The Wansbeck Norman Frontier

The River Wansbeck and its tributaries play host to some impressive medieval structures. There remains, from sea to source, a castle at Bothal, at Morpeth a gatehouse to a castle, and the motte of an earlier defensive structure, the ruins of a castle at Mitford and the other earthwork remains of other defences and villages at Bolam, South Middleton and Hartburn.

Just a little to the South of the Wansbeck in the valley of the River Blyth there are many stately homes and they are usually built on the site of medieval, defensible pele towers: Belsay, Capheaton, Blagdon and Matfen for example. These were demolished to make way for stately homes when times became less turbulent in the 17th century.

Although some stately homes were built on sites along the River Wansbeck valley, such as Wallington and Mitford, they were not exactly on the site of these castles. The structures at Bothal, Morpeth and Mitford can definitely be described as castles, although they were not quite the size of the mighty Alnwick and Warkworth, which came at a later date.

So, why the abundance of baronial centres and castles along the line of the Wansbeck? Richard Lomas in "North-East England in the Middle Ages has suggested that the River Wansbeck may have been the first frontier line when the Normans began to inhabit and directly rule Northumberland after the Conquest. The sites were strategically important, being on major routes and crossing points of the river. The geography of the sites also offered some natural defence and building materials.

Medieval defensive sites on the along the Wansbeck valley. Click to enlarge.
To view stand-alone interactive map click here

-----------------------

Background

[This is a piece from an earlier blogpost introducing the conquest in Northumberland which serves a similar purpose here.]

William I tried to rule Northumberland by a continuation of native and then Norman earls after 1066. They were often murdered. The policy was not working. There was a succession of rebellions and uprisings which had to be brutally put down by William leaving the county in a desperately impoverished state. After William de Mowbray's rebellion in 1090 William II (Rufus) suppressed the earldom and granted the lands of Northumberland to his Norman followers as had been the case in the southern counties which had featured in Domesday Book.

Before Walcher was made Bishop of Durham in 1071 there had been no Normans settled north of the Tees. Newcastle was created in 1080 to guard a river crossing by the Normans when returning south after suppressing a revolt.

The king imposed the feudal system whereby he installed his great magnates (barons) in strategic places from which to build a castle and control the surrounding area. These were termed baronies. The lands of a barony could be separate parcels held over a wide area. These were self-contained agricultural areas with a village at the centre called a township. The centre of a barony, where the lord was based, was known as the caput. The barons held direct from the king as tenants-in-chief in return for military service and loyalty. The barons often granted the distant townships to lesser Normans (knights) also in return for military service.

Historians often say there were three estates in medieval society: those who fight, the dukes, earls and barons of which there were 21 in Northumberland in 1166, the knights, esquires and gentlemen of which 64 in Northumberland 1166; those who prey and interceded on behalf of the souls of the workers and fighters, there being many types of monastic orders often providing hospitals and shelter for travellers; and those who work, most often unfree bondmen, bound to the their lord owing services for their land but as a community being mostly allowed to manage their own affairs. The lord didn't want the inconvenience of looking after the peasants but as a fighter it was his duty to protect. This feudalism declined over time with military service being commuted for rent payments and more of the workers becoming paid fighters when necessary. In fact by the time the baronies and townships were being established in the North-East this was already happening..

The evidence is patchy as to the creation of these baronies. William I (Rufus) was said to have invested Guy de Baliol with Bywell barony in 1093. Possibly at the same time Morpeth, Mitford, Bolam and Callerton were also created. Richard Lomas states:


"It seems sensible to conclude that on both sides of the Tyne some enfeoffement of Normans took place between the death of William I (1087) and the accession of Henry I (1100) although it extended no further North than the line of the Wansbeck."


Henry I probably created 15 baronies including Bothal, Whalton and Mitford.

Roland Bibby has said:

"The early (Rufus) baronies were closely linked to the castle at Newcastle. The greatest of the new baronies was granted to Guy de Baliol and it consisted of the estate represented by the parish of Bywell St Peter, great forest tracts and the townships of Bothal, Woodhorn, Newbiggin and Cresswell.
The new baron of Bywell had to provide constantly thirty men for the garrison at Newcastle while the other barons had to provide 26 in all with the exception of those at Morpeth and Bolam and were obliged to build and maintain houses within the bailey of the new castle. Thus Rufus anchored his Norman barons to his royal fortress and maintained its garrison."

Barony - Township

Bywell - Holywell, Bothal Woodhorn Newbiggin
Whalton - Horton, Burradon, Hartford
Morpeth - Shotton, Plessey, Longbenton, Killingworth, Blagdon, Weetslade
Bolam - Cowpen, Bebside, Hartford
Ellingham - Hartley, Cramlington
Callerton - Seaton Delaval
Tynemouthshire - Earsdon, Backworth, Seghill, Murton, Whitley, Preston, Monkseaton
Bedlingtonshire - Choppington, Cambois, Sleekburn, Netherton, Bedlington

----------------------

A Tour of the Sites along the Wansbeck

MITFORD CASTLE

This early motte and bailey castle is now in ruins, although it remains an impressive site as you turn off the beaten track and head into the small, hidden, leafy and picturesque village of Mitford . The earthworks of the mound and defensive ditches tower above the village and although it can be visited it is not a tourist attraction. Only fragments remain. What is now most visible from the road is the remains of a shell keep standing almost to full height. It is a steep climb. No path or stairs have been constructed and at the height of summer the interior is all but impassable due to nettles. It is, however, an important, and perhaps, overlooked monument having a rare survival of a pentagonal tower and shell keep.

Mitford Castle remains. Shell keep to left of photo.

Mitford Castle.Looking South over bailey curtain wall from shell keep.

Fragment of bailey curtain wall beside bastion looking South.

