Visit Kilham, Northumberland Places

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The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Kilham, Northumberland

  

Kilham, Northumberland Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Kilham, Northumberland

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Kilham, Northumberland history

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Several well preserved Bronze Age settlements exist in the area around Kilham, and a cairn on Kilham Hill, excavated in 1905, was found to conceal a cist containing burnt bones, thought to date from the period. A bronze rapier blade dating from 1500 to 1000 BC, found near the Bowmont Water in the 19th century, and now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, provides further evidence of Bronze Age activity in the parish. Iron Age hillforts are found throughout the Cheviot Hills, and the parish contains examples at Bowmont Hill, Kilham Hill, Pawston Camp, and Wester Hill. Such hillforts were not necessarily defensible, and the small interior area of most suggests they were not permanent settlements. Although some may have served as defended farmsteads, others are likely to have been animal enclosures, market places or places of worship. An enclosure at Barley Hill, in the north of the parish, is considered to have been a small farmstead, consisting of roundhouses and adjacent stockyards. Towards the end of the first millennium BC, all of the remaining upland forest in the area had been cleared, and increasing numbers of settlements or homesteads were established on the high moorland. Some of these appear to have been built within the ramparts of earlier hillforts, which had been abandoned for some time. A well-preserved settlement at Longknowe is thought to be Romano-British, although this part of Northumberland lay beyond the Roman frontier for much of the period of occupation. Small enclosed homesteads such as this are likely to have continued in use for several centuries, and were probably only abandoned as the population moved to lower lying hamlets during the Early Medieval period. In 651 King Oswine granted 12 named vills, or townships, including Shotton, and perhaps Thornington, along with a large tract of land beside the Bowmont Water, to Saint Cuthbert. The villagers would have been required to hand over the major proportion of any surplus produce and labour from these communities to the church. By the 13th century, Kilham formed one of the constituent manors of the barony of Wark on Tweed. The barony had been established by King Henry I, and granted to Walter L’espec, one of his principal agents of government in Northern England. The lord of the manor was Michael of Kilham, although he did not possess the whole township, part being held by Kirkham Priory in North Yorkshire, which had been founded by the barons of Wark. In 1269 it was recorded that the priory had 1,000 sheep feeding on the “great moor” of Kilham. Land at Shotton and Coldsmouth was held by Kelso Abbey in the Scottish Borders. The manorial lordship passed through various hands to the Greys of Chillingham Castle, who eventually consolidated ownership of the whole township, in the 17th century acquiring the former Kirkham Priory holdings, which had earlier been sold by the crown after the dissolution of the Monasteries. A bastle, or fortified farmhouse, was built at the north end of the village in the late 16th or early 17th centuries. Right up to the end of the 16th century, Kilham had suffered repeated Scottish incursions. Every valuation of the village’s lands in the 15th century revealed a state of waste and destruction. In 1541 the lack of any defensive structure was criticised by Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Ralph Ellerker, the Border Commissioners, who strongly urged that a tower be built in the village. They also reported on the tower at Howtel, which had been “rased and casten downe” during an invasion in 1497. Howtel Tower is mentioned again by Sir Henry Hadston, who in 1584 reported to Queen Elizabeth I that it was one of a number of towers needing repair. Sir Robert Carey, Lord Warden of the Marches, in 1597 reported to the Privy Council of England: On the 14th instant, at night, four Scotsmen broke up a poor man’s door at Kilham on this march, taking his cattle. The town followed, rescued the goods, sore hurt three of the Scots, and brought them back prisoners. The fourth Scot raised his country meanwhile, and at daybreak 40 horse and foot attacked Kilham, but being resisted by the town, who behaved themselves very honestly, they were driven off and two more were taken prisoners. Whereon the Scots raised Tyvidale (Teviotdale), being near at hand, and to the number of 160 horse and foot came back by seven in the morning, and not only rescued all the prisoners but slew a man, left seven for dead and hurt very sore a great many others. A map dated 1712 shows two rows of dwellings and toft enclosures in the village. A total of 19 buildings are shown, plus a watermill to the north beside the Bowmont Water, and three buildings to the south west at Longknowe. The village appears to extend slightly further along the lane to Longknowe than the current hamlet. Although not shown on the map, the ruins of an earlier chapel are believed to have existed in Chapel Field, on the hillside to the south east of the village. By the latter part of the 19th century Kilham consisted of a large farm with farmhouse and two rows of cottages for the farm’s workforce. There was, in addition, a smithy and a post office. To the south, Thompson’s Walls was by 1800 an estate with a farm complex laid out around a square courtyard. Hemp and flax were grown, and a small mill is shown on maps from the 1860s onwards. The adoption of new agricultural techniques and improvements to the area’s transport infrastructure resulted in greater prosperity for Kilham’s farming community in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Enclosure of common land was intended to increase efficiency, bring more land under the plough, and reduce the high prices of agricultural production, and Howtel Common was enclosed in 1779. Female bondagers, or outworkers, were employed to work in the fields up to the end of the 19th century. The system was recorded in the Scottish Borders as early as 1656, and subsequently spread into Glendale. Agricultural labourers, known as hinds, were required to provide a female, often a relative or a girl living with the hind’s family, who would be on call as a day labourer whenever required. The bondager’s work was regarded as paying the rent of the hind’s cottage. Thomas Henry Scott, a police constable from Pawston, was murdered in 1880, while attempting to arrest two poachers at Hethpool. He had been bludgeoned and beaten. The Alnwick and Cornhill Railway, owned by the North Eastern Railway, opened in 1887, providing a rail link to Wooler and Cornhill on Tweed. There was no station at Kilham, the nearest being at Mindrum and Kirknewton, but sidings were built to handle goods traffic. Passenger services were withdrawn in 1930, with a goods and parcels service continuing until 1965. Kilham sidings closed in 1953. Farming at Kilham during most of the 20th century concentrated on rearing pedigree Aberdeen Angus cattle. However, mechanisation and the decline in farming incomes resulted in the farm ceasing to function as an independent unit. In 1988 the Kilham estate was divided into three separate farms: Kilham, Longknowe and Thompson’s Walls. Longknowe Farm now specialises in breeding and rearing sheep and suckler cows, while Kilham Farm is leased to a neighbouring farmer at Thornington, and some of the buildings have been converted into workshops.

