Footsteps in the Past – The Overview

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From Earliest Times

Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)

During the last Ice Age, 18,000 years ago, Britain was covered in a thick, impenetrable blanket of ice and snow and the north-east of England was a freezing wasteland where it was impossible for human beings to settle. As the glaciers melted and the ice sheets retreated, human settlers began to move into the area. Life was bitterly hard. Conditions were icy cold and there were few trees to provide shelter and warmth. However, there was enough grass for herds of reindeer and elk to survive and the first settlers would live a precarious life by hunting these animals and gathering edible berries and fruits.

We know little of their thoughts and beliefs for no burials or religious sites have been found in this part of the world.

Neolithic (New Stone Age)

From around 4,000 BCE (Before the Christian Era) life gradually became a little more secure. People began to plant crops and to domesticate animals. Forests were attacked and slowly cleared so that crops could be planted and animals grazed. Little evidence has been found in the North-east of England of their settlements, although it is likely that these early people grazed their herds on higher ground in the summer and then came down to lower ground for the colder winter months. Valley bottoms were avoided as being too marshy so settlement tended to favour hilly areas.

Tools made of flint and other types of stone became common. Stone axes were particularly important, bearing in mind the tracts of forest that were being cleared. Some of the axes came from great distances and were highly prized, some being buried alongside their owners.

Bronze Age (around 4000 BCE)

A sudden change took shape toward the end of the Neolithic and beginning of the Bronze Age. New pottery appeared, introduced from the continent of Europe. This pottery was often used to contain the cremated ashes of the dead. The moorlands surrounding the villages are a very rich source of earlier occupation, including burial cairns, cists, cup and ring marked stones.

Burial cairns are large burial chamber for cremated human remains covered by large stones and earth. Examples can be seen in the beech woods to the west of Eglingham and south of south Charlton along the lonnen to Linkhill.

Cist – Small burial place lined with stones containing pots with cremated remains. Several of these have been found on the moors above South Charlton.

Cup and ring marked stones – spirals and concentric circles carved into the rock. No one knows of their significance but they tend to be found along important routeways. Impressive examples of this rock art can be seen on Beanley moor and on the route from Old Bewick to Blawearie.

The population began to increase and evidence from prehistoric pollen shows that woods were being felled as areas of moorland and grassland increased. Field boundaries of cleared stones have been discovered and ditched enclosures surrounding circular huts.

Iron Age (around 1000 BCE)

At about this time iron tools began to replace stone. These were very rare initially and did not come into common usage until about 500 BCE. However, the pattern of life continued much as it had done from earlier times. Cattle and sheep were grazed, crops planted.

However, the settlements were increasingly better fortified, sometimes with several ditches and palisades. This may have indicated that the times were becoming more violent as pressure increased on the land or it may have been to indicate the high status of the occupants. The most impressive one in the parish is the ‘Ringses’ on Beanley Moor, which is triple ditched and high banked. It occupies a very prominent site with views to the Cheviots to the north and the coast to the south-east. ‘Honey Hill’, west of the Winney is another impressive fort, with fine double ditches.

Two powerful tribes occupied the north of England toward the latter end of the Iron Age. The Votadini who occupied the southern uplands and perhaps parts of north Northumbria and the Brigantes, whose territory stretched from around Edinburgh to North Yorkshire (north on the Humber)

The Romans (43 CE – 410 CE)

After the Roman conquest of the south of England, the tribes in the north of England became allies of the Romans. It may well have remained so, if they had not been dragged in to settle a civil war between Queen Cartimandua and her consort Venutius.

Under the Roman commander Petrialis Cerialis, the north was conquered in 81 CE. He did not stop there and the Roman conquest rolled on into Scotland. By 122 CE, the emperor Hadrian toured the Empire and determined its frontiers. Scotland, which included the lands later to be known as Northumberland, were to lie outside the pale of Roman civilisation. He took the decision ‘to build a wall, eighty miles long, to separate the Romans from the barbarians'.