Mitford Castle water storage and occasional dungeons in main tower

The origin of Mitford is unclear until 1166 when it is confirmed the owner is Richard Bertram, who also comes into possession of Bothal, further downstream on the Wansbeck. Mitford barony consisted of Mitford, Meldon, Ponteland and Felton townships. It was granted borough status, therefore having some autonomy to run its own affairs, at the same time as the building of the castle. A market charter was granted in 1157. In the 15th century 28 dwellings existed in the village. Archaeologists think this may be the first crossing point of the Wansbeck created by the Normans, predating Morpeth. In the 1930s CH Hunter-Blair investigated the development of the castle. HL Honeyman recorded an archaeological excavation which was undertaken there in 1938 which further added to our knowledge of the castle's history. Hunter Blair began his piece with a description of early castles in Northumberland:

"They stand for an organization of feudal service in which the defence of the private castle was at least as important as the provision of knights for the kings armies. It is now universally recognized that moated mounds (O.F. motte ) with attached baileys surrounded by ditches and ramparts of earth represent the fortified houses, of Norman barons—the greater tenants holding in chief of the king by knight service—of the century succeeding the Conquest.
 These private strongholds, to which the rather vague name of castle was given, originated in France about the middle of the tenth century, they passed thence to Normandy, were brought into England by the Norman friends of the Confessor, and after the introduction of feudalism spread rapidly over the country . The name castle was, however, also used to describe the less developed defensive works of lesser men. Some were only earthwork enclosures like that within which the lords of Bolam later built their stone tower.
Many of these smaller works have no recorded history and their shape alone relates them to the castle type of earthwork; they may have been only temporary structures, hastily thrown up for a special purpose and soon thereafter deserted. Those of the developed mound and bailey type, on the contrary, bear evidence of careful siting and of forethought and deliberation in planning as if for more permanent use. The mound varied greatly in height and size, but it was always surrounded by a defensive ditch, or sometimes a wet moat, which also cut it off from the bailey, suggesting that its lord sought protection not-only from foes without but also from possible attack from his retainers within.
The castle was normally of oblong shape, forming as it were the figure 8, the mound making the smaller upper circle. The residence of the lord, often of very elaborate construction, was built of wood upon the summit of the mound, within a stout stockade of timber and connected with the bailey by a flying bridge over the ditch defended both at top and bottom by a fortified gateway. The quarters for the garrison, storehouses, stables, etc., were in the bailey which was surrounded by an earthen parapet, crowned by a palisade of wood, with an outer ditch upon whose counterscarp was a defence which may have been a quickset hedge of pointed stakes intertwined with brambles or some such prickly shrub—the forerunner of modern barbed wire. The entrance gateway, which from early times was sometimes of stone, was normally at the side furthest from the mound. Sometimes there is no sign of a gap in the bailey defences, suggesting that entrance was by means of a wooden bridge from counterscarp to top of rampart. Sometimes, as at Norham, Wark, Mitford and Harbottle, an enclosure larger than the bailey [barmkin] was attached to it, used either for temporary protection for men and beasts in case of hostile attack or for more permanent dwellings gathered around the castle for greater safety. Naturally strong sites, easily made into a castle, were usually chosen and preference was given to places near river crossings or main roads; examples of these in Northumberland were at Norham, Wark, Mitford, Morpeth and Warkworth."

"The largest mottes in England, such as Thetford, are estimated to have required up to 24,000 man-days of work; smaller ones required perhaps as little as 1,000. Taking into account estimates of the likely available manpower during the period, historians estimate that the larger mottes might have taken between four and nine months to build. This contrasted favourably with stone keeps of the period, which typically took up to ten years to build. Very little skilled labour was required to build motte and bailey castles, which made them very attractive propositions if forced peasant labour was available, as was the case after the Norman invasion of England." Wikipedia.

 The chronological history of the castle goes something like this:

Circa 1100 - William Bertram is granted the barony of Mitford. He is the husband of Hawis, or Alice, the daughter of the most powerful baron in the area, Guy of Baliol. A natural, rock-cored hill was scarped and ditched to form a Motte and Bailey castle. It is thought that a fortified village was on this site prior to the conquest. Bertram cleared out the villagers and had a settlement, complete with a church, built on the lower ground to the north west. The weakness with defensive buildings made from timber is they can easily be burned. Bertram tackled this problem by replacing the palisade on top of the motte with a shell keep made of stone in the early 12th century. Incidentally most of the castle seems to have been constructed in high-quality ashlar (shaped and squared) material. Substantial parts of this shell keep still remain. The wooden tower and other buildings were left in place.

1166 - Roger Bertram the son of William accounted to the monarch for the lands which he held by providing five knights for the king's military service. He was married to Ada.

1177 - The lands and castle were held by William Bertram, the son of Roger, who married Alice daughter of Odinel de Umfraville, the mighty lord of Prudhoe and Ridsdale. In 1175 the king of Scotland had stayed at Mitford and granted a charter from here. It was around this time that a curtain wall of stone was built around the bailey to form an outer ward. The North part of the bailey was left with a ditch and bank defence as a barmkin. A church was built on the southern side of the bailey. It overlay a graveyard which was partially examined in 1938. 19th century quarrying had greatly destroyed this part of the castle and the outbreak of WWII meant that large parts of the bailey area remain unexplored. However, it was discovered that the small church, or chapel, the foundations now being buried, was cruciform in shape. Most gravestones were protected by a head, foot and ledger stone although some were just cysts. Seven tombs were examined in total. One male was 6' 2" tall. At the end of this century the construction of a  block house was started on the motte hill but was never completed. This was discovered by excavation in 1938. The foundations were buried by a later building.

1215 - Roger Bertram, the next descendant to hold the castle, took part in the baron's rising against King John. The following year King John was at Mitford in his fierce campaign against the Northern Barons. John used mercenary troops to lay waste the North and its castles. Architectural evidence suggest Mitford Castle was spared but the property was forfeited to the Sheriff of Northumberland, Phillip of Ulecotes, who was described as unpopular but able and energetic. In 1217 Alexander II of Scotland laid seige to the castle for a whole week but was unsuccessful in being in being able to capture it. Bertram was restored to his property in this year after having made peace with the new, and young, king Henry III and also paying a fine of £100 (about £152,000 in 2017).

