The 200m conserved section of Hadrian's Wall at Heddon on the Wall shows a prominent bend in the broad wall situated just west of the Great Hill on the east side of the village. What does this tell us? According to a book published in 2010, quite a lot.
'At this point the road deviates a few degrees to the north, leaving the line of the Wall, which descended the hill, then gradually curved to the north, joining up with the fragment, now the property of this Society’
A length of more than sixty yards of the Wall embedded in the south lane of the road was removed.
It seems in no way obvious however, why there should have been a diversion north to cross Sugley Dene rather than one to avoid the much greater obstacle of Throckley (Walbottle) Dene. John Poulter thinks the crossing of the later may have been chosen to retain views to the south along the ridge west to Heddon. Views to the north would be available from the highest parts of the turrets and milecastles.
He proposes that the Wall planners could have set out this third line from the summit of Great Hill, therefore working from east to west, although the actual bend in the line of the Wall, towards Rudchester, was actually made slightly west, in low lying land between Great Hill and Heddon on the Wall.
J Poulter (2005). The direction of planning of the eastern sector of Hadrian's Wall and the Vallum, from the River North Tyne to Ben well, west of Newcastle upon Tyne. The Arbeia Journal, Volume 8, Pages 87-100.