I am sure there will be much editing to do on this. Comments please 

The Manor House

The Manor House is set back from the west end of the Village Green, end on, so that it faces south. It is surrounded on two sides by a stone wall of considerable height. Both the house and the wall are listed Grade 2*.   The house can be approached on the south side through two handsome stone gate posts which may have been imported at some time in the past. There are signs of very high gates, which would have been out of keeping with the Manor. A gravel path, wide enough for a vehicle leads up to the front door. The other entrance is directly from the main part of the Green along a track leading to the back of the house. In 2019 this is the entrance used by vehicles and people unless it is a special occasion.

   It is known that the oldest part of the house was built in about 1570 by Matthew Heron as a Bastle or fortified house, though there is some evidence that there had been a previous building, possibly a Tower that had been ruined. Some of the boulders at the bottom of the north wall are of great size. Also it seems strange that there should have been a church but no major house.

   The house, being a Bastle, had very thick walls, 6ft thick.  The south wall has been rebuilt at about 3ft. It would have consisted of space for cattle on the ground floor, with a dividing wall. Upstairs there were originally two rooms, the easterly smaller with a fireplace in the outside wall. The larger had a fireplace at each end. Historians consider the fireplace in the centre wall to be of great historical interest. There would not have been proper windows so it would have been very dark. The occupants of the house would have gained access to the living quarters via a ladder which could be pulled up if the Scottish raiders came.

   Stone work on the north east corner at the roof level probably points to there having been a turret. Although not common, there are about three houses in Northumberland that had them. The outer stone work in that corner is unusual to the trained eye and inside there is the remains of a circular stair that is only visible on the first floor. There is no doubt that such a turret would have given a very good view to the North, allowing Border Reivers to be spotted. The roof was made of stone slabs which were held in place with sheep’s bones.

   After the union of England and Scotland, towards the middle of the 17^th century, the house was partially rebuilt, to satisfy comfort rather than defence. It is clear that the south, or front wall was replaced and a front door, as well as 5 windows of Tudor design were inserted. It is possible that it was at that time that the thinner dividing walls were added. The stairs were inserted at the back, out of what would have become the kitchen. It would still have been a simple house, with the kitchen, living room and hall on the ground floor and 3 bedrooms upstairs. The kitchen fireplace was very deep, with the chimney built half outside, as often happened in those days.

   Who lived in the house is not certain, though originally it may well have been occupied by the Herons. Evidence shows that a family named Arthur may have lived there for quite a long time.  In about 1664, the Township of Kirkheaton was bought from Matthew Heron by Sir Richard Stote of Stote’s Hall, Newcastle. In that year, a William Arthur paid hearths tax on three hearths. It is thought that he must have been the tenant of the Manor House. A hearth tax was a property tax during the medieval and early modern period, levied on each hearth, thus by proxy on each family unit. The Kirkheaton Parish Register shows that in 1712, a William Arthur married Sarah Fenwick, joint heiress and owner of West Harle, though both were ‘of Kirkheaton’. This also points to the Arthurs being tenants of the Manor. David Gardner-Medwin, researching the ancestry of Thomas Bewick the famous engraver, found that his Grandfather had been born, son of Agnes Arthur, daughter of a laird of that name, of Kirkheaton and Thomas Bewick of Cross Stone House, Kirkheaton. He and his siblings were baptized in Kirkheaton Church, the sons and daughters ‘of Thomas Bewick of the Town and Parish of Kirkheaton’. It is likely that the Arthurs were still the tenants of the Manor.

   In about 1740, Dame Dorothy Windsor built on the square section at the east end of the house. It is quite a contrast in style. The roof is flat and was covered in lead. The walls are ashlar, (even square blocks,) in contrast to the older house which is built of stones of random size and shape. It is noticeable that the north wall is more roughly built and only has one widow, a small one on the ground floor. To the east there are 2 windows at first floor level and on the south 2 at first floor and 2 at ground floor level. These windows are large. They are sash type with 3 panes across and 6 deep. 

   When the right hand south-facing bedroom window was repaired in 2018 by specialists, it was thought that the woodwork was original as was much of the glass. This was also thought to be true of all the bedroom windows though one downstairs is probably later, due to a conservatory being shown on an old painting with a door instead of a window. Sadly, there is no sign of it now. The wall between the old house and new was about 6ft thick so it cannot have been easy to break through. The original fireplace was divided between the two rooms with a bread oven now hidden in the wall.