This did not mean that north of the wall was entirely abandoned. Outpost fort were built to provide defence in depth and to give early warning of unrest. Roman roads, Dere Street, being the most important, ran north into Scotland. Most people’s lives would be unaffected. East of Eglingham is a very good example of a rectilinear homestead of about 100 CE with a clear ditch and bank and the remains of three huts. There are also animal enclosures with stone walls, an unenclosed group of round huts and numerous banks which may be old field boundaries. On the road from South Charlton to the A1, in Chester Field, there are reputedly the remains of a Roman marching camp.

Early Medieval

Saxon Invasion and settlement (around 410 – 785 CE)

Successive Saxon invasions overwhelmed the Romano-British settlers who either inter-married or were pushed westward into Cumbria. Forest clearing, drainage of marshy land and larger settlements continued and it was during this period that the villages of Eglingham and North and South Charlton in their present sites would have grown up, both bearing Saxon names as they do.

The invaders began to establish powerful kingdoms throughout Britain. Northumbria was a major centre of political power and military might, and became pre-eminent during the 7th century.

This was a time when Christianity was introduced, which spread throughout Britain south from Iona in Scotland and north from the continent of Europe. Northumbria played a key part in this process through the Priory at Lindisfarne and the leadership and example of St Cuthbert, St Aiden and St Hilda. The stunning Lindisfarne Gospels are a testament to both the faith of these early Christians as well as their astounding artistic achievement.

Viking Invasion and Settlement (around 785 CE – 1066 CE)

The Vikings, from Scandinavia, first arrived in the north-east in the late 8th century. At first they raided important sites along the coast, particularly monasteries, such as Lindisfarne (attacked in AD785), Monkwearmouth and Jarrow (AD794) and Tynemouth (AD800). However, after this initial stage of attacks and raids, the Viking began to settle permanently. Soon they were to occupy most northern lands down to the Wash and running laterally to the Severn, known as the Danegeld. The Saxon reconquest began with King Alfred and was completed by King Athelstan. However, dynastic claims and conquest between Scandanavian rulers see-sawed back and forth. Little evidence remains of the Norse settlements in Northumbria.

Medieval to Early Modern (around 1066 CE – 1700CE)

The conquest by the Normans of the north of England proved elusive. Rebellion followed until William brought an army north to lay waste much of Durham and Northumberland. Even when finally successful, the border between Scotland and England remained in dispute, making the borders a violent place to live.

The Normans settled important families in the North-east in an attempt to bring security to the region. Chains of castles were built to enforce the king’s will but their fortunes fluctuated. For local people, simple stone towers were built, such as those at South Charlton and Eglingham.

The Church dominated attitudes and customs. Eglingham developed as a self-sufficient settlement of some importance as the church and it’s vicars played a central role in the area and the life of the villagers. South and north Charlton at the this time were part of the parish of Ellingham. The Church determined the worship and festivals as well as providing care for the sick and the needy. At one time, there was a vicar and three curates at Eglingham who relied on the tithe payments collected from the villagers for their support. Matters were different at South Charlton, which was considered less important that the mother church at Ellingham and services were relatively infrequent at the old chapel in the village.

A network of roads and byeways developed, such as the old drove road from Wooler through Eglingham to South Charlton, now known as the greenway. By 1378, there was a corn mill and a waulk (fulling) mill at Ellingham. Fulling is the process of softening newly woven cloth and closing the weave. Fast running water is needed to rinse the cloth after treatment and space to peg it out on tenter hooks to dry it. The rocks above the burn in the private gardens of Eglingham Hall were once called Warkmill Crags which suggests the location of this mill.

Most houses in the villages were built of ‘rice and gloor’ (brushwood and mud). There would have been a smoke hole, the roof of branches and turf and the door of cow hide and wood. Better quality houses would have had half a wall of stone and divots of turf on the roof. There would probably have been two rooms, one for animals and one for the family. Even the lords had few comforts as they lived in stone bastles or Pele Towers of dressed stone, usually with a vaulted lower floor for the animals and the living accommodation above.

