The Borders were essentially lawless, but certain codes of conduct were observed, and the most enduring allegiances of all were bonds of blood between close family members. About one hundred surnames are recognised as ‘reiver’ family names, spanning the alphabet from Ainslie to Young.
The decayed drum towers flanking the entrance to Dunstanburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast (Day 9)
Despite England and Scotland being locked in a state of permanent warfare for over three centuries, both nations had to tackle border lawlessness, so the region was divided into three ‘marches’. In Northumberland the problem was not simply English versus Scots across a fluid border, but reivers from Tynedale and Redesdale frequently raiding the fertile plains of Northumberland. Each march had two wardens – one English and one Scottish – to oversee rudimentary law and order. Scottish wardens were generally appointed from the local gentry, so had a good understanding of local issues, but were prone to corruption. English wardens were generally appointed from outside the area, so were less prone to corruption, but more inclined to misunderstand situations.
Reivers rustled cattle in the remote and sparsely populated borderlands between England and Scotland
Peculiar border laws evolved, such as cross-border marriages being forbidden, on pain of death, without the agreement of both wardens. The tradition of ‘hot trod’ allowed, to someone whose cattle had been stolen, six days in which to recover his property. To do this he had to carry a burning peat on the tip of a lance and announce his intentions with ‘hue and cry, hound and horn’. This wouldn’t offer him any special protection, and he might be robbed, beaten, captured, ransomed or killed, but at least everyone knew why he was passing through. Anyone fleeing for their life could seek sanctuary in a church, while anyone who had committed heinous crimes could seek absolution at a monastery on payment of a fee! Protection rackets operated, and the English language derives words such as ‘blackmail’ and ‘bereaved’ from this era.
The Allendale ‘Tar Barling’, when ‘Old Year’s Night’ is celebrated with a stirring fire festival (Day 1)
The Borders saw centuries of complex and deadly feuding, sometimes between English and Scots, sometimes between neighbouring families, and sometimes between factions within the same family. The wardens had to deal with frequent ‘bills’ – or complaints – so ‘truce days’ were held every 40 days or so to resolve differences. It was often the case that someone might be hanged before their trial took place, and if rope was scarce, drowning would suffice! Imprisonment was rarely an option due to lack of facilities, though a prison was eventually built at Hexham. Gammel’s Path, high in the Cheviot Hills, was one of the remote locations where ‘truce days’ were held.
The 16th century saw the peak period of reiving activity, when even the wardens were involved in the business of robbery and revenge. ‘Moss troopers’, as the reivers were sometimes known, rode stocky ponies for speed over rugged terrain, and wore rudimentary armour consisting of a steel helmet and leather jacket. For weapons they carried a lance and a sword, later supplemented with a pistol or two. After centuries of law-breaking, hunting and being hunted, it was a way of life that people were born into.
In 1525 the Archbishop of Glasgow pronounced an exceedingly lengthy, and remarkably comprehensive, blood-curdling curse on Scottish reiver families (see Appendix 4). On the English side, the preacher Bernard Gilpin spent his summers evangelising with great success among some of the roughest and toughest Northumberland communities, becoming known as the ‘Apostle of the North’.
Following the Union of Crowns in 1603, England and Scotland suddenly found themselves ruled by the same monarch, in the person of James I of England and VI of Scotland. This paved the way for a complete cessation of hostilities between both nations, but initially had little effect where the reiver lifestyle was ingrained in the population. Drastic action was required, and even the use of the word ‘Borders’ was forbidden, being replaced by the term ‘Middle Shires’. Families who refused to obey the law were rounded up and evicted, resettling in Ireland or North America. Those who accepted the law were rewarded with land, so that a measure of peace and prosperity settled on the region. The Union of the Parliaments was achieved in 1707, but the Borders saw a little more action during the Jacobite ‘risings’ of 1715 and 1745.
Rousing Borders ballads and the romantic stories penned by Sir Walter Scott cast a rosy hue on what must have been a most bloodthirsty period. One can only rejoice at the peace and tranquillity of the Northumberland countryside today, but also occasionally succumb to a few moments of melancholy while remembering the strife and senselessness of those troubled times.
Much marginal land in Northumberland is used for forestry plantations so expect some clear felling
GEOLOGY AND SCENERY
The oldest rocks in Northumberland are seldom seen, but underlie the whole region. They are Silurian slates and ‘greywackes’, around 420 million years old. The Cheviot Hills were formed of two igneous rock types in the Devonian period. A mass of andesite lavas make up almost all the lower foothills, dating back 395 million years. The central part of the Cheviot Hills is a huge dome of granite, pushed up into the Earth’s crust some 360 million years ago.
South of the Cheviot Hills, most of Northumberland is made up of Carboniferous rocks. These were laid down in a sea over 300 million years ago. At certain times the sea was fairly shallow and the water clear, so that corals flourished, and their remains formed limestone beds. At other times distant mountain ranges were being eroded, and rivers brought mud, sand and gravel into the sea, which formed great thicknesses of mudstone, sandstone and gritstone.
Sometimes the rivers formed vast deltas, which allowed strange, fern-like trees to gain rootholds, only to be toppled by floods and buried beneath more mud and sand. The plant matter was compressed over time to form coal measures. These are Northumberland’s predominant rock types, forming rocky edges in some places, but breaking down to form sandy soils in others, with enough coal to support a little mining activity.
The Carboniferous rocks were laid down in layers, and that helps to explain what happened next, around 295 million years ago. A great mass of molten dolerite was squeezed, under enormous pressure, between the layers of rock – rather like jam between two slices of bread. This rock is always prominent wherever it outcrops, and is referred to as the Whin Sill. It forms some of Northumberland’s most striking landscapes. The highest parts of Hadrian’s Wall, for example, were built along the crest of the Whin Sill, so as a geological feature it has shaped the political landscape of Britain! The Whin Sill outcrops all the way across Northumberland and is notable along the coast, where its higher parts are crowned with castles at Bamburgh and Lindisfarne, while its lower parts form low cliffs and the Farne Islands.
Almost 300 million years of geological time are ‘missing’ in Northumberland, so the rock types and formations are mostly very old. The region was scoured during the ice age, within the last couple of million years, and many parts are covered with glacial detritus, in the form of boulder clay, sand and gravel.
Today’s visitor looks at the landscape to see the rounded, resistant humps of the Cheviot Hills, rocky gritstone edges on lower hills and moorlands, and the jagged crest of the Whin Sill often flanked by gentler countryside.
WILDLIFE
Northumberland is good cattle country, and cattle rearing, and cattle rustling naturally, is part of the region’s