1256 - Roger Bertram III born 1224 was granted free warren in his demesne lands of Mitford. But in November of this year the King's escheator, for reasons unknown, was ordered to take his lands. He was later imprisoned for taking up arms against the King. He was in great debt and eventually sold all the rest of his baronial estate to the Baliols. After his death his widow married Sir Rir Robert Neville of Raby.

1264 - The castle and lands were confiscated by the King. There was then a complicated series of landholding involving local nobility and royalty.  It was towards the end of this century that a stone tower was built on top of the mound/motte in the inner ward replacing all the previous buildings. The foundations and basement of the tower still remain. What is most visible to visitors are two barrel-vaulted chambers. There was no well to provide water on the castle site so these chambers were used to collect rainwater via inlet spouts. The entrance door was set well above floor level. At times however, the chambers were used for the confinement of prisoners. Graffiti inscribed in Latin on the walls testifies to this.

1314 - The castle and estate was sold to Aymer de Valance, the Earl of Pembroke. The Earl appointed Sir John Evers as guardian of the castle.

1317 - Gilbert de Middleton, in league with Sir John Evers, made the castle his headquarters for his famous rebellion against the King. The castle was eventually recaptured by Sir William Felton and Sir Thomas Heton on behalf of the Crown. Evers was pardoned for his part in the rising, probably through the influence of Earls Lancaster and Pembroke. Middleton wasn't so lucky.

1318 -  Middleton's partner in the rebellion, Sir Walter Selby had captured Horton Castle near Blyth and had been under siege there for some time. He eventually somehow managed to make his escape. He made his way to Mitford where, probably in alliance with the Scots, who where waging a bloody campaign against England at the time, took the castle "by guile". Selby surrendered on promise of a pardon in 1321 and the castle was restored to the Earl of Pembroke, although it was badly damaged by now.

1324 - The castle passed in the female line of Aymer, the Earl of Pembroke, to David of Strathbogie the 11th Earl of Atholl and the Inquisition Post Mortem on the death of Strathbogie in 1326 records the castle site as "wholly burned".

And it was commonly thought the castle was disused after this date, but pottery, both medieval and Tudor, found in the 1938 excavation shows that the castle was occupied until 1617 when a manor house was built on lower ground using stone robbed from the castle. The shards disappeared during the war as the owner would not allow them off site. Valuable evidence was lost. The site wasn't back filled after the dig and much damage was done by the home guard on training exercises and by day trippers desecrating graves. The nettles have since the 1940s provided the greatest protection to the site.  In what state of repair the castle was in is not presently known, or indeed anything of its Tudor life. A survey was made of the castle in the 1810s and showed a greater amount of its fabric to be in existence than what survives today. Quarrying and robbing have taken a toll on the site.

MORPETH CASTLE

A complete gatehouse, used as a holiday let sits overlooking the town of Morpeth on high ground to the South of the town.


 A motte and bailey castle was built by the De Merlay family by 1095 when it is recorded to have been attacked by William II (Rufus). Pevsner writes: "The NE end of a narrow ridge appears to have been artificially scarped to form a motte guarding the crossing of the Wansbeck." Some archaeology found on the site in 1830 suggests that a stone keep crowned the motte. Apparently this was destroyed by King John in 1215 (Baron's Revolt etc) and never rebuilt.

Another castle close to the motte and bailey on Ha Hill was built in the 13th century. A map of Morpeth from 1604 shows a keep in the middle of a bailey with a gatehouse and an outer ward. The keep has now disappeared entirely and only fragments remain of the rest.

Hunter-Blair writes:

"The mound was cut off from its west part by a deep ditch, the material from which was used to steepen and heighten the natural hill; the west part thus separated formed the bailey, surrounded by the usual stockaded ditch.The castle was well sited as a guard to the nearby bridge or ford. Hodgson, gives a small diagram of the mound and ditch and part of the bailey as seen by William Woodman in 1830 who at the same time dug up, at its east end, some Norman capitals and voussoirs carved with Norman billet moulding; of these Hodgson give s small plans and sections. These stones show that before the middle of the twelfth century a stone tower had been built on part of the site, probably upon the’ hill  itself. This was the castle destroyed by John during his savage campaign of 1215/16 , and Leland is probably right when he says that John burnt downe Morpeth Castle . . . whiche standythe by Morpeth Towne .” Indications of destruction by fire were noticed in 1830. It was not rebuilt. In the fourteenth century another castle was built on the hill to the south where its gatehouse and ruined curtain walls still remain."

WHALTON

The settlement is set some way back from the River Wansbeck on a not particularly defensible site, especially when looking to the North. It is now a very picturesque village with a church and manor house.

It was the centre of the barony of Walter fitz William. The barony later came into the possession of the Cramavilles by marriage. There is no evidence of the Fitz Williams having a residence here, especially a defensible and stately structure. The barony passed to the lords of Warkworth in the 13th century, who had their main residence elsewhere and didn't need a dwelling at Whalton.

Hodgson (1827) suggested that "if the Barons of Whalton ever had a residence upon it, it was probably about half a mile out of the village [now] called the Camp House Farm ... where there are traces of ancient works and some even ground called dead men's graves.

HARTBURN

Granted to the monks of Tynemouth Priory in the late 11th century so there was no lordly castle or tower at this location. It must have been an important Anglo-Saxon settlement site however as there was a pre-conquest church already established.

"The monks of Tynemouth ... in the early 12th century built a fortified tower to protect the tithes. Originally freestanding the church was expanded to join it shortly after. The monks lived in the upper floor of the tower." (Dodds 1999)

Later the Knights Templar inherited the estate and between 1250-1312 carried out a large rebuilding program constructing a new tower and vicarage 100 yards North of the Church.

