OS 1:10,560 (1866 & 1899) - NLS Side by Side Viewer
Another little example of what lidar can tell us about recent historical change and the lives of little people in the landscape.
Curleheugh, Bewick, Northumberland.
The shepherd who moved the house - sometime between 1866 and 1899.
The Ordnance Survey surveyors collecting place-names for their new map c.1860 recorded:
Curleheugh: "A shepherd's house on a hill north of Tarry, at which there are some ruins indicating that a hamlet once existed there."
His house occupied the east end of an irregular shaped enclosure to the east of which was a complex of sheepfolds. There are other possible enclosures to the west on lidar but not much evidence for a hamlet.
The house was moved to the south as shown on the 1899 2nd edition OS map, close to a former limekiln and in a field dominated by old coal shafts. I wonder why. A building is shown here up to c.1950 but little appears to remain today. Any sheep grazing here are probably no longer tended by a dedicated shepherd but by a long-distance farmer and his dogs on a quad-bike.
The name, Curleheugh is no longer shown on modern maps, and the only feature indicated is 'sheepfolds (disused)'. Visitors to the trig point just above the original house keep the name in use. It possibly refers to a rugged hillside where there are curlews.
Curleheugh, Bewick, Northumberland.
The shepherd who moved the house - sometime between 1866 and 1899.
The Ordnance Survey surveyors collecting place-names for their new map c.1860 recorded:
Curleheugh: "A shepherd's house on a hill north of Tarry, at which there are some ruins indicating that a hamlet once existed there."
His house occupied the east end of an irregular shaped enclosure to the east of which was a complex of sheepfolds. There are other possible enclosures to the west on lidar but not much evidence for a hamlet.
The house was moved to the south as shown on the 1899 2nd edition OS map, close to a former limekiln and in a field dominated by old coal shafts. I wonder why. A building is shown here up to c.1950 but little appears to remain today. Any sheep grazing here are probably no longer tended by a dedicated shepherd but by a long-distance farmer and his dogs on a quad-bike.
The name, Curleheugh is no longer shown on modern maps, and the only feature indicated is 'sheepfolds (disused)'. Visitors to the trig point just above the original house keep the name in use. It possibly refers to a rugged hillside where there are curlews.
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