46

Richard CarltonIan Roberts

Archaeology and Oral History in Northumberland

ABSTRACT

This paper is largely based on interviews collected or overseen in Northumberland by the authors since 2003. It summarizes the way in which oral history has been used by British historians and describes an evolving approach to researching the interaction between landscape and community. Focusing on stock management, the authors discuss how insight into activities carried out beyond living memory can be gained using descriptions and interpretations of landscape features provided by current farmers and shepherds. A case study exemplifies how the combining of oral testimony, historical map research, and archaeological fieldwork has made possible the verification of an historic drover’s route in Northumberland. It is concluded that archaeology can be used to identify the surviving physical correlates of activities recorded in oral accounts, while oral history can enhance the dynamic inter-pretation of archaeological finds, interpretations that might otherwise only be assumed.

Introduction

The oral tradition, in the form of tales or accounts of events transmitted from generation to generation, has always played an important role in passing on information about the past of a social group. As literacy became more wide-spread, such oral accounts were written down and emerged as the historical records of communities. Many of the English enclosure records of the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, contain transcribed oral depositions regarding grazing and other customary rights that were of legislative significance in carrying out the enclosure of what was previously communally farmed land. Simi-larly, most of the records of the proceedings of select committees of Parliament in the 19th cen-tury consist of notebooks containing handwritten, verbatim records of the questions from members of the committees and the responses made by the witnesses testifying before them. Such evidence was not only vital to the conduct of business at

the time, but has also proved to be of immense value to later historians.

Traditional historical scholarship has used such records without making any real distinction between the written transcripts of oral testimonies and other written and printed historical material. Indeed, in the case of parliamentary records, personal diaries, and individuals’ written tran-scripts (such as those of Sir Symonds D’Ewes in the 17th century) are essential for acquiring an understanding of parliamentary business prior to the introduction of formal recordkeeping in the 18th century. Even more prosaic accounts, such as the depositions made by farmers and laborers during the perambulations of enclosure commis-sioners, were given significant status in historical surveys of land reallocation in the 18th and 19th centuries.

During the late 19th and 20th centuries advances in technology began to make it possible to record sound, including speech, in ways that permitted replaying. Widely accepted in the music industry, there was also some use of recording to capture the words of the great and the good, although this was seen more as a novelty or tribute rather than an exercise in capturing historical evidence. As time passed, the technology improved. It became possible to record more easily and for longer periods, as well as reproduce voices more distinctly, and, perhaps most importantly of all, equipment became more portable so that it could be brought to the interviewee. The major initia-tives carried out in America, such as the mass recording at Columbia University of prominent politicians, government officials, and military leaders in the wake of the Second World War, created large and important repositories of oral historical evidence that could not only be tran-scribed, but also listened to over and over again, so that the nuances of the interview, as well as the actual words, could be analyzed and debated. The Columbia University Oral History Research Office, founded in 1948, claims to be “the oldest and largest organized oral history program in the world,” and was followed by the formation of the Oral History Association in 1966.

Historical Archaeology, 2013, 48(1):46–59.Permission to reprint required.

47RICHARD CARLTON and IAN ROBERTS—Archaeology and Oral History in Northumberland

Britain was in many ways slower to develop oral-history techniques—partly due to reserva-tions associated with carrying out constructed and prepared interviews––but pioneering work was undertaken in Scotland by the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh (from 1951), and in England by George Ewart Evans (1956). At first seen as local or folk his-tory (Dopson 1957), Ewart Evans’s work and that of the other pioneers began to be recognized as contributing a new type of historical evidence to the record. It covered previously under-researched topics and focused on groups in society, par-ticularly from the working classes, whose voices and recollections formerly had been significantly overlooked. More recently, Ewart Evans’s work has been used in connection with contemporary debates about nature conservation. Mark Riley has demonstrated that farmers’ oral recollections about methods of haymaking and the impact of silage have provided valuable correctives to the views of environmental theorists when they advocate a return to traditional farming methods in order to help preserve the British countryside (Riley 2004:45–53).

Gradually, as academic researchers, particu-larly in the fields of sociology and psychiatry, began to use more and more oral evidence, ways of analyzing and testing this new type of evidence began to be adopted by historians, who paid considerable critical attention to the meth-ods involved in the collection of evidence and the potential pitfalls of interpretation (Samuel 1972; Ewart Evans 1972; Thompson 1972).