BOLAM TOWER

Built on the probable site of an Iron Age hill fort.

Nothing now remains to be seen and there is no indication that this was formerly an important medieval settlement. The site is on high ground with a steep slope running North to the River Wansbeck but is not particularly defensible to the South.

From the North looking up to Bolam Tower site in the distance.

The area is now overgrown with trees but in 1920 the foundations of a square building was still showing. Today nothing is visible of the tower and it is thought the stone was used to construct Bolam Hall which stands a few metres away.

MJ Jackson (1992) thought that a settlement here was adapted into a motte and bailey castle in the late 12th century although a mound has not been identified. The Barony of Bolam was granted to Gilbert de Bolam by King John in the late 12th century. He was succeeded by Sir Walter de Bolam, whose effigy is in Bolam Church. He dates the tower to the late 13th century, built by Robert de Reymes.

By 1323 it was reported to have been completely destroyed by the Scots.

SOUTH MIDDLETON Deserted Medieval Village

Beside the river excellent earthworks (lumps and bumps in the ground) remain undisturbed.

From the North looking at part of the South Middleton site.

The village was fairly typical for this area with two parallel lines of houses facing a broad rectangular green with narrow crofts, or garden areas to the rear. It was surrounded by the arable farm land which now shows as ridge and furrow earthworks of the medieval farming.

"This type of village in Northern England is thought to be the result of deliberate planning by Norman rulers attempting to exert control over a rebellious region during the 11th-12th centuries."

The villagers lived in long houses and there is evidence of twelve at this site. Neighbours were separated from one another by an earthen bank 0.4m deep and from the fields at the rear of the crofts by the same methods.

The lands were granted to a major Norman baron, Hugh de Bolbec. This was a detached township of his Barony of Slaley, on the Tyne, which also included Blanchland, Heddon, Matfen, Wallingon and more.

The township came under the ownership of the Fenwick family. Documents record a gradual fall in population and the village was completely abandoned by 1762.

WEST WHELPINGTON DMV
http://www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/25n2a3.pdf

BOTHAL CASTLE

A very complete gatehouse still remains at Bothal. It is a residence to the agents of the Duke of Portland who is the major landowner of the area. The castle was leased to Welwyn Electrical during the 1970s. It was restored from ruin in the 1830s.

Bothal Castle gatehouse.

In 1095 the manor was granted to Guy de Baliol as part of the Barony of Bywell on the Tyne. Baliol was the most powerful of barons to have been granted land in Northumberland at this time. It is thought, however, that the estate was owned by a high-ranking Anglo-Saxon lord. The name of Gisulf has been put forward and a whole pedigree published. But there is some serious doubt as to the authenticity of Gisulf and his ancestry. Roland Bibby has speculated there is enough circumstantial evidence to say Bothal was an important Anglo-Saxon royal estate. It is not until 1161 that there is evidence of de Baliol, or his successor, granting out Bothal to his grandson Richard Bertram, the holder of Mitford Barony. This was probably after the death of "Gisulf", De Baliol having showing some deference to his status.

Richard Bertram's brother, Robert, became the resident lord here, but it was not until 1343 that a license to build a castle was issued. There is no evidence that the hill where the castle now stands was ever consolidated with an artificial mound therefore we can only speculate on the type of defensive settlement the Bertrams inhabited.

------------------------------

It would seem the first theories on this being a frontier line of defences may be wrong. Only Mitford and Morpeth can be defined as castles in the sense of having a bailey and curtain wall. Even Bolam and Whalton, the centre of baronies, do not show any sign of having an early motte and bailey defence and remained only lightly defended. It is interesting that Morpeth and Mitford castles sit astride the A1 road and even then it was probably the main route between Newcastle and Scotland and needed to be heavily defended. Hunter-Blair in his 1944 article "Early Castles of Northumberland" gives the founding of other baronies and castles in Northumberland as around the same period as the Wansbeck ones. If the Wansbeck was a frontier it was surely short lived, but it did have some importance to the early Normans in Northumberland.

Dr Trotter of Bedlington

Bedlington Town Centre has the status of being a conservation area  Bedlington Conservation Area Appraisal  and is managed by Northumberland County Council. Important landmarks in Bedlington are brought to the attention of visitors by way of a blue plaque fixed to the site. A display near the market monument also gives information and a guide to the town's heritage.

Landmarks include the house where the railway engineer and parliamentarian Sir Daniel Gooch lived as a child and a Victorian post box: a Bedlington resident being the recipient of the first ever letter stamped with a penny black.

Another landmark, which sits near the roundabout at the north end of Front Street, is a large monument dedicated to Doctor James Trotter (1843-1899), which was erected by public subscription. Trotter had championed the fight against poor living conditions and fought to improve the general health of the local people, who held him in great affection and esteem. He also became a local and county councillor and helped to secure the election to Parliament of Thomas Burt.

I had read this in a Newcastle Journal article written by Tony Henderson named "Statue of the Week" which stated that Doctor Pit in Bedlington was named after James Trotter. I thought that this was unusual as collieries were usually named after the owners or their family members. Trotter would have no doubt been an adversary of the pit owners? But apparently, the naming of Doctor Pit is a common misconception as Robert Coulson of Hexham pointed out when he wrote a reply to the article and stated:  Doctor Pit was named after a company director, who cut the first sod of the shaft, a Doctor John Moore Bates. This was, in fact, ten years prior to Dr Trotter having moved to Bedlington.

The election to Parliament in 1874 of Thomas Burt, a working man, was an important and well-documented event. The Morpeth Herald of the time quoted a supporter as saying: "Time the Avenger’ (that) can be found is the fact that Morpeth, so long known by the reproachful cognomen of a ‘rotten borough’ will be the first to send a working man – a real undisguised man of the people – to Parliament”. But, I was surprised at myself in never having never heard of Dr Trotter before I made this visit to Bedlington's landmarks.

