The
origin of the settlement of Kirkheaton is unknown, the first known mention
being in 1290. However, the Roman Road, the Devil’s Causeway, runs through the
eastern end of the parish and has signs of bell pits on either side, so there
could have been some form of settlement in Roman times. By the time it was
mentioned there were two separate places, Little Heton and Caldstrother. The
site of the latter is unknown but must be to the west of Kirkheaton. Both
places were of a reasonable size as in the Subsidy Roll of 1296 there were 15
people mentioned in Kirkheaton and 6 in Caldestryer. Ownership at that time is
vague though it seems that Walter de Bolam and John de Cambhou were involved.
The chapel, (St. Bartholomew’s Church today), was held by The Prior and convent
of Hexham Priory and in 1314 they “obtained a licence to acquire the moiety
(half) of the manor of Little Heaton from John de Cambhou and in 1323 to obtain
land from Hilbert de Babynton, William Heeson and Robert, son of Hugh de
Cambhowe.
Gilbert and John de Middleton separately
owned land in Chuldstrothre and West Heaton. Gilbert Middleton was a Rebel and
his lands were confiscated. Edward ll granted a toft and 10 acres in Chuldstrothre
to Thomas de Heton and in 1333 John de Crumbwell (Constable for the Tower of
London) died seized of Lands in Caldstruther, and in 1335 Sir John Strivelyn of
Belsay obtained grant of lands of John Middleton (rebel). The receipt to the
Bailiffs is held at Kew. Sir John, in 1373, by deeds entailed certain lands in
Caldstrother, “which is a hamlet of Kirkheaton”. After Sir John died, the lands
reverted to Sir John de Middleton.
In 1479, the survey of the possessions of
the Priory, contained in the Black Book of Hexham tells us that at Kirkheaton
and Caldstrother, seven tenants who held of the prior, by homage and suit of
court, thirty-three who held husbandlands , and eight cottagers. The land
occupied by the last two groups totalled 1169 acres.
Other Northumbrian family names mentioned in
the early 1500s were Ilderton, Shafftow and Fenwick. The last mention of
Caldstrother is in 1505/6, when “Sir Thomas Ilderton, son and heir of Thomas
Ilderton, lately deceased, granted Thomas Shaftow.....and also all those lands,
etc , in the vill territory, and fields of Caldstroder.” (Vill – Territorial unit or
division under the feudal system, consisting of a number of houses or buildings
with their adjacent lands, more or less contiguous and having a common
organisation; corresponding to the Anglo-Saxon tithing and to the modern
township or civil parish.) In 1524, 400 Tynedale men, accompanied by many Scots, gathered at Ingoe and Kirkheaton and overran the country to within eight miles of Newcastle "slaying, wounding, pillaging and burning on their way"
Some idea
of the size of Kirkheaton can be gained from the Muster Roll of 1538. This
showed that there were 5 men – able with horse and harness and 10 with neither
horse or harness, so it was not a large community. Information about this
period is fragmentary, because it was a very unsettled time with the Border
Reiving. There are references to Kirkheaton in the Swinburne (Capheaton)
Manuscripts and it is known that Matthew Heron, a younger son of the Herons of
Chipchase, built The Manor House in about 1570 as a Bastle, or fortified house.
He also acquired much of the land and by 1663 a Matthew Heron owned 6/7th
of the “lands of the Township”, whilst John Atkinson owned the remaining 1/7th
so that when the enclosures came in 1722, 1/7th of the land to the
northwest of the village was allocated to a Jacob Atkinson together with a
house on the South side of the village. This remains to this day as Kirkheaton
Farm and includes Black Hill, now ruined.
The
Reiving stopped early in the 17th Century and life will have changed
to be more peaceful.
The Manor House was altered to be more
comfortable, the south wall being rebuilt with the windows we see today.
Farming could continue without fear of losing your stock to the Scots but
ownerships continued to change. For instance, the coal mines which had belonged
to the Priory and thence to the King, were, by 1689 owned by Sir William
Blackett of Wallington.
In about
1664, ownership of the township of Kirkheaton finally passed from the Herons,
when Matthew Heron sold it to Sir Richard Stote of Stote’s Hall, Newcastle. He
died unmarried in 1707 and left all his estates to his three younger sisters,
Margaret, Frances and Dorothy. The last survivor was Dame Dorothy Windsor, who
had married Dixie Windsor, third son of Thomas, first earl of Plymouth. She was
responsible for rebuilding the Church which was roofless and adding a wing to
the Manor House. She died a widow, childless and intestate, owning, amongst
other estates, 1,759 acres in Kirkheaton, including Kirkheaton Hall and a land
sale colliery which had probably been acquired from the Blacketts. Dame
Dorothy’s death was followed by much litigation. The following is a summary of
the events taken from the Craster's papers (Craster, Archaeologia Achana
Vol xxxi, 4th series) – “Six weeks before this wedding (Feb 3,
1757) an aged widow died in Upper Brook St, childless and intestate. Her name
was Dame Dorothy Windsor. She was the last surviving child of that Sir Richard
Stote who had helped to make John Craster’s grandfather, sheriff of
Northumberland in Charles ll reign, and whose mother, Jane Bewick, had for her
grandfather an Edmund Craster who had owned Craster in the days of Elizabeth.