   A new period in the life of The Manor started in 1770, when the Rev. Humphrey Brown took up residence. He acted as Chaplain for Kirkheaton, and was curate, or vicar of Throckrington. This was a small village several miles away to the west which he must have accessed usually by horse, though a longer route would have allowed him to use a trap. For more than 100 years, the Manor was known as the Vicarage and was lived in by a succession of Vicars, the last leaving in 1900. Much about this period is to be found in the chapter on the church. The reason for the Rev Bettison leaving the house in 1900 was its condition. The owner of the Estate at the time, one of the Bewick family, would not allow enough for repairs, so the Bettisons decided to live somewhere more satisfactory and moved nearer to Throckrington. It is known that in the late 1800s the flat roof over the ‘drawing room’ was leaking and that the rent was 2/6 a year.

   There are two interesting letters giving an idea of life in 1886 and 1887. They are written by Mrs C. Moore in 1946. She was a maid for the O’Donel family during that time and was replying to a request for information about the house, and its water supply from Mrs Lithgow, the owner in 1946. (The letters are in full in an appendix and the originals are held by the Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn. )

   The poor girl was 16½ and slept in the attic, which must have been bitterly cold. When she was not working she sat in the kitchen, which was the room to the right of the front door. ‘Scullery at the back of the kitchen opened on to a green space with outhouses’. The family had to pass through the kitchen to the ‘breakfast’ room. This was where they spent most of their time. The upstairs large room was used as a drawing room and from there the family could see who was coming and going on the Green, and where they entertained.  “It rained in, in wet weather, and tubs etc had to be rushed up to catch the drips”. There is a lovely account of the Bishop coming to stay one night so that he could go to Throckrington next day for a Confirmation Service, “across the fields”. They came back for a service in Kirkheaton Church and had tea before he returned home.

   To return to the story of the house: during the period when it stood empty, there are at least two accounts of the village and the house.  John Francis Carter, in the Newcastle Chronicle of Sept 3^rd 1910, wrote that “ Creeping plants have quite overgrown the door and some of the windows, while neglect and the forces of nature combined are playing sad havoc with the roof and interior of the building...... Curious little hole and corner rooms fill up the attic space in the roof..... The lower room (at the east end) has been used as a chapel, and the altar dais and tessellated pavement still remain.” This was when the Rev. T. Harris was ‘Gothicising’ the church – rebuilding the Chancel and adding a vestry amongst other things. In the house there are clear signs of a door in the north wall into the passage that was cut through the original east wall. It is possible that this was put in by Rev Harris so that the people did not have to pass through his living quarters.  There is now a small window there.

   When Kirkheaton Estate was sold by the Bewicke family to Mr. Charlton of Bog Hall, the ruined Manor was included. It was bought by Mr. Leonard Macpherson of Capheaton in 1927. All the outer walls were sound but the roof of the older part had fallen in and that of the square area must have been very leaky. Internally, much damage had been done.

   The original older rooms were only about 6ft 6ins high so Mr Macpherson had them all raised to ?.  He did not alter the level of the roof, so the attic space has no wall, the floor being at gutter level. At the same time the window heights were raised making the windows three panes high instead of two. This was very well done, though most of the hood mouldings were cracked. The extra stone in the frame of the windows and door can still be recognised today, as it is lighter than the rest.

   Talking of the chimney in the old east gable, Mr Carter, (in an article in the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne – Proceedings – No 3, 4 ser V. – September Quarter, 1931)stated:

“The chimney on the east gable contained the most interesting feature of the house,

 a secret recess constructed in all likelihood to serve as a priest’s hiding place.

During the restoration which took place at the beginning of 1931, Mr Matthew Robson,

 the builder discovered that this chimney enclosed a large space capable of holding two or three people, about four feet up from the fireplace of the upper east chamber, now called Oliver Cromwell’s room. The platform in the chimney was on the south side, and it had a parapet on its northern edge which projected up the chimney about 2ft 6ins, enclosing what was practically a small mural chamber on one side. The flue sloped upwards to the north and thus prevented anyone looking up the chimney from detecting the existence of the chamber. It was done away with during the alterations to the chimney, but the particulars given by the builder are confirmed by Mr. Macpherson, who saw the old chimney opened out. There is little doubt that this cavity was a hitherto unrecorded example of a priest’s hiding place. “

   The staircase was moved from the back of the kitchen to the back of the small hall, where it is today. A lath and plaster wall was put across the kitchen, making the area of the old staircase into a passage through to the big room beyond. The addition of a kitchen, larder and back door a staircase up and two tiny bedrooms, a bathroom and a lavatory above made a big difference. It was built onto the north side of the dining room. The old scullery a little further along was removed. Chimneys were built into the north end.

