General

Little evidence remains of the vast body of water which used to exist to the north of Prestwick village near Ponteland. Ditches and channels can be seen along the main street which once fed Prestwick Carr, an expansive lake and wetland fed by the river Pont which had defined the landscape from the earliest human habitation of the area until relatively recently.

Thomas Hodgkin, secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, commented in 1890: “Prestwick Carr forty years ago; the favourite haunt of and breeding place of various sorts of wild-fowl … a favourite place of pilgrimage for the naturalists of Northumberland”. What was once a “picturesque, unprofitable waste”, was by then “two square miles of common-place Northumbrian cornland”.

The area had likely always been challenging for travellers as indicated by the discovery of 13 assorted bronze vessels by William Shotton in 1890. Bronze hoards, especially near water, are often speculated to be votive offerings but these vessels are more likely to belong to the kitchen supplies of a Roman camp, perhaps having sunk with a cart into the boggy ground. 

The earliest historic mention was to “Merdesfen” in the twelfth century. One might suspect from the modern-day French that the fen was not viewed fondly at the time but it actually appears to be derived from “Merdo’s Fen” which gradually became “Mason’s Fen”. Interestingly an area of nearby Dinnington was still known as Mason into the twentieth century. The landowners granted rights for extracting peat and turf to Newminster Abbey and St Bartholomew’s Nunnery in Newcastle- Upon- Tyne. Tynemouth Priory were given access in the thirteenth century for pasture of draft oxen and to divert some water by means of a dyke.

Fishing and shooting permissions were managed by the lord of the manor of Mitford from at least the sixteenth century and by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries walking and nature studies had also become another source of income. Expanses of the bog dried out in the summer allowing naturalists to study and providing common land for grazing alongside tenanted plots. Original records of some of these tenancies are available in the archive. These failed to produce the desired income for the land and in 1809 J. Watson proposed draining the carr by means of a straight cut in the river Pont to bypass the area entirely. This may have kickstarted the process of enclosure which would continually stall due to uncertainty about viability.  

The first recorded instance of legal proceedings for trespass, thereby establishing manorial rights, was in 1816. Plans for drainage were revived in 1835 by Thomas Bell and in 1840 and act of the Newcastle and Gateshead Union Stock Water Company allowed water to be diverted south from the river before reaching the carr. The land boundaries were formalised in 1843 and the land was finally enclosed in 1853 under the General Enclosure acts. 

Little evidence of the construction work remains but a grave stone at St Matthews in Dinnington commemorates William Betts of Ragnall, Nottinghamshire, who “died suddenly at Dinnington where he was engaged upon the Car [sic] drainage works”

By 1857 some works were completed and the land was sold at auction with roads and allotments following one year later. It remains unclear whether the land had been sold prematurely to raise extra money for the completion of work but the anticipated profits never materialised. From 1861 onwards the land was exploited for its mineral rights including the Hartley coal seam.

The last attempt to improve the carr came in 1945-6 but the land remains susceptible to flooding and agriculturally poor. While drastically and permanently changed, Prestwick Carr still provides unique natural habitats and plays an important role in alleviating local flood risk. 

The collapse of mining works further along the Hartley coal seam at Brunswick Village in the 1920s led to the creation of a new subsidence pond, today known as Big Waters nature reserve. While nowhere near as large as the carr had been its nice to imagine it fills from some of the same, albeit redirected sources of water.

Three-quarters of a mile north of the village of Duddo, Northumberland stands the remains of a Neolithic/Bronze-Age monument.  A small stone circle over 4,000 years old, ‘The Duddo Stones’, also known by other names including, ‘The Singing Stones’ and ‘The Women’. They are currently under the ownership of English Heritage and are located on private land.

