Hadrian’s Wall Mosaic 2022

We were approached recently by the villagers of Heddon on the Wall; a village located on Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland. As part of their 2022 Hadrian’s Wall Anniversary celebrations, they wished to commission a mosaic to go on the path running atop the wall. The idea was to depict the emperor Hadrian in a small 1m roundel pebble mosaic portrait.

Due to the time period the only images of the emperor Hadrian are in the form of statues and various artists impressions. Although no one can say exactly what he looked like, the general consensus seems to be that he had curly hair, a beard and a Roman nose. So, with that in mind our designer, Elizabeth Clough worked with Maggy to create a characterful depiction of such a man. The name HADRIAN was included underneath and the composition was framed in a Roman style ‘block’ border.

The mosaic itself was painstakingly constructed by Mark Currie using a variety of pebbles ranging from white quartz to Chinese red, pink, carved jasper and flints. The letters were carved from black slate. The finished mosaic is pictured below in the Maggy Howarth Studios yard. It has not yet been installed. We will update this blog post with a photo of the mosaic in place on the Hadrian’s Wall path.