The Oral History Society was formed in 1973 and within six years had over 600 members, while distinguished contributions from historians, such as Elizabeth Roberts (1995), ensured that oral history gained a substantial and more aca-demically secure place among the community of British historians. In later years this secure place was confirmed by the fact that by the 1990s there were over 1,000 members of the society, and they had developed an annual two-day con-ference. In 2011 further recognition took place when oral historians were granted a permanent seminar among the research seminars held at the Institute of Historical Research in London. At the same time, important research institutions, such as the British Library and the Imperial War Museum, have assembled large and eclectic collections of oral-history recordings.

In addition to this increasing academic respect-ability, oral historians have pointed out that society has other advantages to be gained from this type of historical scholarship. This argument is outlined most succinctly in Paul Thompson’s The Voice of the Past (2000), which argues that, beside the purely academic acquisition of a new form of historical evidence, there are many social, historical, and educational advantages to be gained from carrying out oral-history projects in communities. In particular, oral history is a communicative and social activity that leads to communication and social interaction, and can be practiced by a wide range of people from many different backgrounds and of different ages; thus, even the illiterate can make their contribution to the social record. At the same time, recording of recollections and memories can assist the elderly to feel less isolated, help memory retention, and keep dementia at bay. It also leads to respect for the elderly and a per-ceived value of their presence in the community.

Archaeology and Oral History

Examples of current work in many aspects of oral history have been collected by Rob Perks and Alistair Thomson (2006) in the Oral History Reader. However, although Perks and Thomson collected diverse examples of oral history for their book, they omitted any consideration of the role that oral history might play in the field of archaeology. From the oral historian’s point of view, Ken Howarth (1999) has given some attention to the links with archaeology in his volume in the “History Handbooks” series. Howarth noted that there were a number of instances where archaeologists used oral-history techniques while investigating the backgrounds of areas of interest, where future research might be carried out. Formal interviews were rarely if ever made, but inquiries would sometimes be made of local people regarding a site, their knowledge of its use in the recent past, and the existence of stories or folk memories about the place. Often, though, archaeologists were content to make some exploration of the site, having located it through aerial photography and archival study, before talking to local people or landowners. Beresford’s work at Wharram Percy offers a fine example of this approach (Beres-ford and Hurst 1990).

48 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 48(1)

Howarth (1999) drew attention, however, to the work of Arthur Raistrick––see also Raist-rick (1979)––who only a few years later found that, by interviewing former or retired industrial workers, he was able to bring to light valuable information. For the investigation of industrial sites, rather than relying entirely upon writ-ten accounts and the investigation of material remains through archaeological and survey techniques, Raistrick, building on the work of Pannell (1974), interviewed retired and former employees about the jobs they had done and the skills that they had developed, particularly in the context of the lead-mining industry. His interviews enabled him to describe more clearly and accurately the processes that were carried out at lead-mining sites, thus leading to a greater and more subtle understanding of these industrial activities. A great deal of work has also been carried out on coalmining in the north of England—including several interviews conducted by the present authors during com-pilation of the “Northumberland National Park Village Atlas Series,” which records the pro-cesses involved and highlights differences with lead mining in terms of its social context.

A current example of research on the lead industry that attempts to take the work of Raist-rick and Panell a stage further is the Dukesfield Project in south Northumberland, where archaeo-logical techniques are being used to substantiate and enhance knowledge gained from documen-tary sources, contemporary written testimony, modern oral history, and historical maps. Estate accounts provide a good economic background to the lead-smelting works that operated on the Devil’s Water at Dukesfield from the mid-17th century to around 1840, while some operational and social details are provided by the diary of Thomas Dixon (Linsley 2006), a lead miner from the Dukesfield lead mill near Slaley in south Northumberland, who maintained a brief daily record during the period he worked there, between 1830 and 1835. Stafford Linsley, the industrial archaeologist who provides insightful commentary alongside his transcription of the diary, notes a number of ways in which the diary advances the knowledge of the techniques, organization, and economics of lead smelting, as well as pointing out its limitations in terms of what could usefully have been recorded by the diarist, but was not. However, although

the diary contains only brief and sometimes tantalizing references to the smelting process, it does allude to otherwise-unattested processes that have material correlates and should be detectable archaeologically. The process of inte-grating personal testimony with other research tools in a multifaceted approach to research at Dukesfield was taken a stage further in October 2012, when the first phase of an archaeological excavation took place on the site in order to investigate the knowledge already gained and questions presented by documentary analysis and personal testimony (Carlton [2014]). Modern oral testimonies, meanwhile, continue to provide additional information or corroboration of exist-ing knowledge on local routeways, previously visible remains, and find spots of materials relating to lead production on the site.