This group of standing stones is well worth a visit. The farmer who owns the land allows people to visit, but you must stay on the rough ground allocated to reach the site. As there is no car park, please be careful to park on the verge. It is also really important to remember to close the field gate before setting out on your way up to the monument where the stones stand like a group of giant rotting teeth, set on a green circle of a low hill, surrounded by the farmer’s crops. The walk can be difficult; the ground is hard and uneven as the farmer has left the access area unploughed

When you eventually stand in front of the five stones you start to study their size and shape and think, “What will I do now, stand beside each one, touch the weathered sandstone, walk around the outside or the inside of the circle first?” 

The wind is prone to sweep up and the atmosphere changes. Most times there are no other people around and when you look across the dramatic scenery you see the impressive Cheviots standing in the distance and know that the Scottish border lies only a few miles away.

The stones are made of local sandstone and vary in size and shape. Weathered into strange shapes by the Northumbrian rain and snow of thousands of years. Run your hand over the deep grooves and wonder, “Have many others done the same?”

Several large bowl shaped hollows are on one of the stones, they could be either man-made or natural. It is strangely quieter when I pressed my ear against one stone, foolishly listening as if it will choose me to tell its secrets to, only to realise that all I am doing is blocking out some of the wind noise.

Wandering around, weaving in and out of the monolith, while all the time knowing that the builders of this circle must have known exactly what they were doing when they chose this spot for this fine spectacle but their reasons are lost to me. Could its purpose have been a Prehistoric burial place of a notable person, a sacred place, or used for rituals? Who knows?

Many historians and archaeologists have researched and excavated the site over the years and some reports claim that there would have been seven standing stones at one time:

Robert Carr found and explored a pit in the centre of the circle in 1890 and found it contained charcoal and bone fragments, which seems to indicate a cremation burial. Antiquarian Canon James Raine, in 1852, suggested there had also been an outer circle. Some say that The Duddo Stones are aligned with the Winter solstice. 

After being up on the knoll with them for a while, I reluctantly left to once more pick my way back to the car. I know that the only one solid fact that I can be certain of, is that these five stones have and will still be standing in Northumberland longer than I ever will.

This is a statue of the famous Willie Carr, Blyth’s strong man, which stands in the Keel
Row shopping centre in Blyth. Willie was born in 1756 at a hamlet near Old Hartley. As a child, he moved to Blyth with his family and quickly followed in his father’s footsteps as a blacksmith. At the age of 17, Willie stood 6 foot 4 inches tall [193 cm] and weighted 18 stone [114kg]. By the age of 30 he was 24 stone [152 kg] and could lift weights of seven or eight hundredweights.

Willie was a quiet man who only ever lost his temper on two occasions. Once when he was struck with a whip at Morpeth races by Lord Haddo, a Scottish nobleman. Willie picked the man up out of his saddle and shook him until he apologised. The second occasion was when two drunken sailors began to fight outside his house, while his wife lay dying. When the sailors refused to go away Willie picked them up by their necks and banged their heads together.

Willie was very popular with gentry and nobility and was a regular visitor to Seaton Delaval Hall, where he entertained Lord Delaval and guests with feats of strength. On one occasion, Big Ben, a famous bare-fisted fighter, was a visitor to the hall and Lord Delaval arranged for Ben and Willie to fight. When the pair shook hands, Willie squeezed so hard the blood oozed from Ben’s finger tips. Ben then refused to go ahead with the fight, saying he would rather be kicked by a horse than take a blow from such a hand.

This is the Blue Stone outside the Delaval Arms public house, which is still in place today. It is thought to be a Saxon boundary marker. In the latter half of the 18th century, strong-man Willie Carr of Hartley and Blyth, could pick it up as a demonstration of his strength.

At the age of 62, Willie was stricken with rheumatism and was frequently confined to his
bed for long periods. On the occasions that he was seen out and about it is reported that
he was bent almost double.

The blue plaque below commemorates Willie Carr and can be found on the side of St Cuthbert’s Church Hall in Blyth. Willie died aged 69 on September 6, 1825 and is buried in the graveyard of St Cuthbert’s Church, Blyth, in the Carr family grave.