   There is no record as to the location of an earth closet outside, that must have been there before, though there is a small stone building a little distance to the west. Until recently it was roofed with stone slabs until it became impossible to waterproof it. There are signs of a boiler for a washer but if there was an EC, all signs are gone and covered with a cement floor.

   When we did alterations to the kitchen in 2000, The ceiling had to be brought down and the builder found, nailed to a beam, an election leaflet for the General Election, 1931, polling day Tuesday, October 27^th. “Vote for DUNNICO and Progress”. Inside is his Labour election spiel. There were also the initials of the builder. The original will be found in the County Archives, a copy was put back in the ceiling with the initials of our builder.

   Having completed the work, Mr. Macpherson decided that he did not wish to live here, so sold it to Mr. Lithgow on 29^th July 1931. Mr. Lithgow worked in Newcastle but Mrs Lithgow spent her time in Kirkheaton, much of it in bed, as she suffered from ‘neuritis in her spine’. She used the upper room in the ‘tower’ from whence she could watch all that went on in the village. When the baker came she insisted that he bring a selection of cakes up for her to choose from, which did not please other villagers who did not like the idea of eating cakes that had been in her bedroom! (Told to me by Nancy Proudlock) There was trouble with a resident of North Side, who wished to graze an animal on the Green. In the past this had been a right for villagers – to graze a cow or horse, but it must have fallen into disuse. (Mrs Lithgow thought that they owned the Lordship of the Manor, but it was by no means certain). The problem went from the District Council to Council’s opinion, but does not seem to have been solved!

   On 30^th April 1953 Mr. Higgins bought the house, but he only lived in it for 6 years. His wife had attended Studley Horticultural and Agricultural College, studying Agriculture. This was several years before I studied Horticulture there but we met at a gathering. It was clear that much of the garden design was down to her.

   The Higgins sold the house on 31^st July 1959 to Mr Maurice Taylor. He had a girl friend and three children. They were an interesting family but as some are still living I cannot tell their story. I can say that the lady of the house had a number of Show ponies, which, having no fields, she grazed on the Green. Apparently one or two of them used to chase cars, just like dogs do! There are still a lot of rosettes on the wall in the wooden stable, which was probably built by them with room for 3 horses/ponies.

   Mr. Robin Gray purchased the house on 28^th November 1962. He added another bathroom, taking space off the bedroom at the west end of the house. He had to add a window and copied the arched windows that had been added at some much earlier date. (There is still some ancient glass in them.)

Mr. Gray was very active both in the village and with the Church.

   He sold to Mr G.R. Barkes on 3^rd July 1974. I moved here in May 1981, marrying him in Hexham, with a Blessing Service in the Church. During our time here we have made several alterations. In 1966 we took a small piece from the bedroom of which the second bathroom is a part and added a lavatory.

   In 1997, the dividing wall was taken out in the sitting room.  The removal of this wall emphasised the bastle house proportions of the old house.  The gap where the passage had been cut through the very wide dividing wall was filled with a display area on the stairs side and a deep cupboard on the sitting room side. The results of this alteration was that, although it became necessary to walk through the sitting room to reach the drawing room, the latter became much more approachable and the former was much better proportioned, in fact, its original proportions.

    At the same time, the brick fire surround in the fireplace was removed, returning it to the state it acquired when the drawing room was added in 1740. There is an irregularity on the south side of the chimney at the old height of the first floor, which must be all that is left of the Priest Hole.

   The other major alteration came in 1998. A Conservatory was added to the West side of the kitchen, the large window being opened up into a doorway.  The old back door, which butted up to the old house, was closed up, a window put in and the passage turned into a cloakroom.  The neighbouring space – the old cloakroom – became the tiny larder.  A porch was added to the door that had led from the outside into the boiler space and a vestibule was created. The walls forming a larder in a corner of the kitchen were removed.  The ceiling had to be taken down as the old one was in poor condition.  This allowed a mass of old wiring to be removed and facilitated the running of new wiring to the kitchen, porch and conservatory.

   That brings the story of this old house up to the time of writing, in 2019. I hope that the House on the Rock will be here for many more years.

History, 3rd attempt

I have not read this for some time because I got a bit stuck and decided to do the Manor House and the Church, which will follow.