Industrial archaeologists are not alone in exploring the use of oral history. As noted by Moshenska:

Historical archaeologists and others studying the post-medieval world are increasingly turning their attention to the recent or contemporary past, applying traditional archaeological techniques to a range of sites includ-ing protest camps, slums and the remains of two World Wars. In many of these cases oral history as a discipline undoubtedly has a great deal to offer, in supplying both background research and complementary data. Archaeologists are becoming increasingly aware of this valuable source of material in a range of areas, including surveys of standing buildings and historic landscape characterisation (Moshenska 2007:91–97).

Having outlined a number of investigations, Moshenska went on to describe his own experi-ment in site-based archaeology, as carried out in a large community-based archaeology project on a Blitz site in East London.

As shown below, the use that has been made of oral history in several recent proj-ects in Northumberland mirrors this type of approach. The authors have been involved in several projects, which together have produced a significant archive of over 150 oral-history recordings, many produced by members of the local community trained under the auspices of these projects. Some ventures, such as the Nor-thumberland National Park Village Atlas Project, have been general in their approach, using oral history to build or enhance a picture of all facets of rural life. Others have been specifi-cally targeted to elicit information on specific

49RICHARD CARLTON and IAN ROBERTS—Archaeology and Oral History in Northumberland

themes, such as cattle trading and school life in particular locations. The result is an archive containing recordings on diverse themes that together produce a picture of rural lifeways in Northumberland, focusing on the 50 years in the middle of the 20th century. This archive has subsequently been used to inform and contrib-ute directly to a number of written publications (Carlton and Rushworth 2004, 2012; Roberts and West 2004; Roberts et al. 2010).

Through this approach the authors have gained a much greater knowledge of the interaction between landscape and community, including work and recreational activities centered on farming, as well as the use of buildings and artifacts, than would have been the case had members of the community not been involved. As well as information on particular themes, such as methods of farming and schooling, insights have been gained into the cultural backgrounds and attitudes of the communities concerned. The extract below from an interview with a retired farmer from North Tynedale, which concerned his treatment for pleurisy by a local doctor during the 1930s, clearly exempli-fies this type of cultural insight (Robson 2004):

Well, I had pleurisy when I was 17, and then I was under the doctor for a whole year when I had pleu-risy. It was funny really, I hadn’t been feeling very well, and then me mother says, “Go to the doctor now, Willie, the day.” ‘Cause I wasn’t a doctor man at all, but she says to me, “Go to the doctor man when you’re down there in Bellingham.” And I sort of looked and then I said I would, but I was that knackered I think I was glad to go. And I went along to the doctor and I put the lambs into the pen and I thought, dash they’ll be a good bit before they are through, I had better go to the doctor now. So I went away along to him. “And now Willie, what’s wrong?” Well, I said, “I don’t feel very grand.” And he took me temperature and it was 106. And he was an army doctor, and he said, “You have a bloody good right.” And he said, “What are you doing? Have you got lambs at the mart?” And I said, “You’re right, I have got lambs at the mart.” And he said, “Well you can’t stay,” and he was rough, you know, and he said, “You can’t stay there—to hell with the b–– lambs. I am going to Kielder, you be at Dobbins’ corner in a quarter of an hour.” So I got away from him and got up to the mart. And the first feller I met going up to the mart was my neighbor from Oakenshaw Burn, and I said to him—you would just have thought he had been sent there—I said to him what had happened and he said, “Well, what’s wrong then, Willie?” I says, “I divent know what’s wrong, it’s just me temperature.” So he said, “Right, I’ll look after your lambs.” So

he [the doctor] whipped me home and put us into bed, and he tended us for one solid year. All he had then—me mother had to paint me chest with iodine and give us a dose of castor oil. And it was all just rest and fresh air. He put us out into a wooden hut, because there was a patch that wasn’t just shifting, and he sent us to a specialist at Newcastle. And that was a big job and all getting to Newcastle! Never mind, I got these X-rays, and they came back and he came back and he says, the specialist says, “You should go to a sanatorium.” And Dr. Kirk says, “You’re going to no sanatorium. You haven’t got TB but,” he says, “you’ll have the b–– when you come back,” he says, “You get a wooden hut.” And I slept in the wooden hut for years—that’s what saved me life and, as I say, people would never believe it, but I never had a doctor after that for 43 years!