I then discovered the memoirs of William Adams (1832-1906): Chartist, Republican, supporter of women's suffrage and Editor of the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle from 1862. Adams was himself from a working-class background. The Newcastle Chronicle, under the ownership of the radical Joseph Cowen, was a supporter of the amelioration of the working class. Adams published his memoirs in a series of articles in the Chronicle in 1902. This extract describes Adams' knowledge and involvement in the politics of the area in the lead up to the 1874 election:

"THE MORPETH HUBBUBBOO" 

THE expectations of the Tea Room party that the hindrances to emancipation contained in Mr. Disraeli's Reform Bill could and would be removed were in due course completely realised.  The credit of removing such of them as related to the residents of colliery villages and the occupants of colliery houses belongs to the miners of Northumberland.  How this came about forms an interesting episode in the history of the borough of Morpeth.  The secretary of the Northumberland Miners' Association, Thomas Burt, soon after his election to that office in 1864, showed so much ability in the management of the society's affairs, and endeared himself so much to his fellow-workmen by reason of his personal qualities, that there arose a strong desire to see him in the House of Commons.  But household suffrage, pure and simple, was not yet the law of the land.  Of the thousands of miners in Northumberland only a few hundreds were numbered among the electors of the county.  As occupiers of colliery houses, and so not paying rates directly to the overseers of the poor, they were considered not entitled to have their names inscribed on the rate-books or on the register of voters.  But some ingenious people in the neighbourhood of Choppington and Bedlington conceived the idea that the occupants of colliery houses, since they stood in respect to rates in about the same position as compound householders in towns, had equal claims with the said householders to the suffrage.  To press this idea upon the authorities the Miners' Franchise Association was formed in the early part of 1872. 

    The inception of the movement, undoubtedly one of the most successful ever set on foot in the North of England, was due, I think, to Thomas Glassey, then a miner at Choppington, but for some years now a leading member of the Parliament of Queensland, and at this date a member of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Australia.  Mr. Glassey, a native of the North of Ireland, had not been long in the district, nor had he always been associated with the Radical party.  Indeed, he had until shortly before been a rampant Orangeman.  When he did take sides with the Radicals, however, he went with them heart and soul.  Being a man of resource, too, he soon made the whole coalfield ring with the claims of the miners.  Associated with Mr. Glassey were two other notable men.  One was Robert Elliott, author of a vernacular poem which created some stir at the time, entitled "A Pitman Gan te Parliament."  It was thought by many of his friends that justice was hardly done to his services and abilities when he failed to secure the nomination for a neighbouring constituency to Morpeth.  The other member of the triumvirate was Dr. James Trotter, one of four or five brothers, natives of Galloway, all pursuing the practice of medicine at the same time in Northumberland.  James was also an Orangeman at the beginning of his public career.  Like Glassey, moreover, he threw himself with ardour and enthusiasm into the Radical movement. 

    The Franchise Association aimed at two things—the extension of the suffrage to all householders in the villages included in the borough of Morpeth, and the return of Thomas Burt as the first working-man member of the House of Commons.  Both objects were achieved, but not before the district had become the scene of exciting events.  Once, when Mr. Walter B. Trevelyan, the revising barrister, sitting at Morpeth, gave a decision hostile to the claims of the association, Mr. Glassey, rising in great wrath, called all his friends outside the court.  It seemed as if a revolution was going to begin there and then.  I recollect assisting to throw oil on the troubled waters, with the result that the standard of rebellion was neither then nor later unfurled.  Greater still was the excitement when a poem entitled "The Morpeth Hubbubboo" made its appearance.  The name of no author was attached to the piece, nor did anybody at the time know whence it had emanated; but it was supposed to represent the feelings of the tradesmen and respectable classes of Morpeth.  As the verses have become historical, I give some of them here:—

Come, all ye jolly freemen,         And listen to my tale, How Morpeth served the Howkies,         And made them turn their tail. And you, ye Howky beggars,         We dare you to come down! And though you come in thousands,         We'll kick you from the town. You dirty sneaking cowards,         Come back to Morpeth, do, And we'll kick your Burt to blazes,         And stop your Hubbubboo The rascals, how they spouted         On sham gentility, And swore the dirty Howkies         Were just as good as we. They wanted rights of voting,         The law had ordered so: What right to Rights have Howkies         Is what I'd like to know. We'll let them drink our beer, sir,         The worst that we can brew, It's good enough for Howkies         To raise a Hubbubboo. Hurrah for Champion Robberts         That damned the Howky dirt, The boy that thrashed the traitors         Who wished to vote for Burt, That stood up for Sir Georgy,         And cursed the Howkies well, And damned them and the Trotters         To trot right off to hell! He showed them like a man, sir,         What brandy schnapps can do, And soon smashed up the Templars,         And spoiled the Hubbubboo. Nine groans for both the Trotters,         Confound the ugly quacks; When next they show their faces,         We'll make them show their backs, Nine groans for Irish Glassey;         If he comes here again, We'll pelt him out with murphies,         And get the rascal slain. Nine groans for Poet Elliott         And his North-Country crew, Aud ninety for the Howkies         That raised the Hubbubboo. Nine groans for Burt the Howky;         And if he ventures here, His dry teetotal carcase         We'll soak in Robberts' beer. We'll put him in the stocks, too,         And pelt him well with eggs; We'll black his Howky eyes, boys,         And kick his bandy legs. He would unseat Sir Georgy,         He would be member, too; We'll hunt him out of Morpeth,         And spoil his Hubbubboo.

