Kidland - Historical Account

Roughly speaking, the lordships of Kidland consists of about 17,000 acres. The heights of Cairn Hill (2,545), Score Head (1,750), Butt Roads (1,718), Cocklaw (1,700), and Windy Gyle (1,965) form its northern boundary; as the ridges of Wether Cairn (1,834), Sting Head (1.500), Cushat Law (2,020), Bloodybush Edge (2,001), and Lint-lands (1,665) form its eastern limits; while its western confines extend from Black Braes (1,654) along the crest of Hindside Knowe (1,501), as far as Rowhopeburnmouth, at Slyme-foot, thence down the Coquet to Barraburn. Its southern boundary, commencing at Wether Cairn, runs west by Allerhope burn and Kidlandlee dean; leaving the latter, it takes a northerly direction, keeping the tops of the hills on the left bank of Usway burn, until it reaches the summit of Yearnspath Law (1,775). North of Fairhaugh it crosses the Usway, mounts Middle Hill (1,296), and, striking Barra burn, follows its course by the foot of Kyloe Shin (1,418) down to the river Coquet.

For upwards of three hundred and fifty years (1181 to 1536) the monks of Newminster held the lordship of Kidland. During the greater part of that period its pastures were let to the border men on the English side of the Cheviots, but at one time the brethren, finding tenants scarce, and rents small, were induced to farm it themselves ; therefore, stocking it with their own sheep and cattle, they sent their servants - probably lay brethren - to tend and guard the flocks against the raiding Scots and men of Redesdale. Notwithstanding these precautionary- measures, the wild border thieves "lifted" the cattle of the monks in such numbers, besides murdering their herdsmen, that they were fain to give it up, and once more let the Kidland grazing grounds to the hardy borderers of Upper Coquet who, living near the spot, were not only better able to hold their own, but when occasion served were not at all averse to replenish their stocks by reprisal raids upon their neighbours' herds, for - "Near to Border frontier in time of war. There ne'er a man Init he's a freebooter."

Along the banks of the Kidland streams are found numerous foundations of buildings and enclosures, most of them rectangular, some of them roughly rounded, which have frequently been taken for British dwellings. These are, no doubt, the remains of the summer huts or "shealings" of the .shepherd monks of Xewminstcr. Traces of a much earlier occupation are, however, foinul .scattered over some of the hillsides. On the western slopes of Dryhope Hill, overlooking the Yoke burn, occur a number of small mounds containing the burials of a pre-historic race, and on the same hill are a series of earthworks and hut-circles. Further down the valley of the Alwin are circular camps - on Clennell hill, Gallowlaw, and Lord's Seat, close in to Alwinton ; but up the main valley of the Coquet, above Alwinton, the remains of those ancient dwellings are extremely scant. The late Dr. Hardy, who carefully explored the Coquet and its tributary streams far up amongst the hills, found very few traces of a pre-historic population, as the following extract from his report will shew : -"I have," says Dr. Hardy, " been alone or in company with Mr. James Thomson (Shawdon) over the greater part of Kidland, or the remote and desolate moorlands about the head of the Coquet, and all along the peaty, swampy, and broken ground from the Hanging Stone to Chew Green, and southward to the line of the Western Watling Street at the Outer Golden Pot and the head of Cottonshope, and across behind Thirlmoor and Philip and Blindburn, and questioned the shepherds wherever they were met, without eliciting much information on the subject of this enquiry.

There are two classes of hut-dwellings in the sheltered ravines of this undulating congeries of hills, or in the nooks of their many winding streamlets, not readily separable - the elder aborigines, the more modern of the shielings of the Borderers, who summered their cattle and sheep upon the mountain pastures. These are less numerous in the upper grains than in commodious positions lower down the courses of the streams. The remains of camps are scarce. Except the great sepulchral cairns crowning some of the hill-tops, as on Hogden, the Border ridge near the Windy Gyle, the three cairns of Thirlmoor, and a great green mound at the outcome of a feeder of the Coquet below Blindburn, and another on a hillock near that place, and situated to the west of it, the native tombs are rarely discernible. The suggestion so frequently repeated that Barrow (Barra) burn in Kidland, and the tributary of the same name that enters the Coquet above Alwinton derive their name from the numerous "barrows on their banks, is a mere etymological imagination. Barrow is not a North of England term as applied to sepulchral hillocks. In one of the early Charters of Newminster Abbey, the land adjacent to the Kidland streamlet is written "Alribarnes." Perhaps there were "barns" attached to the ancient mill here, whether it was a waulk4 or corn mill. Decayed alder trees are still washed up by floods near the exit of the Kidland Barrow (Barra) burn. I examined its course to the extreme uplands with a special outlook for barrows, and saw none. Of old the stream was called Hepden burn.

Without the following amusing description of an olden type of Coquetdale sheep farmer, our account of Upper Coquetdale would scarcely be complete : —
" Illustrations of the character of ' Sir Burn,' of Kidland, Coquetdale. From Robert White's manuscripts : —Nearly one hundred years ago, James Burn, an extensive stock farmer, lived at Kidland Lee, in Coquetdale. It was customary with him indiscriminately to call both man and woman Sir ; hence among his neighbours he was usually named Sir Burn. He was kind-hearted, liberal to the poor, and fond to an extreme of hearing news. When none save his own family were likely to be present with him during the long winter evenings, he ordered one of his servant girls to go up to an eminence near the house, which commanded an extensive view, and endeavour to descry some poor people, for the purpose of giving them an invitation to lodge at Kidland Lee, and tell him all they heard of country affairs. In the winter season during a storm, instead of riding about and seeing his flocks duly attended, he was in the habit of lying in bed. Here he received the various shepherds as they entered the house—listened to every particular about their respective charges —gave them the necessary orders —and then laying hold of a large bottle of whisky, which he always kept within his reach, he bestowed it liberally upon them, telling them ' it wad keep oot the cauld,' and admonishing them to pay strict attention to the various hirsels under their care.

" In his preambulations over the country, and amongst his own people, he was, in the latter part of his life, accustomed to ride a white pony, and had a cur dog accompanying him, more remarkable for his noise than any other quality. When he had occasion to pass a flock of sheep, and ran some danger of scaring them by reason of the continued barking of the animal, instead of commanding it to be silent, he resorted to the more effectual method of pelting it with small stones, a full supply of which, to meet contingencies, he regularly stowed away in his pockets, before mounting on horseback.