In addition to providing information unavail-able from any other sources, such as insights into working methods, attitudes, thought pro-cesses, and social networks, using oral history as a part of broader studies, such as the “Nor-thumberland National Park Village Atlas Series” (<http://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/understanding/historyarchaeology/historicvillageat-las>), which include the analysis of documentary records, historical maps, aerial photographs, and published work, provides a means to verify information derived from other sources, as well as suggesting additional lines of inquiry to be examined using those sources. In this way oral history complements other avenues of archaeo-logical and historical research, and allows pre-sentation of a much more complete picture of the society and economy of a community for a given place and time.

To give one example, direct questioning of farmers, such as Thomas Snaith and Jim Bullock, about earthworks and other structural remains at Home Farm, Biddlestone, and South Farm, Gunnerton, respectively, revealed whether certain features had been in use within their lifetimes and, if so, their purpose and method of construction. In some cases, where such field monuments had not been created or modified during the lifetime of the farmer, suggestions were offered about their likely function based on the farmer’s knowledge of local environ-mental conditions and their impact on farming practice. Suggestions made in this way are valu-able as hypotheses to be tested by other means, potentially including archaeological fieldwork. At a more intimate level, as well as dealing with earthworks and other kinds of built remains,

50 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 48(1)

many farmers are also able to elucidate the function and role of obsolete artifacts, whether those in their own possession or seen in local collections or through photographs. Jim Bullock of Gunnerton, in particular, was able to provide detailed information on milking and turnip slic-ing when questioned while the artifacts related to those activities were actually in his hands, and he was in the places they were formerly used (Figure 1).

A process similar to the above was followed during research on droving, initially carried out as part of an initiative promoted by Northum-berland National Park Authority to research the history of stock droving and the impact of tra-ditional grazing practices on the flora of upland Northumberland (Carlton et al. 2005), but sub-sequently extended to other parts of the county (Roberts et al. 2010). Particularly important informants in this study were Thomas Snaith of Biddlestone and Walter Brown, a shepherd of 50-years standing at the isolated farm of Langleeford, in the center of the Cheviot ranges southwest of Wooler. During several walks with the authors, Walter pointed out numerous earth-works, settlement remains, and trackways, many of which he believed to be associated with droveways. These he was able to disassociate from the practices of 20th-century shepherding, with which he is expertly familiar (Figure 2).

Brown explained that droving routes from farms, such as Langleeford and Broadstruther in the Cheviots, connected to a principal route south via Three Stone Burn to the main Mor-peth–Coldstream route. These particular drove roads had been used by travelers and packhorses for many years and continued to be used for moving livestock until well into the 20th cen-tury (Brown 2009). Amongst the features indi-cated by Brown, most of which would certainly have been missed by the authors, was a ford constructed as a drinking pool on the Langlee-ford to Broadstruther trackway (Figure 3), while in the valley bottom are the ruins of a house with attached enclosures considered by Brown as too large to serve the needs of shepherding but, it is suggested, may have served as lairage (overnight rest station) for drovers.

Study of photographs produced by Brown’s mother promoted discussion about personalities and practices they recorded, highlighting the importance of various stimuli—artifacts and

structural remains, as well as images—in recall-ing and analyzing past practices. It was particu-larly interesting that the presence of Brown’s mother allowed him to identify personalities from a generation earlier than he could recall directly, which in turn allowed interpretation of activities being carried out, such as in a photograph of a Cheviot shepherd’s gathering that he was able to interpret as an annual meet to divide grazing territories (Figures 4 and 5).