    The effect of the publication was instantaneous.  Not only did the pitmen round about refuse to enter a public-house where "Robberts' beer" was sold, but the pitmen's wives drove back home the tradesmen's carts that travelled round the pit villages laden with provisions.  Dr. Trotter himself described the state of affairs in a letter I received from him a few days after the appearance of the "Hubbubboo."  It will be seen that the letter was partly in reply to a suggestion of mine that nothing foolish or indiscreet should be done to bring discredit upon the movement.  Here, then, is Dr. Trotter's account of matters :— 

BEDLINGTON, THURSDAY.
    My dear Sir,—The whole district is in a blaze.  The tradesmen of Morpeth are like to be ruined.
    A great meeting was held at Morpeth, on Tuesday night, to take the crisis into serious consideration.  A reward of £150 is offered by the tradesmen for the publishers and authors of the squibs which are setting the miners into so desperate a state of excitement.
    All the inns and beer-shops in the district have orders to receive no more ale or spirits from Morpeth on pain of instant extinction, and all here have complied with the demand.  The pitmen made an entrance into every public-house, took down all the Morpeth spirit advertisements framed on the walls, trampled them under foot, and sent the fragments to the owners carefully packed and labelled.
    You can have no idea of the sensation here at present.  It is to be proposed, and has every likelihood of being carried unanimously, that Choppington pits be at once laid idle should a single tubful of coals be sent to the town of Morpeth, and every colliery in the county is to be invited to join issue to the same effect.  So you see that Morpeth people will not only be starved as regards food, but as respects fuel also, if things go on at this rate much longer.
    I believe we could have 10,000 men into Morpeth at a week's notice.  However, I will follow your advice in the matter and keep things as quiet as possible; but if the men get determined, the devil himself will hardly be able to prevent them making an inroad.
    I will excuse our deputation to the collieries to which we were invited as you suggest.  Besides, Mr. Burt will as surely be M.P. for the borough of Morpeth as that I am                                                           Very sincerely yours,                                                                                 JAMES TROTTER. 

    The shopkeepers of Morpeth were indeed in serious straits.  In this extremity they got up a meeting to repudiate the "Hubbubboo."  Peace, however, was not restored till the Franchise Association was invited to hold a conference in the sacred precincts of the borough itself.  It was suspected at the time, though it was not positively known till long afterwards, that the poem which set the district on fire was the production, not of an enemy, but of a friend.  Things were getting dull, it was thought, and so it was deemed advisable to invent something that would fan the embers of the agitation into a blaze.  And the blaze produced then has certainly never in the same district been equalled since.  Dr. Trotter was fond of practical jokes, and the "Hubbubboo" was one of them—quite of a piece with another which set the inhabitants of his own town of Dalry by the ears.  The "Clachan Fair," a long descriptive poem, satirising everybody in the place, including the author's father, was printed and posted to persons concerned.  And then the incorrigible joker took a holiday, and went back to his old home to enjoy the fun!
  

   The franchise movement never flagged after the excitement about the "Hubbubboo."  It even attracted attention in distant parts of the country.  Archibald Forbes, in an interval of his war reporting, was sent down to describe for the Daily News the position of matters in the North.  Writing of a "Miners' Monstre Demonstration," held at Morpeth on Sept. 28th, 1872, he fell into a curious confusion in respect to a leading spirit of the movement, assigning to him the name of the colliery village in which he resided.  One of the speakers at the meeting, said Mr. Forbes, was "an Irish pitman, Thomas Glassey, known to fame as the Choppington Guide Post"—"a fine, ardent young fellow, with yellow hair, and a brogue broader than the platform.  And then," he added, "Mr. Glassey lapsed into revolutionary utterances, and began to talk about tyrants and despots and other matters of a like sort, which seemed to indicate him as rather an unsafe guide post for Choppington or any other loyal community."  But the upshot of the whole business was that the revising barrister, when he came his rounds in 1873, admitted the whole of the pitman claimants to the franchise, thus increasing the constituency of Morpeth at one bound from 2,661 to 4,916. 

    The rest was easy.  Sir George Grey, the Home Secretary in many successive Whig Ministries, who had represented Morpeth since 1852, retired into private life.  Mr. Cowen presided over a great meeting at Bedlington Cross on Oct. 18th, 1873, at which a requisition was presented to Mr. Burt inviting him to stand as a candidate for the borough.  The invitation was of course accepted.  A committee constituted as follows was chosen to conduct the election:—Robert Elliott, chairman; Thomas Glassey, vice-chairman; James Archbold, treasurer; James Trotter, secretary; general members—Joseph Cowen, M.P., the Rev. Dr. Rutherford, George Howard (now Earl of Carlisle), W. E. Adams, Matthew Pletts, and Ralph Young.  Although the return of Mr. Burt by an overwhelming majority was absolutely certain, a rival candidate was found in Captain Francis Duncan, who, as Colonel Duncan, the author of a "History of the Royal Artillery," rose to distinction both in Parliament and in the military service, and died later while serving his country in Egypt.  The contest which followed was unique. 

    Captain Duncan was everywhere respectfully received by the miners.  When he addressed a meeting at Choppington, not a murmur of opposition was heard from the crowded audience; but when a vote of approval of his candidature was proposed, every hand was held up against it.  And the proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to Captain Duncan for his lecture!  Both candidates on the day of the polling visited the different towns and villages comprising the constituency of Morpeth.  Mr. Burt's tour was a triumphal procession.  The arrival of the candidate and his friends at Bedlington, I recollect, led to an extraordinary scene.  The main street of the town was crowded, for of course the pits were all idle.  First there was much cheering; then arose an irrepressible desire to do something unusual.  The horses were taken out of the conveyance, dozens of stalwart miners seized the shafts, and the electoral party was rushed up and down the thoroughfare at a furious and hazardous pace amidst the wildest excitement.  It was even proposed to run the carriage all the way to Morpeth: nor was it without some difficulty that the jubilant crowd was dissuaded from its purpose.  Not less astonishing was the reception accorded to Mr. Burt at Morpeth itself, where both candidates—such was the friendly character of the contest—addressed the multitude, which literally filled the Market Place, from the same platform and from the windows of each other's committee rooms!
  