There will be more of this but I would appreciate any comments now.

History – third attempt.

   If you were to visit Kirkheaton Northumberland in 2019, you might travel north from Newcastle to the village of Belsay and a mile beyond you would take a left turn onto a minor road which would take you past the walls of the Belsay estate and on, due west, for 5 miles, the last ¾ of a mile being on single track with passing places. Then you would arrive at the large and historic Village Green.

   This is still the size of the original medieval Green and surrounded by the original cottage and farm houses, though they have all been enlarged and some rebuilt over the centuries. The house at the top is new, though there are signs on old maps of a small building in the area. It is near the ancient Manor House. It is unusual to find a cottage in the middle of a medieval green but there is one here and it appears on old maps. There were never trees on Northumbrian greens and those you see today were all planted during the 20^th century. Outside of the circle round the village green, as you would expect, there are more houses but they are not obvious and do not detract from the original. There are remarkably few and it is only recently that the planners have accepted that the community must grow to survive.

   The origin of the settlement of Kirkheaton is unknown, the first known mention in old papers being in 1290. However, the Roman Road known as 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. The Devil’s Causeway is thought to have been older than Hadrian’s Wall. It starts just north of the Wall close by Corbridge, quite some distance south of Kirkheaton and runs north to Berwick. The bell pits were a very early form of mining for coal, so named because of their shape.

   At the time Kirkheaton was first mentioned there were two separate places, Little Heton and Caldstrother. There are outlying farm houses, though they may have been built much later. The site of Caldstrother is unknown but it is often mentioned in connection with Kirkheaton.  It was almost certain to have been to the west of Kirkheaton, as the land to the East is better farm land and no signs are to be found while to the West it is wilder and with modern methods, such as Drones, it may be possible to identify it. When I arrived in 1981 villagers spoke of a lost village to the west.  

   Something of the size of both places can be guessed at from the Subsidy Roll of 1296 when there were 15 people mentioned in Kirkheaton and 6 in Caldestryer (one of the several spellings used in old papers).  Subsidy Rolls are records of taxation in England made between the 12th and 17th centuries. Ownership at that time is vague though it seems that Walter de Bolam and John de Cambhou were involved. In those days, people tended to call themselves after the places where they lived, in this case Bolam and Cambo.

   The chapel, (St. Bartholomew’s Church today), was held by The Prior and Convent of Hexham Priory (Hexham Abbey today). In 1314 the Priory “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, (another local place now Bavington), William Heeson and Robert, son of Hugh de Cambhowe”.

   Gilbert and John de Middleton separately owned land in Chuldstrothre and West Heaton, another old name for Kirkheaton. The Middleton family still owns an estate in and around Belsay and Belsay Hall and Castle belong to English Heritage. In 1317 there was a rebellion against Edward II in which the Middletons were involved, so Gilbert Middleton was known as a Rebel and his lands were confiscated. Edward II 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.

   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.)

   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 nor 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. If the Scots were not coming over the border and thieving, raping and burning, the people of the Northern areas were doing the same on the Scottish side of the border. Some information can be found in the records of some of the big families, such as the Swinburnes and Herons. 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. After the union of England and Scotland things gradually became more settled and the Herons acquired much of the land.

   By 1663 a Matthew Heron owned 6/7^th of the “lands of the Township”, whilst John Atkinson owned the remaining 1/7^th so that when the enclosures came in 1722, 1/7^th of the land to the northwest of the village was allocated to a Jacob Atkinson (probably a son or grandson of John) together with a house on the South side of the village, in which he was living. This remains to this day as Kirkheaton Farm and includes Black Hill, now ruined. Black Hill had a single room on the east end and a byre for the cattle on the west and may have been occupied by a shepherd. There are also signs of outbuildings. It stands on a bluff overlooking a marshy area, where the River Blythe rises and is exposed to all winds.

   The Reiving stopped early in the 17^th Century and life will have changed to be more peaceful.

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 were 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 Crasters’ papers (Craster, Archaeologia  Achana  Vol xxxi, 4^th 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 3^rd 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”

   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.

   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.

   During the Napoleonic wars, a letter was written to William Loraine of Kirke Harle, which resulted in his writing, on September 18^th 1803 to Mr Robson of High Heaton  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 whether it was to Kirkheaton or Capheaton because I find it of historical 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 19^th 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 (?) and the start of a decline in people working on the land, which 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 in 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 source of the River Blythe, is still there but now a ruin. Fairshaw was a farm between the Ingo 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.