Residents at Harton Grange have teamed up with girls from Bright Futures to explore the role of women during the Roman times.

The project investigating the Roman roots in South Tyneside to inspire the group's creative workshops was made possible with funding from the Hadrian's Wall 1900 Festival.

Their starting point was the tombstone of Regina with day trips out to Arbeia Roman fort.  

Ceramicist Lyndsey Grieves joined the group on one of their visits. She said: "We found it particularly interesting to learn how the ladies would drape and layer their dresses and how the colour of the fabric and the style of their hair would signify how rich or poor they were.

"Jean admired how the children had styled their hair that day and we ended up having a discussion about which one of the girls styles would look like those in Roman times, based on what we had learnt.

"We had a lovely drawing activity, using certain colours to show how rich or poor the ladies would be. Purple was a particularly rich colour as it would take two coloured dyes to make purple, so it was expensive to create."

Inspired by the colours, facts and their drawings the group went on to design their own ceramic tiles for installation at the care home in South Shields.