   The ballot box revealed the fact, or rather emphasised the fact, that the old order had indeed changed.  The miners' candidate had received 3,332 votes as against his opponent's 585.  So was Thomas Burt returned the first veritable working man that had ever entered the House of Commons. 

 So... Possible dirty dealings going on? Was Trotter a hero or a villain?

Bothal Lady Chapel

When looking at old mapping of the South East of the county a prominent feature that stands out to me is Lady Chapel.

Armstrong 1769

This is on the north bank of the River Wansbeck about one-and-a-half miles east of Morpeth and the same distance west of Bothal. It is marked on most of the early cartographic surveys from Speed's map of 1610 through to the present-day Ordnance Survey mapping. In 1610 Speed labels the feature as New Chapel and uses an icon to indicate a settlement at the location, but even by the time Armstrong surveyed the county in 1769 the chapel was "in ruins".

Speed 1610

The reason it stands out so clearly is that it resides alone in such a remote location. It is a difficult and lengthy walk to the nearest settlement, which made me question was the chapel once part of a small monastic community, or did it serve a once-important deserted medieval settlement, or did it have another function which justified its existence?

A site visit was obviously desirable. Parking up at Bothal Mill I walked for one mile on the footpath running alongside the River Wansbeck. It is a very picturesque and pleasant walk and interpretation boards along he route describe the various features and wildlife that can be encountered here.

The site can be easily missed. Not much appears to be left of the feature until a closer inspection is made. The first indication that I had arrived at the site was an inscribed stone marked "1887 Jubilee Well" with some scattered stones and a column that was at one time part of the structure. Close by is the first 2-3 courses of a tiny rectangular building (21 x 12 ft). Stone blocks lie in piles beside this ruinous building, evidence of the most recent decay and damage to the structure. It was, however, clearly the chapel that I had been searching for.

Jubilee Well 1887

Remains of Lady Chapel

Quarry Face Engravings

There is evidence of quarrying in numerous places along the riverbank. These small quarries are very likely the source of the raw material for the construction of the chapel. One quarry face only a few metres from the site of the chapel is most interesting. It has various Latin inscriptions and a much-weathered coat of arms engraved into it.

Various walking guides and a geocaching site on the internet suggested this chapel, and later 19th century features, were associated with the Bothal estate and the Ogle family, who were landholders here during medieval and early-modern times. However, they did not cite their sources. I suspected that the information was derived from the definitive "Bothal Observed" written by Roland Bibby and published in 1973. I obtained a copy to see what had been written about the site.

The village of Bothal is now somewhat off the beaten track and not well known. In medieval times, however, it was the centre of an important baronial estate. The grand castle, which was the residence and status symbol of the lords of the manor, still exists, as does an elegant parish church.

In "Bothal Observed"  Bibby gives evidence to support his theory that Lady Chapel, which would have been a colloquial version of "Chapel of our Lady", was, in fact, a chantry. A chapel can be a dedicated room within a building for the purpose of worship, a separate building which is subsidiary to the main parish church, or the place of worship for a non-conformist denomination. The online Catholic Encyclopedia had this description of a chantry, which matches the criteria for Lady Chapel being a chantry:

These differ from other interior chapels only in being erected and endowed for the celebration of Masses of requiem, in perpetuity, for some individual soul, generally that of the founder himself. Special priests were usually appointed to serve them, and were called "chantrypriests". It was not until the thirteenth century that such chapels became common, and by that time, most of the available space in the churches had been already occupied, hence we find chantry chapels stowed away in corners and odd places. Being intended for private, not public, Masses, they were frequently smaller than other chapels.

The evidence for the founding of the chantry comes from a stone heraldic shield present on the chapel in 1774, when an antiquarian surveyed the structure. Various other antiquarians and historians, during the early 19th century, write of the shield being located in the courtyard of Bothal Castle, obviously removed from the chapel at some stage. It has since been built into the Gatehouse of the castle.

Francis Grose Drawing 1772

The shield consists of the arms of Ogle and Bertram quartering Kirkby. The Bertrams were the original holders of Bothal, their tenure beginning in the 12th century. During the 15th century Bothal passed into the ownership of the powerful Ogle family, by marriage through the Bertram maternal line. The Ogles base was at Ogle Castle near Ponteland.

It was Robert Ogle IV, 1st Lord Ogle, who married a Kirkby. It was their grandson, Owen Ogle, however, who inherited the Bothal manor when the last of the Bertrams died. This was somewhere between 1472-88. It is his arms that are presumed to be displayed on the heraldic shield. Bibby writes:

... I imagine that the Lady Chapel represents a foundation by Owen Ogle to commemorate his gaining the barony.

This was just an educated guess, of course. It was more usual for the provision of a chantry to be made in a benefactors will. But at present there is no further evidence to date the structure more accurately. Late 15th century will suffice. The architectural features that Bibby describes from 18th century drawings do not contradict a late 15th century construction.  He summarises:

... a simple rectangular building with a gabled, stone roof, a handsome triple window at the east end and behind the altar, a plain south window a south door and a west door...

There was also the possible evidence of buttresses at each end of the south wall.

If the chapel was a chantry then it would have had a short existence, being dissolved under the 1547 Act of Parliament, a continuance of the dissolution of the monastic sites. The building, being so far from habitation, would have been left to decay. However, it was still being described as "New Chapel" by Speed in 1610 and by the botanist Turner in 1549. Bibby thinks that this is another indication of the late foundation of the chapel.

No further evidence seems to exist of the chapel. But here is another mystery? Photographs taken of the site in Victorian times, and by Tomlinson in 1910, show a near complete structure, not in ruins as should be expected. The photos also do not match the structural drawings of the 18th century.

Chapel in Late 19th-Early 20th Centuries

The conclusion was that the chapel had been restored at sometime during the 19th century. The features on the quarry face associated with the site give a clue to this restoration. The heraldic shield carved into the rock is the arms of the Mulcaster family. Also inscribed into the rock are the words RM fecit, AD1857 and Fidelis Servus, which translates as faithful servant, although weathering of the rock has made this slightly illegible and may not be accurate.