So she was 3rd cousin once removed to John. What was also much to
the point, she owned large and profitable estates in the South of
Northumberland. These comprised 1,056 in Long Benton, 296 in Willington and 89
acres in Jesmond. John’s genealogical researches gave prospect of yielding a
substantial dividend. He asserted his claim to be Dame Dorothy’s next-of-kin
and heir at law, while the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Carlisle and Sir
William Blackett all asserted that there were no heirs at all and claimed various
portions of the estates as escheats. More than one suit was started in the
Court of Exchequer, and legal proceedings dragged on for three years,
threatening to involve the litigants in considerable expense. John Craster
thought it wise to come to terms with Sir Robert Bewicke and make common cause
with him against the other parties. They agreed to act in concert and to share
expenses and benefits. Events justified the Craster-Bewicke partnership.
Judgement was given in their favour and they entered into possession of the
coveted estates as tenants in common”
Until
1838 the joint ownership continued but then Thomas Wood Craster began to sell
off farms and by 1849 he had realised his share of the surface rights in the
Windsor estates while retaining the coal royalties. The Bewickes continued to
own the Kirkheaton Estate until 1924.
In the
years that followed, Kirkheaton Farm changed hands a number of times and
tenants came and went in the cottages. In 1781 there was another court case
disputing the title of the Crasters and Bewickes to the Windsor estates by
Stote Manby, who claimed nearer kinship to the Stotes. Stote Manby was a
descendant of Sir Richard Stote’s brother Cuthbert. He obtained a verdict in
his favour, but he compounded his claim by accepting £300 a year for life from
the Bewicks and Crasters. In 1855-7 there was yet another court case brought by
a grandson of Stote Manby but it was unsuccessful.
During the Napoleonic wars, a letter was written
to William Loraine of Kirke Harle, which resulted in his writing, on September
18th 1803 to Mr Robson of High Heaton (was this Kirkheaton or
Capheaton?) the following letter: He
needed to know the number of Carts that would be required for the Removal of
the Infirm and Children in the Parish and the number of carts that would be
left for the other uses of Government. He instructed Mr Robson – “You will have
the Number Station marked upon the Carts appropriated for the Conveyance of
the Infirm etc and send me the Name of the Owner of the carts and the name of
the drivers. You will appoint if possible a Blacksmith and a Carpenter with
their Tools to each Twelve Carts and let me know their names and also appoint a
few steady Farmers who are unfit from age to be called into actual Service and
who will engage to mount themselves and provide some Arms for the Defence of
the Carts from Domestic Plunderers. Sir John is of the opinion that the marking
of the Cattle and Sheep should by no means be neglected with all possible
dispatch. Every person should put their own private mark and also a publick
one. The publick one in your Parish should be on the Shoulder of the sheep
behind the Neck the figure 9 and on the Cattle the same figure on the left
buttock near the top of the Back” (I
have included this letter, even though I am not sure that it was to Kirkheaton
because I find it of interest!)
The Rev.
Humphrey Brown took up residence in the Manor House in 1770. He was Chaplain
and also curate of Throckrington. A series of Vicars of Throckrington continued
to live in the Manor House until 1900, when repairs were needed and the current
owner, one of many Calverly Bewickes, was not prepared to do them.( For more on
the Manor and on the Church , see the chapters on them.)
The population in the 19th century was quite
high – 1801-147, 1811-152, 1821-140, 1851-153, 1881-133, 1891-133, 1931-134 – but
in 1951 it was only 70. The reason for the drop was the closure of the Brandy Well
mine in 1927 (?) The start of a decline in people working on the land no doubt accounts for the decrease to 51 in the 1991 census. By 2000 it had dropped
even further to 46. At the time of writing (2019) there are 56, with
one house empty and 2 more to be built in the near future. Also there are a number of young children, so the future looks good.
There are 5 farms or houses that are mentioned in registers but no longer exist. Black Hill, above the sourse of the River Blythe, is still there but now a ruin. Fairshaw was a farm between the Ingoe road and Mount Huly Farm. The trees surrounding it are still there. A researcher into Thomas Bewick's ancestry found that another Thomas Bewick lived in Cross Stone House, Kirkheaton, while Pilfield Hall and Redwell Hall are mentioned in Registers.
