WoodsideTownship

WOODSIDE-WARD, a township, in the parish of Elsdon, union of Rothbury, S. division of Coquetdale ward, N. division of Northumberland, 1½ mile (N.) from Elsdon; containing 124 inhabitants. It lies on both sides of the Keenship burn, and contains by measurement 6,467 acres, of which about 215 are arable, 41 woodland, and the remainder pasture. Much of the scenery is romantic, and the outline of the hills is very fine. A little north of High Carricks, coal was worked in 1810, in pits about ten fathoms deep, but much interrupted by dykes; limestone, also, crosses the road from High Carricks to Headshope, on the south side of which place it breaks out in grassy knolls. There are still a few peel houses remaining, and until recently other antiquities existed, including a cairn, removed before 1810 from the High Carricks ground.

Extract from: A Topographical Dictionary of England comprising the several counties, cities, boroughs, corporate and market towns, parishes, and townships..... 7th Edition, by Samuel Lewis, London, 1848.

See also: Woodside township in Whellan's 1855 directory of Northumberland.

The 1860 Northumberland Farms Index (Northumberland Archives) lists the following under Woodside Ward in the ancient parish of Elsdon: Billsmoor, Billsmoorfoot, High Carrick, Coxons Field, Crag, Duunns, Girslees, Grasslees, Grasslees Mill, Headshope, Hely Dod, Hepplewoodside, Herdlaw, Highshaw, Iron House, Kiln House, Laingshill, Loaning, Midgy Hall, Ovenstone, Penchford, Raw, Rimpside, Wainfordrigg.

Woodside became a civil parish in 1866, followng the Poor Law Amendment Act. Woodside Civil Parish was abolished on 1st April 1955, after which it became part of Hepple Civil Parish.