In a much earlier blog post I discussed the apparent change in the line of the England-Scotland Border in the region of Yetholm Common. Here I will add some detail about the 'common land' lost from Scotland with the straightening out of the Border Line between Humbleton Swire and Whitelaw Nick, due east of the Stob Stones.
The Rev. John Baird of Yetholm recorded in 1841:
There are nearly 6000 acres in the parish: of which more than 2600 are arable, and more than 3000 remain in permanent pasture. In addition there is a common of 200 acres, called Yetholm Common, on which the inhabitants of Kirk Yetholm have the privilege of cutting turf and grazing their cattle: it is a wild moorish piece of ground, upon the borders, claimed I believe, by both kingdoms.
Border ridge north of Whitelaw Nick. Photo A Curtis (2012).
Rev. John Baird (1799-1861) was the minister at Kirk Yetholm. He was responsible for the new bridge, rebuilding the church and school. He also educated the Gypsies and brought them into the community. He was a founder member of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club.
A. Fullarton's The Topographical, Statistical, and Historical Gazetteer of Scotland: Vol. 2 (1848) says of Kirk Yetholm:
Yetholm common, a wild moor of considerable extent, on debateable land between Scotland and England, is claimed by villagers, and yielded to their possession for the cutting of their turf and the grazing of their cattle.
Elsewhere he states it rather doubtfully belongs to Scotland.
Probably from the same sources, John Marius Wilson (1859) in The land of Scott; or, Abbotsford, The Country of the Tweed and its Tributaries, and St. Mary's Loch describes:
A wild moor, called Yetholm Common, lying to the east, and comprising an area of several hundred acres, is claimed by the town's-people as an ultranational tract, neither in Scotland nor England, and used by them for the cutting turf and grazing cattle.
The Scottish Commons Directory records:
Yethom Common is situated just south west of Kirk Yetholm and was originally associated with the Gypsy encampment with which the village is associated. The common is well up in the hills and the position is marked by two large stones, known locally as the Stob-Stanes. Both villages in Yetholm (Town & Kirk) also feature large Greens.
The Stob Stones are said to be known locally as the Gypsy Stobs from the tradition that the kings of the Yetholm Gypsies were crowned there. In the photo below, the location of the Stob Stones, left of the straight wall that now marks the Border, is well inside Scotland.
The Border Line on Stob Rig. Photo A Curtis (2012).
Logan Mack (1924) in The Border Line suggested that the eastern part of the Border, from Berwick to where the Redden Burn joins the River Tweed just west of Carham was the earliest settled part. It had been claimed by the Scottish King, Malcolm II after the Battle of Carham in 1018.
Although 24 English knights considered the frontier fixed west from Berwick as far as White Law in 1246, its line was not agreed by the Scottish contingent. Some of the place names along the English Line such as 'Tres Karras' and 'Hoperiglawe' cannot be identified today.
It appears that the early surveyors used the hilltops and watershed (as the water falleth) to define its course through the Cheviot Hills. One such survey took place in 1522 and is described by Logan Mack in some detail. Again many of the placenames are different from those used today.
It was clear that in several places:
Although 24 English knights considered the frontier fixed west from Berwick as far as White Law in 1246, its line was not agreed by the Scottish contingent. Some of the place names along the English Line such as 'Tres Karras' and 'Hoperiglawe' cannot be identified today.
It appears that the early surveyors used the hilltops and watershed (as the water falleth) to define its course through the Cheviot Hills. One such survey took place in 1522 and is described by Logan Mack in some detail. Again many of the placenames are different from those used today.
It was clear that in several places:
.... the towns of Scotland bounding upon England have eared, ploughed and sown much of all the ground that was wont to be their pastures, and pasture all their sheep and cattle in great numbers within the realm of England.
A map of The County of Nothumberland by Charles Smith published in 1801 (below) shows several areas of disputed territory along the Border Line including one east of Yetholm, stretching from the west side of Coldsmouth Hill south to Five Stones, whereever that may be.
Map of The County of Northumberland by Charles Smith (1801).
Logan Mack tells us that these disputed areas were still being shown on maps as late as 1837 although information was often copied from earlier authors. He says, that if it can be assumed that the dispute ended in 1838, the course of the Border Line between the two countries as it is now defined took only 820 years to settle!
UPDATE 17th December 2017
W Ford Robertson in his book Walks from Wooler (1926) provides the following information (p.143-144) about the line of the England-Scotland Border in this location said to be from a cutting in the Westminster Gazette.
W Ford Robertson in his book Walks from Wooler (1926) provides the following information (p.143-144) about the line of the England-Scotland Border in this location said to be from a cutting in the Westminster Gazette.
... a story of how borders are made. I heard it told by an old Scottish shepherd and afterwards found the original version by Mr George Bolam. He was inspecting boundary fences in the Cheviots and found a grave discrepency between one of them and the ordnance map. The shepherd explained:-
"Oh, aye, sir, yon's the lie o' the auld stones, nae doot, but it didna suit for the tae set o' yowes to hae a' the meat [good grass], an' the tither a' the bield [shelter]; sae Edam o' Helter Burn [Adam Calder of Halter Burn] an' me made a pack an' shiftit a wee; we gie a bit here an' tak a bit there, ye see, sae naebody's the waur on't, an' the sheep's muckle the better; forby ye'll obsairve the grand grip yon stretching-posts hae gotton."
UPDATE 12th June 2020
The following information was provided by Ned Pegler who got in touch with me recently having found more information about Yetholm Common in his local library. His comment appears below the blog article on the Stob Stanes. We believe that the author of the unpublished work, Yetholm: Materials for a History (2007) died a few years ago. His Chapter 2 provides relevant information on the interesting history of Yetholm Common.
I remember looking for historical material of this sort at the time of writing this blog but failed to find anything. I would like to thank both Ned and Mr P. D. Wood whose interests in this area clearly follow my own but whose historical research abilities are definitely more advanced. I am pleased to be able to reproduce the historical research of P. D. Wood for a larger audience here.
The following information was provided by Ned Pegler who got in touch with me recently having found more information about Yetholm Common in his local library. His comment appears below the blog article on the Stob Stanes. We believe that the author of the unpublished work, Yetholm: Materials for a History (2007) died a few years ago. His Chapter 2 provides relevant information on the interesting history of Yetholm Common.
I remember looking for historical material of this sort at the time of writing this blog but failed to find anything. I would like to thank both Ned and Mr P. D. Wood whose interests in this area clearly follow my own but whose historical research abilities are definitely more advanced. I am pleased to be able to reproduce the historical research of P. D. Wood for a larger audience here.
RSS Feed