The case of Walter Brown exemplifies how local knowledge provides the authors with information on previously unknown landscape features, gives precise dates for certain build-ings and features constructed or used in living memory, as well as a terminus ante quem for other features in the landscape. For those monu-ments and features, local knowledge suggests possible functions that can be tested against other available data, such as historical maps, as well as by archaeological fieldwork. However, it should be stressed that, in order to gain the kind of information that can be used to shed light on built remains in the landscape, it is often necessary to ask specific questions or lead discussion in a particular direction. The impor-tant Sheep Tales Project (<http://www.sheeptales.org.uk>), carried out in 2011–2012 in north Northumberland, has resulted in an extensive archive, including over 40 recorded interviews (deposited at the Berwick-upon-Tweed Record Office) related to shepherding, including sheep husbandry, showing and judging, and domes-tic life and music, but sheds relatively little light on local droving routes or other potential physical traces of shepherding activities in the landscape, simply because the latter lay outside the main focus the project.

A clear lesson to be derived from this kind of work in Northumberland is that the members of the established local community, and more particularly certain long-term residents within it, are indeed the experts on certain subjects within the geographical locality they have lived and worked in. The size of the area with which they are familiar, and the kind of knowledge they absorb, depends on the nature of the work in which they have been involved—shepherds tend to have a more extensive knowledge of wider areas, while dairymen may be more restricted in that regard—as well as on individual levels of interest and powers of observation. The

51RICHARD CARLTON and IAN ROBERTS—Archaeology and Oral History in Northumberland

FIGURE 1. Jim Bullock of Gunnerton demonstrating the use of a turnip slicer and baskets used in association with it. (Photo by Richard Carlton, 2008.)

FIGURE 2. Walter Brown at Langleeford in 2010, speculating on the possible uses of a ruinous farmbuilding. (Photo by Richard Carlton, 2010.)

52 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 48(1)

FIGURE 3. A ford constructed as a drinking pool, identified by Walter Brown on the Langleeford to Broadstruther trackway. (Photo by Richard Carlton, 2009.

FIGURE 4. Walter Brown and his mother, Violet, with interviewer Ian Roberts at Wooler in 2010. (Photo by Richard Carlton, 2010.)

53RICHARD CARLTON and IAN ROBERTS—Archaeology and Oral History in Northumberland

authors’ work with Walter Brown of Langleeford exemplifies a particular focus on cattle droving in upland Northumberland, using oral history to map routes, enhance earlier records, and develop an understanding of the sort of earthwork and other built features associated with this activity––see Roberts et al. (2010). However, in order to access this information from knowledgeable individuals, targeted questioning on particular themes is often required, sometimes aided by photographs, artifacts, or in situ structures, which assist with recall. This approach is further investigated below.

A Multifaceted Approach to Researching the History and Surviving Remains of Droving and Drove Routes in Northumberland

Traditional approaches to investigating the his-tory of droving in Britain make extensive use of documentary records to chart the changing eco-nomics and broad routes of droving over time, sometimes attempting to plot droving routes

using contemporary maps. A more nuanced approach, which invokes, in addition to the above, contemporary written accounts (includ-ing oral transcriptions), modern oral accounts of shepherds and stockmen, and archaeological observation is described here. The modern oral accounts help to distinguish between phases of activity in the landscape and identify fea-tures related to droving, as well as enabling a more nuanced understanding of the multitude of factors involved in moving stock, some of which may have archaeologically recognizable correlates.

Although long-distance droving ended around the middle of the 19th century with the devel-opment of a railway network, which also led to the replacement of traditional fairs by auction marts close to railway station; short-distance droving continued in order to deliver cattle and other farm stock to mart. In the interwar period, all such journeys were usually conducted by farm employees and only occasionally by spe-cialist drovers. Most of these men were locally employed and drove stock over short distances

FIGURE 5. A gathering of Cheviot shepherds for the seasonal exchange of stray lambs, probably photographed by the artist, Constance Mangone, near Langleeford ca. 1930. Walter Brown’s maternal grandfather, wearing a trilby, is in the center of group. (Photo courtesy of Mrs. Violet Brown.)

54 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 48(1)

compared to their 18th- and 19th-century pre-decessors. One such man was Bill “Kayfer” Wilson, a well-known character in the Rothbury area. He lived in a blacksmith’s hut at Cove Quarry and drove stock between the local marts and the farms of Tosson, Scrainwood, and Old Bewick (Tindall 2005).