Looting and violence were common on both sides of the border until the Union of the Crowns in 1603 when James VI of Scotland also became king of England – James I. It was now possible to enforce laws more strictly and those who stole goods worth more than 12d risked the gallows.

The Dissolution (Closure) of the monasteries had a marked effect on the Church in general and Eglingham in particular. Church land was sold off and it was at this time that the village was divided between the Ogles and the Tankervilles. Most of the villagers would be ‘bondagers’ who were paid in kind and tied to wrking for their master.

England’s wool became much sought after and farms were encouraged to keep sheep. In 1612, each tenant was allowed to keep 6 ‘beasties’ (cows) and 20 sheep and in 1678 it was decreed that all deceased were to be wrapped in woollen cloth.

Before the land was divided up into individual holdings, the local boundaries were marked with large upright stones, some of which remain in the open moorland. One old boundary of Eglingham is described as the March stone to Gallowelawe, then passed Hangman Oak – a reference to the likely outcome for felons.

Toward Modern Times

In the latter part of the eighteenth century there was a movement to improve farming methods for an expanding population. Much land had been held and farmed in common by the village, but now this was divided up among the freeholders. Those with a very small allocation often had to give up their holdings and become labourers on larger farms.

(Illustration – Eglingham Common Award 1781– by kind permission of Berwick upon Tweed Record Office)

Eglingham Hall and the Church had major alterations and there was work for a large number of agricultural and domestic workers. It was also a time of rapidly expanding industry and pits were opened up Tarry Colliery.

Agriculture flourished in the mid nineteenth century (1850 – 1871) and there was a move to improve life in the villages further. In 1862 a new church and vicarage was built at South Charlton.

Bad times followed with the agricultural depression of the 1870s onwards and life was often a struggle for ordinary people to meet. Many rural inhabitants joined the drift to the industries of Tyneside.

From 1533, local parishes were responsible for the roads in their area but they were often no better that rutted ribbons of mud. There were two roads out of Eglingham going east. The south road crossed the burn beside the mill – originally by a ford, the line of which can still be seen on the west side of the bridge – along to Bassington, through Hulne Park and on to Alnwick.

The north road went along the Terrace, then on to Coalburn (Coalburn Cottage) before turning north to West Ditchburn where it joined the road from Wooler and Old Bewick to South Charlton (see Eglingham- Soth Charlton Walk).

The present alignment was later adopted and from 1826 – 1873 it was the Turnpike road from Canongate in Alnwick to Haggerston Toll Bar going via Abbeyfields, Eglingham, Chillingham, Chatton and Lowick. A Board of Trustees were to be responsible for the maintenance of these roads for which they levied a toll from travellers.

The Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries

The cycle of life was violently shattered by the outbreak of war in 1914. Both the graveyards and the memorials in the two villages testify that even families in the quiet backwaters were gravely affected. Twenty years later more sacrificed were required and the debt owed to them was inscribed on the memorials and plaques in the village graveyards and churches.

However, on the positive side of civilisation, pavements, street lighting, mains water, drainage came. Electricity was put into the farmhouses in the 1960s and telephones and cars became commonplace. But as late as the 1960s all was not a bed of roses. A new bride from Alnwick, described the village as ‘nice to look at, but a slum behind doors’. Problems of damp and ‘outside netties’ plagued many villagers.

In 1939 Britain declared war on Germany. In 1940, after the Fall of France, there was a real fear of invasion, possibly from bases in Norway. The beaches of Northumberland provided ideal landing areas as did the moors for paratroopers and glider assaults. A network of bunkers and tank obstacles were built across Northumberland, fine examples of which can be seen in Eglingham and on top of Bewick Hill.

The drift from the countryside to the towns continued unabated. In the latter part of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, rural depopulation became a problem for County Councils and other utilities to maintain services. Shops and Post Officers were the main casualties. However, others came to live in rural Northumberland out of a life choice.