either for the Lake District or over to the Northumberland Coast.
One of our staff has been lucky enough to have been selected as a torch bearer so if you would like any pictures, editorial or back ground info just ask. Always glad to spread the word about Northumberland and Cumbria.
Kind regards
Colin