Mr. Tommy Simpson provided an example of short-distance droving that occurred in the 1880s and 1890s in the area to the northwest of Newcastle (Simpson 2006), when his father, also called Thomas Simpson, left school and went to work for a farmer and cattle dealer based at Bolam West House. It was part of Thomas’s duties, on a Sunday afternoon, to take a pony and dog and to ride ‘round a number of clients in the area around Middleton, Cambo, and Belsay. He collected a mixed drove of cattle and sheep that had been purchased from these farmers by his employer, and drove them via Ponteland to part of the Newcastle Town Moor near Cowgate. The latter was the location of an important fair (McCord and Thompson 1998:292) where there were enclosures in which the stock could be confined. Tom left the stock that he had brought to Cowgate in these enclo-sures, and they were collected on the following day by staff from the Newcastle Market for sale on the next market day.

The last account also highlights another feature of oral-history interviews conducted amongst the farming community of north Northumberland (and almost certainly a more widespread phenomenon), which is that many interviewees recite the recollections of gen-erations past (for example, Thomas Snaith of Biddlestone describes information gained from his late mother), often in order to emphasize the longevity of a certain tradition, or to point out certain changes over time. For example, David McCracken of Burdonside, Tarset, recol-lects being told that farmers from Akeld stopped at Threestoneburn and then Scrainwood when driving their sheep to Rothbury mart in the early part of the 20th century. Whilst this kind of indirect oral testimony must be treated with caution, it can be of great value in deriving information from an earlier period (Figure 6).

Written testimonies, including personal dia-ries, also potentially referring to periods out of the range of modern oral accounts, are also an invaluable source for the periods they cover, albeit with certain limitations. A good

example—albeit not primarily concerned with stock movement or droving––is provided by the diary of Thomas Dixon (Linsley 2006), a lead miner from the Dukesfield lead mill near Slaley in south Northumberland, discussed above. A modern written testimony shedding light on mid-20th-century local droving prac-tices is provided by George Strachan in his personal memoir of his career as an auctioneer in the 1950s (Strachan 2002:40). A particularly useful written account of droving derived from oral testimony—and which forms the basis for the remainder of the present discussion––is an article, entitled “The Old Cattle Market at Mor-peth” (Northumberland County Records Office [1860]), that provides one of the few detailed descriptions of an 18th-century droving route. The article consists of the reported recollec-tions of a former drover, George Robson, who, at the time the article was written, was about 80 years of age and had taken an active part in the droving trade between southern Scotland and Morpeth mart in the later 18th century. The author describes the way in which the cattle from Scotland came to the market:

The cattle and sheep supplied to Morpeth market came principally from the counties of Roxburgh, Berwick and North Northumberland, with a few at certain sea-sons from Cumberland and East Lothian. Of course, the stock were all driven by road, being lifted from Roxburgh and Berwick on the Fridays, crossing the Tweed at Kelso or Coldstream, and generally stopping at some place near there on the first night. The next night’s stopping place was at Bendor, a small inn north of Wooler and 33 miles from Morpeth, with fields attached for the accommodation of stock. ...

The next stopping places for the Wooler and Bendor route were Glanton, Powburn or Whittingham. By that time it was Sunday night. ... On the Monday morning large quantities of sheep and cattle might be seen laid off for an hour’s rest among the heather at the old inn and farmhouse on Rimside Moor, well kept by Mr and Mrs Wardle, while the drovers were supplied with a good breakfast. Then the road was taken again from Longframlington and that night’s resting stations were Weldon Bridge and Longhorsley. Next morning (Tuesday), the seven miles to Morpeth were easily performed, where the stock generally arrived between 10 and 12. They were then put into fields and fed and rested until next morning (Wednesday)––Market Day (Northumberland County Records Office [1860]).

The above extract indicates that relatively short distances were traveled each day and that the adequate resting of stock was a major

55RICHARD CARLTON and IAN ROBERTS—Archaeology and Oral History in Northumberland

consideration, as the condition and weight of stock would decline if stressed by the process of droving. The nature of overnight resting places, therefore, was determined by experience and tradition, with the comfort and condition of the stock in mind.

