General

A good weather Sunday had us eager to get out of our town and explore. As we were still a little wary of going very far, we chose Mitford as our destination. A place so near yet we forget that some of our local villages can hold treasures that we still have to discover.

We took an indirect route to the village of Mitford, near Morpeth, Northumberland walking through the sun filtered woods and along the river, stopping at a few accessible places to throw smooth pebbles in to the water, trying to get them to ‘skip’ but failing as the dog wanted to splash about chasing after them. This is a great walk for dogs with lots for them to sniff at and explore.

The route eventually took us under a low bridge beneath the A1 and then it was a short climb up some wooden steps to reach the fields on the other side. The well worn path was easy to find, once more, leading us over a couple stiles and a small foot bridge. Finally we arrived at the rugged farmland area surrounding the Grade 1 listed historic monument. Mitford Castle is currently on the English heritage ‘At Risk’ Register’. Some works towards repairs and restoration have already been done. Its remains stand open to the elements, watching majestically over Mitford village. 

The first impression we got of the existing ruins of the stone castle was that it must at one time have been a large and imposing building. Today it was standing there slowly crumbling away on a rocky ridge. The first thing that our dog (now back on the lead) noticed was ‘there are some lovely sheep smells here for me!’ This is a great site for nature and wildlife. Bees, insects and butterflies were in abundance. We found a safe place to sit amongst the decaying structure to have our little picnic. Sitting and reflecting in the tranquil atmosphere, taking our place in its layers of history. 

Between walking around, exploring and taking photographs we tried to visualise where the doors, windows, towers etc. might have been. What went on here? Who were the important players in the unsettled years of Mitford Castle?

The Castle is said to date as far back as before 1072 when it would have only have been an earthwork fortress. Held by the De Mitford family, it was passed on through marriage into the ancient Bertram family. Earliest records of 1138 state that it was William Bertram’s ‘oppidum’.  By 1215, the residing Bertrams strengthened it and it became a finished stone castle only to be seized by Scottish troops. Through time this castle experienced some desolate times as it became the target of continual Scottish raids and invasions. During the rebellion in Northumberland in the 1310s, poor Mitford Castle witnessed more unrest.  In 1316 it was even used for kidnappings and as a prisoner hold.

After roaming around the grounds we then crossed the field at the base of the castle, keeping a watchful eye on where we put our feet so as not to step on nettles or wild flowers. But more importantly we tried not to disturb the local herd of sheep which acted indifferently to us anyway.  We then made our way out of the castle grounds to check out the picturesque Saint Mary Magdalene Church. What turbulent scenes this parish church must have experienced over time being situated opposite to Mitford Castle!

In 1934, Bedlington Urban District Council began to lay out a site for a new council housing estate at area known as Millfeld to the south of the town, on land above Attlee Country Park.

During the start of the works council workers were levelling a ridge and revealed five sunken cist burials. The cists were constructed with sandstone side slabs and cover stones. One contained the remains of a female burial and an earthenware pot. The skeleton was complete and its position indicated that it had been buried in a crouching position. It was also in a good state of preservation. Another was a burial with a ‘beaker’. There was what was described as a large chamber with a side opening, containing only a few human bone fragments and a flint knife. Next to this chamber was a small cist which contained the remains of a cremation and an earthenware pot later described as a ‘vase’. The final cist contained a burial only.

There was no controlled excavation done at that time and the cists and contents were apparently damaged by on lookers.  

The bones were taken away for forensic examination by the South Northumberland Coroner and then given to the vicar, Reverend J. B. Purvis to be buried in the grounds of Saint Cuthbert’s Parish Church, Bedlington.

The beaker was once housed at the Museum of Antiquities which was an archaeological museum at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne; its collections were merged into the Hancock Museum which is now what is known as, The Great North Museum.

 A photograph in the Newcastle City Library Local Studies Collection shows one of the burials in situ, while another in the collection shows an enclosure with a round barrow found near the Millfield area, Bedlington and dated 1920.

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.