One of the aims of the Northumberland Archives Charitable Trust is to improve and promote access to documents held within Northumberland Archives. Projects have been funded to list collections as well as adding descriptive content to existing collections. This additional information is added to our catalogue making the content available and searchable via the Online Catalogue on the Northumberland Archives website either at home or in the search rooms. The current cataloguing project focuses on a collection of deeds relating to lands owned by members of the Clayton family in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
What do the various deeds reveal about the Roman Wall at the time that members of the Clayton family were purchasing land around it?
The earliest reference (found to date) of the Roman Wall within the ZCY collection refers to an indenture of 1654, mentioned in an 1834 deed relating to the conveyance of land in the Manor of Henshaw, parish of Haltwhistle. Like many of the deeds, the document itself begins by detailing preceding transactions. A lease was entered into on 20 January 1654 between Francis Nevill and William Ridley for a place called “Steale on the North Side of the Wall called the Roman Wall…”, the land was occupied by Eleanor Glendinning, widow. A later lease of 26 November 1698 between Sir Edward Blackett and William Lowes refers to “a parcel of moor land known as Steele alias Steelrig lying on the North side of the Roman or Picts Wall…”. The two leases are detailed in documents ZCY/4/6 and ZCY/4/12; there are variations of spelling between the two documents.
As seen in the leases mentioned above, the Roman Wall is most frequently referred to in terms of boundaries. Plots of land were often described in terms of size (acres, roods and perches), what the boundary was on each side could include the neighbouring landowners, previous owner, sometimes the tenant as well as features of the landscape such as fences or roads. As not all plots of lands had a specific name, it makes sense that the Roman Wall is used for this purpose.
Many of the deeds give a list of geographical features, both physical and non-physical, that are included in or with a plot of land, for example ‘singular houses, outhouses, buildings, barns, stables, orchards, gardens, ways, paths, passages, easements’ etc. Sadly, these ‘catch-all’ descriptions do not refer to the Roman Wall itself.
Some of the deeds include a plan, the image below captures the remains of Vindolanda (note the spelling, Vindolana).
Conveyances which include a plan allows you to compare the changes in the landscape. The plan below relates to an 1867 conveyance of land in Thorngrafton which included Barcombe Colliery, by comparing it to a later Ordnance Survey map the proximity to known Roman remains becomes clearer.
Finally, a conveyance in this collection highlights John Clayton’s interest in nature, with this clause recorded in a deed relating to a grass field near Walwick; reserved to John Clayton and heirs “…three trees standing on the said piece or parcel of ground hereby granted in the Foss or ditch of the Roman Wall with right for the same to stand and grow up without any power to cut down the same it being intended by the said parties hereto that the said trees shall remain standing until they shall naturally decay.” We believe that the grass field in question is approximately 10 miles from Sycamore Gap. (Ref.No. ZCY/6/7).