Today, much of the route taken by George Robson in the 18th century is occupied by the A697, a modern road based on older tracks and turnpikes that now serves as an alterna-tive to the A1 for travel between Scotland and England via the east coast. It was formerly an important, perhaps even the preeminent, droving route around the east side of the Cheviots from lowland Scotland (Figure 7). Investigation of the route revealed by Robson’s account––a more detailed treatment of which is given in Roberts et al. (2010:62–63,113–120)––reveals a number of structures and features that may survive from

that period, but which otherwise might not be associated with droving, including possible ford-ing points on the Tweed at Coldstream, and the position of some large enclosures, visible on early maps at Cornhill, that may have provided lairage for stock on such occasions.

South of Wooler Haugh Head, for example, the road passes through a landscape of country houses, 19th-century estate farms, and improved workers’ cottages, but which also includes older features perhaps related to droving, including a pond, Dunny’s Well, marked on 19th-century maps and still surviving on both sides of the road near Lilburn. It is not until after Powburn—where, between the bridge and turn to Glanton, a public house and old smithy may be an echo of the droving trade—that the most interesting section of road survives, however. From this point the drovers probably

FIGURE 6. Three Cheviot shepherds, probably photographed at Alwinton Fair in the 1880s: (left to right) Robbie Dunn, Wat Crozier, and Edward Anderson (Walter Brown’s maternal great-grandfather). Oral history can not directly access the memories of these individuals, but photographs such as this can trigger recollections of them, or stories told about them, through which the nature of their work and their place in society might be elucidated. (Photo courtesy of Mrs. Violet Brown.)

56 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 48(1)

FIGURE 7. Detail from Armstrong’s A Map of the County of Northumberland, 1769, showing the Halfway House to Powburn part of the Morpeth to Coldstream route.

57RICHARD CARLTON and IAN ROBERTS—Archaeology and Oral History in Northumberland

did not follow the line of the current A697, established as a turnpike in the 1750s, but went via Glanton and Whittingham, leaving the latter at the southeast end of the village (Figure 8). A known drover’s inn at Whittingham is the “Hole in the Wall”—named after the method of serving drovers whilst keeping them outside the premises—but inns at Glanton and Powburn probably served the same clientele. After Whittingham the road passed through Whittingham Lane Farm––where a natural spring supplies old stone drinking troughs and a smithy appears on the mid-19th-century, first-edition, Ordnance Survey plan––then ran along current farm tracks to meet the present road, part of the 1752 Longframlington to Powburn turnpike, running alongside Thrunton Woods.

This section of road takes a straight course via Rough Castle, a farm associated with some large stock enclosures on early maps, past some Iron Age or Romano-British earthwork enclosures that may have been reused as stock enclosures in the modern droving period.

Interestingly, David Dippie Dixon (1979:306) also refers to this section of road and to its inherent dangers, exemplified by the case of two local drovers returning in bad weather from Morpeth via the Rough Castle beer house, after which one took a wrong turn and died of exposure. Upon reaching the modern A697 at the junction with the Rothbury road, formerly site of the Swinburne Arms public house, the drove road probably followed the 1750s turnpike over Rimside Moor, through a copse of beech trees, within which are the remains of a remarkable complex of structures, including the roadway, culverts, enclosures, and a multiperiod house, which historical map evidence shows was formerly known as Halfway House, latterly Moorhouse, and mentioned by George Robson as a resting point on the way to Morpeth (Figure 9). The road then passed over moorland to Longframlington and beyond to overnight stations at Weldon Bridge and Longhorsley, from where the last stretch into Morpeth could be easily tackled.

FIGURE 8. Earthwork remains of holloways on a former droving route south of Whittingham. (Photo by Richard Carlton, 2007.)

58 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 48(1)

As described above, a combination of his-torical map research and fieldwork has made possible the verification of a route known from an oral-testimony report, and provides evidence for features upon it that can certainly or probably be associated with droving. The reported account of Robson and later written account of Dixon, meanwhile, personalize the route and explain some of the processes and events that took place upon it. Oral history in this way brings a social or “living” dimension to archaeological research that can otherwise only be assumed. Alternatively, from a different perspective, this case exemplifies the way in which archaeology can be used to verify that certain visible features on the route are indeed related to the droving period. Either way, the use of oral testimony as an integral part of multifaceted research projects has been shown to deliver enhanced results if it is used critically and objectively.

FIGURE 9. Building remains within the former Halfway House inn and lairage complex on Rimside Moor, north of Morpeth. (Photo by Richard Carlton, 2007.)