Kilham, Northumberland culture & places

Robert Story, known as “the Craven Poet”, was born at Wark on Tweed in 1795. His father was an agricultural labourer, and the family moved frequently around the Northumberland villages. When just 10 years old, Story ran away to accompany a lame fiddler on an excursion through the Scottish Borders. He later claimed that this was where he learned “to read badly, to write worse, and to cipher a little farther”

Kilham, Northumberland etymology

Kilham first appears in documents in 1177 as Killum, usually thought to derive from the Old English Cylnum, indicating the presence of kilns. The name was still spelt Killum as late as the 18th century.

Kilham, Northumberland landmarks

Coldsmouth and Thompson’s Walls

Coldsmouth and Thompson’s Walls lies 1.7 miles (2.7 km) south west of Kilham in the Cheviot Hills. St Cuthbert’s Way passes on its route from Melrose to Holy Island. Two Bronze Age burial cairns crown the summit.

Howtel

Howtel is situated 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north east of Kilham, to the north of the Bowmont Water. The name is thought to mean Low Ground with a Wood, and the area has a number of ancient camps and settlements. The remains of a peel tower, which was partly destroyed in 1496, stand in the centre of the hamlet.

Kilham

Kilham House was transformed from a traditional farmhouse into a small country house by a substantial extension built in 1926. Many of the buildings in Kilham date back to the 19th century, and the stone construction is typical of Northumbrian farms in the 1850s.

Pawston

Pawston lies 2.3 miles (3.7 km) west of Kilham on the south bank of Bowmont Water. It was the site of the deserted medieval village of Thornington, first recorded in 1296. Pawston Hill has the remains of an Iron Age settlement.

Kilham, Northumberland geography / climate

Kilham stands on the south bank of the Bowmont Water in Glendale, at the mouth of Kilham Burn. Settlement is limited to dispersed farmsteads and small hamlets, of which Kilham is the largest. The geology of the upland area is composed of Devonian igneous rocks, and the landscape is characterised by smooth rolling hills and extensive plateaux of semi-natural acidic grass moor, known locally as white grass.

You can visit Kilham, Northumberland places with Walkfo Kilham, Northumberland to hear history at Kilham, Northumberland’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Kilham, Northumberland has 7 places to visit in our interactive Kilham, Northumberland map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Kilham, Northumberland, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Kilham, Northumberland places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Kilham, Northumberland & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 7 audio facts unique to Kilham, Northumberland places in an interactive Kilham, Northumberland map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Kilham, Northumberland Places Map
7 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Kilham, Northumberland historic spots	Kilham, Northumberland tourist destinations	Kilham, Northumberland plaques	Kilham, Northumberland geographic features
Walkfo Kilham, Northumberland tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Kilham, Northumberland

  

Best Kilham, Northumberland places to visit

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Kilham, Northumberland has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Kilham, Northumberland’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Kilham, Northumberland’s information audio spots:

Kirknewton, Northumberland Kirknewton is a Northumbrian village in the north of Northumberland. The population as taken at the 2011 Census was less than 100. The village lies in the valley of Glendale, which takes its name from the River Glen.

Visit Kilham, Northumberland plaques