I quote the following story about one of the Upper Coquetdale landowners at the time of the Ordnance Survey in the early 1860s as it fits with a project on transcribing the OS Name Books for Northumberland that I am involved with at the moment.

The story is part of a short biography of Mr. Carr, in a regular section called Men of Mark ‘twirt Tyne & Tweed in The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend Vol. 3 (1887-1891)’, p. 385-387.

You can read this, and other works during the life of Ralph Carr for yourself here.
 
RALPH CARR-ELLISON (1805-1884, originally Ralph Carr) was the eldest son of John Carr, Esq. of Dunston Hill and Hedgeley.
 
Mr. Carr, 'landowner, antiquary and naturalist', was one of the few men who ever made the Ordnance Survey officials admit an error in topographical nomenclature.

He owned the estate of Makenden at the head of Coquet, which runs up to what is locally known as "the Scotch Edge," where it "marches" with the property of the Duke of Roxburgh. In this district the boundary line between England and Scotland usually follows the water shed (or, as Dandie Dinmont [a character in Guy Mannering by Sir Walter Scott, 1815] expressed it, "the tap o' the hill, where win and water shears") between the valleys of the Teviot and Bowmont on the Scotch side, and those of the Rede, Coquet, and Breamish on the English.

But in various places the Scotch, like "Jock o' Dawston Cleugh", have encroached over the crest of the hills. These encroachments are usually marked on old maps as "batable" i.e., debatable ground. One such plot of "batable" land lay between the properties of Mr. Carr and the Duke of
Roxburgh, where, according to the contention of the Scotch, the march leaves the "tap o' the hills and bauds down by the Syke" in which the Coquet rises, thus cutting off the Plea Shank, which, like Dandie Dinmont's ground, "lying high and exposed, may feed a hogg [a sheep up to the age of one year; one yet to be sheared], or aiblins twa [perhaps two] in a gude year."

The spot is familiar to antiquaries, for the ancient Roman Camp, "Ad Fines", now known as Chew Green, lies just below it, and the Roman Road of Watling Street [Dere Street] here crosses the moors into Scotland.

For the sake of peace it had been arranged, at some former time, between the owners and occupiers, that half the Plea Shank should be pastured by each party. But when the Ordnance Survey came to be made, the Scotch revived their claim to the whole, and by some means or other contrived to win over those who were conducting the survey.

Little more was heard of the matter till the maps were issued, showing the boundary between England and Scotland drawn along the English side of the debatable ground. Then the English tenant was politely invited by his Scotch neighbour to keep his sheep on his own side of the new boundary.

On hearing this, Mr. Carr took steps to obtain all possible evidence from ancient maps and documents in the British Museum and elsewhere ; and instructed his tenant to turn a few sheep on to the disputed land in the meanwhile.

Meeting the farmer shortly afterwards, Mr. Carr said, "Well
Thompson, I suppose you put half-a-dozen sheep or so on
to the Plea Shank?" "Oh, no, sir," was the answer, "I just wysed on [used] fifty score!"

The result of Mr. Carr's investigations was to show that the land had been either English or debatable for centuries. This was brought to the notice of the officials in charge of the Ordnance Survey, the already issued maps were recalled and cancelled, and new ones restoring the Plea Shank to its
old " batable" character were published.

The name 'Plea Shank' doesn't appear to have made it onto the 1st edition map although there is a 'Plea Knowe' on the border further away to the north-east, and another 'Plea Shank' near the line of Dere Street (formerly recorded as Watling Street) but on undisputedly Scottish land in the Borders, much further north.

The following is for all those who love the Cheviot Hills.

Part of the poem, The Autumnal Excursion by Thomas Pringle (1836).

He was a Scottish writer (born at Blakelaw near Kelso), poet and abolitionist (who became secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society). He is known as the father of South African poetry having emigrated there with the help of Sir Walter Scott in 1820. He was the first successful English language poet and author to describe South Africa's scenery, native peoples, and living conditions.

In his notes to the poem, he describes the Hanging Stone as:

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:

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:

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:

The Scottish Commons Directory records:

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.

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:

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.

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 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.

I seem to have spent a long time this summer wandering in the Cheviot Hills and looking at the archaeology. At the end of one of these days, accompanied by a few friends, we investigated the interesting site of the deserted medieval village (dmv) of Old Middleton Town.

Old Middleton lies just to the west of a cluster of Middleton place names (Middleton Hall, North Middleton and South Middleton) on the east edge of the Cheviot Hills, just south of Wooler.

The map above shows Old Middleton dmv (purple) flanked by an unnamed stream to the south and improved fields to the north. The stream swing round to the north where it enters the forest plantation and descends steeply to a junction with Coldgate Water in Happy Valley. The two recently deserted shepherd's cottages on the north side of the old village are shown in yellow. The course of the aqueduct is shown in blue.

Our first view of the aqueduct was from the west side of the valley standing on the bank near the deserted modern cottages. Its line of covering cap-stones appeared almost level running along the valley side on the side of the hill.

The photos below show the aqueduct close up. In the central part it is made of a deep, slit-like, stone-lined ditch, partly covered by large irregular cap-stones. There was no sign or sound of running water and it appeared unused. We asked the questions, what was it for, and when was it built?

At its north end, the cap-stones end and the ditch appears splayed-out, and filled in adding to appearance of its disuse. Standing on its line, it distinctly appears to dip towards the south. If that was the case, where did the water come from 'at the top of the hill', and why was it carried into the valley below the deserted village? Surely a supply of water was not needed there, as the stream flowing past the old settlement would have always been an adequate source.

This year, I've spent a lot of time walking in the Cheviot Hills, exploring places I don't know or not been to for a long time. A recent walk on the England-Scotland Border east of  Kirk Yetholm led me to another mystery.

What started it was a visit to see the Stob Stones (or Stanes to the Scots).  Two large boulders, one standing, the other recumbent, east of the hillfort at Green Humbleton, and a stones throw (pun intended) from both the Pennine Way (high level route) and St Cuthbert's Way long distance footpaths. They are now firmly in Roxburghshire in Scotland, the Border boundary wall is to their east, but for a time were actually on the Border line.

They are often referred to as standing stones, which has a prehistoric connotation. What do the archaeologist think?

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. An inventory of the ancient and historical monuments of Roxburghshire  (1956)  records their visit to the stones in 1938. The record can be read on the excellent on-line resource known as Canmore.

However, they were not committing themselves to any opinion regarding their origin..

A later visit by the RCAHMS in 1978 revealed no further information. As well as the gypsy lore, the stones are still used as the destination for the annual ride out from Kirk Yetholm. They have always had importance locally. There is some information on the Yetholm gypsies here.

If the large stones had originally been covered in a stone mound or cairn, then the stones must have been robbed for use elsewhere. The small stones packing the base are very similar to those around that of the erect Stob Stone.