Alwinton : Romano-British Period and After

Towards the end of the first millennium BC, pollen evidence suggests that all remaining upland forest had been cleared, and small-enclosed settlements or “homesteads” were established in increasing numbers on slopes and high moorland.

Some of these new settlements seem to have been established within the ramparts of earlier hillforts, or overlying the defences, which in some cases were seen to have been abandoned for some time (Welfare, 2002:75). The re-use of earlier sites in this way is well illustrated by the Romano-British settlement at Gallow Law, where six stone built huts were built up onto the lower north-facing slopes of the Iron Age hillfort (NT 920071).

This part of Northumberland lay beyond the Roman frontier for much of the period of occupation, and the influence of Roman culture is likely to have been slight and very indirect (Higham 1986, 224-6). Small-enclosed homesteads such as these are likely to have continued in use for several centuries.

Though evidence for the early medieval period is scant, in many parts of Northumberland isolated upland settlements may have been gradually replaced by the lower-lying hamlets and villages in existence today, perhaps from the 8th or 9th centuries onwards.

Continuity of occupation in the landscape around Alwinton is reflected by the re-use of the prehistoric cross ridge dyke at Uplaw Knowe during the medieval period. Unusually, the Iron Age defended settlement at Barrow Hill (NT 914059) seems to have been reoccupied in the medieval period.