References

beresford, maurice, and John hursT1990 Wharram Percy Deserted Medieval Village. Yale

University Press, New Haven, CT.

brown, waLTer 2009 Interview by Ian Roberts, November. Audio tape,

Northumberland County Archives, Woodhorn, UK.

carLTon, richard J.[2014] Archaeological Evaluation at the Dukesfield Lead

Smelt Mill Site, Slaley, Northumberland. Archaeology in Northumberland 21.

carLTon, richard J., and aLan rushworTh2004 An Archaeological and Historical Study of Border

Townships in Northumberland. Northumberland Nat ional Park Author i ty, Hexham, UK. Northumberland National Park <http://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk>. Accessed 1 January 2013.

2012 A History of Barrasford and Gunnerton in Chollerton Parish. Chollerton Press, Chollerton, UK.

59RICHARD CARLTON and IAN ROBERTS—Archaeology and Oral History in Northumberland

carLTon, richard J., aLan rushworTh, and ian roberTs

2005 Droving in Northumberland National Park: An Historical and Archaeological Background. The Archaeological Practice Ltd., for Northumberland National Park Authority, Newcastle, UK.

dixon, david diPPie1979 Whittingham Vale, Northumberland: Its History,

Traditions, and Folk Lore. Reprint of 1895 edition, Frank Graham, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK.

doPson, Laurence1957 Old People as Sources of History. Amateur Historian

3(4):150–152.

ewarT evans, george.1956 Ask the Fellows who Cut the Hay. Faber, London, UK. 1972 Approaches to Interviewing. Oral History 1(4):56–71.

howarTh, KenneTh 1999 Oral History. Sutton, Stroud, UK.

LinsLey, sTafford m.2006 The Life and Times of Thomas Dixon 1805–1871. Wagtail Press, Steel, UK.

mccord, norman, and richard ThomPson1998 The Northern Counties from AD 1000. Longman,

London, UK.

moshensKa, gabrieL2007 Oral History in Historical Archaeology: Excavating

Sites of Memory. Oral History 35(1):91–97.

norThumberLand counTy records office[1860] The Old Cattle Market at Morpeth. Manuscript, SANT/

BEQ/28/1/12, Northumberland County Records Office, Woodhorn, UK.

PanneLL, John P. m.1974 The Techniques of Industrial Archaeology. David &

Charles, Newton Abbot, UK.

PerKs, roberT, and aLisTair Thomson2006 The Oral History Reader, 2nd ed. Routledge, London,

UK.

raisTricK, arThur1979 Interview by Kenneth Howarth. Audio tape, Interview

1979/0031, North West Sound Archives, Clitheroe, UK.

riLey, marK2004 Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay: Farm Practices,

Oral History and Nature Conservation. Oral History 32(2):45–53.

roberTs, eLizabeTh1995 A Woman’s Place: An Oral History of Working Class

Women, 1890–1940, new ed. Wiley-Blackwell, London, UK.

roberTs, ian d., and moira m. wesT2004 Bellingham, North Tyne and Redesdale. History Press,

Stroud, UK.

roberTs, ian d., richard J. carLTon, and aLan rushworTh

2010 The Drove Roads of Northumberland. History Press, Stroud, UK.

robson, wiLLie2004 Interview by Ian Roberts, February. Audio tape,

Northumberland County Archives, Woodhorn, UK.

samueL, raPhaeL1972 The Perils of the Transcript. Oral History 1(2):19–22.

simPson, Thomas2006 Interview by Ian Roberts, 20 March. Audio tape,

Northumberland County Archives, Woodhorn, UK.

sTrachan, george m.2002 Is That Your Last Bid? The Autobiography of a

Livestock Auctioneer. George M. Strachan, Morpeth, UK.

ThomPson, PauL1972 Problems of Method in Oral History. Oral History

1(4):1–47.2000 The Voice of the Past, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press,

Oxford, UK.

TindaLL, roberT2005 Interview by Ian Roberts, August. Transcript, Ian

Roberts, Heritage Centre, Bellingham, UK.

richard carLTonschooL of hisTory, cLassics and archaeoLogynewcasTLe universiTyarmsTrong buiLding newcasTLe uPon Tyne, ne1 7ruuniTed Kingdom

ian roberTsdeParTmenT of hisTory universiTy of durhamdurham, dh1 3exuniTed Kingdom