This coincides with a Richard Mulcaster becoming curate of Bothal in 1856. Mystery solved! But why did he restore the chapel. Was it just as a folly? No record seems to exist of any use it was put to and with the creep of overgrown vegetation and tree roots the chapel soon started to crumble again.

Jubilee Well in its Heyday

Mulcaster could also have been involved in the construction of nearby Jubilee Well 1887, which is really a spring, created for the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession. Photographs show that this was once an elaborate and ornamental structure, featuring the coat of arms of... Mulcaster.

Morpeth Racetrack

Browsing Armstrong's 1769 map of Northumberland  I noticed a large circular feature marked in the landscape just North of Morpeth. The feature is larger than the town itself, which I first suspected was down to the inaccuracy of the cartographer. It did sufficiently interest me, however, to see if the feature is still visible in the landscape. Satellite imagery confirmed this to be the case and my first thought was that it is probably a racetrack. A hedge and fence mark the line of the feature in the present day.

Location of Morpeth Racetrack (click to enlarge)

Armstrong Map of Northumberland 1769

The feature is 1.15 miles in circumference and is located just north of St George's Hospital and Cottingwood Lane on an area historically known as Cottingwood Common.

Research in the "Keys to the Past" sites and monuments website for Northumberland and Durham revealed:

Although the town was a centre of trade for the surrounding countryside, the citizens of Morpeth enjoyed their leisure hours. In 1730 they built a racecourse for horse racing. It was still in use in the mid-19th century. It only fell out of use when the asylum was built. The area around the two castles became a park in the late 19th century, and the people were able to follow riverside walks along the Wansbeck.

Internet searches aimed at racing websites yielded this from greyhoundderby.com

The earliest recorded racing in... Morpeth was in 1720... and racing certainly took place prior to 1720. The course... [was] approached by a steep but narrow road. This would have meant that carriages would have found it difficult to access the course. Baily’s Racing Register first provided detailed results from races held at Morpeth in 1730, with the meeting being held in September... It is known that the famous poet, Lord Byron, owned horses which ran at the track in the early and mid-1750’s. By 1800 the only Northumbrian meetings to be sufficiently important to be included in Sporting Magazines and Racing Calendars were Morpeth and Newcastle. Racing ceased at the Collingwood course in 1854, and it took a further 17 years to re-establish racing at Morpeth. The new course, just ¾ of a mile from the town centre, was on Morpeth Common and included a grandstand which was opened by Robert Wilkinson, the Mayor of Morpeth, on 10th September 1875.  http://www.greyhoundderby.com/Morpeth%20Racecourse.html [This site lists some memorable races and winners on the track]

 Subsequent editions of mapping all the way down to the 1970s and 1980s have shown the site to be reasonably well preserved. It is only in this latter period that buildings begin to be shown on the on the central part of the site and foliage masking the course. The site of the course does not seem to interfere with the asylum (now St George's hospital) so it is a question for further research as to the track's demise and, in fact,   horse racing in general  in 17th-18th century Northumberland.

To Be Continued...

.................................................................................................................

Update 11th November 2013

So... this one tantalisingly posed more questions than it answered. And, quite by chance, some further information on racetracks came my way.

A flyer is featured on the www.communities.northumberland.gov.uk website advertising "The Amble Races" to be held on Monday August 20th 1888. Twenty people are listed as officials for the race meeting. We can therefore presume that it wasn't too small-scale an affair. Searching the OS mapping even from just a few years after 1888 revealed no trace of a racetrack in Amble. An appeal was made to Amble folk on Twitter for any info, most of whom were surprised to hear of a racetrack once existing in the town. A comment was returned from an elderly resident that horse racing and fairs used to be held during feast week at Mark's Bridge, which is now the site of the middle school. Modern satellite photography actually shows a racetrack pattern etched into the school playing field.

A visit to the small museum of Belford in North Northumberland brought me face to face with another flyer for a now-defunct racetrack. This was from 1803 and titled the "Belford Feast Races". It featured many categories of races including one for ponies.

A colleague emailed me to enquire if there had ever been a racetrack at Allendale. He was staying at a cottage which was rumoured to be on the site of an old racetrack. A look at the 1st edition OS mapping of the 1860s did show a racecourse to be marked at this location. It was not a very clear feature, however, and was not evident on subsequent mapping.

There was also evidence from 19th century mapping of a racetrack having existed on the links at Blyth. It is no longer in existence, but one weekend every summer a horse event is held at this location. This indicates a continuity of the tradition of equestrian activities being held there. 

It would appear from this evidence that most towns in Northumberland had a racetrack at sometimes during the 18th-19th centuries and that racing was often held on public holidays. I am making a presumption here that the racetracks served mostly a local population as it would have been impractical and expensive to transport horses to a larger and more central course as happens nowadays at say Gosforth Park.

The racetracks were clearly small-scale affairs. They did not leave much of a trace on the ground and there was no indication of buildings on contemporary mapping. Again, a presumption can be made that temporary structures or tents would have been erected for the race meetings. This continues until this day on some sites, although on a more ad hoc and informal basis.

This is also the case at Morpeth where the racetrack was moved out to Tranwell Woods and point-to-point racing is still held here. Point-to-point is a form of horse racing over fences for hunting horses and amateur riders.

Horse racing is now the second most popular spectator sport in the country. But it didn't really become a mainstream activity until the mid 18th century. Cromwell had the fledgling sport banned, and horses confiscated, during the 1650s. Even in the 1740s Parliament passed an act trying to restrain the increase in horse racing. The law was largely ignored however, and in 1752 the aristocracy, wealthy breeders and racecourse owners formed the Jockey Club and introduced regulations.

The smaller racecourses became no longer viable during the 19th century and the race meetings ceased.