Byrness : From Shieling Ground To Permanent Settlement

There is no indication that there was any permanent settlement at Byrness before the later 17th century at the earliest, and perhaps not until the 18th century. The place does not figure on Saxton's map of 1576 nor Speed's of 1610, nor is it listed as a settlement in the most comprehensive documentary summaries of settlement in Redesdale during the 16th and early 17th centuries, the 1552 Watch schedule, the 1568 Feodary list, the 1604 Border Survey, or the 1618 rental.

The limit of permanent habitation at the beginning of the 17th century, as documented by the 1604 Border Survey and the 1618 rental, was represented by the settlements of Bellshield, Birdhopecrag, Sills and Rochester on the north side of the river and Burdhope, Woollaw and Evistones on the south side.

Byrness is first mentioned in the 1618 rental where it is listed, together with Spithope, as a tract of summer pasture (but it does not figure in 1604 survey). The chapel is depicted with a cross symbol on Warburton's map of Northumberland in 1716, whilst on Kitchin's map of 1750 it is represented by the symbol for a 'chapel in ruins', but no actual settlement is shown.

Byrness does however figure (as Berryness) on Horsley and Cay's map of the county in 1753, where a symbol apparently denoting a gentleman's residence is used, but presumably only to denote Byrness Farm.

A site termed 'the Peel of the highland summer lands' is mentioned in a deed associated with the sale of 'all those sommerings called Catcleugh' and 'the highlands called Spithope'' by Sir Charles Howard to Henry Widdrington of Black Heddon in 1658 (Hodgson 1827, 153). The precise location of this 'peel' is unknown, but the bastle like footings of the original Byrness farmhouse are potentially intriguing in this regard.

In 1719 Byrness was amongst the properties in upper Redesdale which C.F. Howard sold to Lord Cranstoun, the others being the Bents, Breadless Straw (Breadless Row, or just Row; now Raw), Foulshiels, Blakehope (perhaps Black Blakehope/Bleakhope or Blakehopeburnhaugh rather than the Blakehope opposite Elishaw further down the valley), Deadwood, Akenside and Saughenside (Hodgson 1827, 81-2, 151).

Some of these, such as Akenside, Saughenside (the hillside east of Cottonshopeburn Foot, cf. Greenwood 1828) and Deadwood on the south side of the river just above Birdhope, were probably simply tracts of rough pasture, but Breadless Row, Foulshiels and Blakehope, as well as Byrness, all figure as settlements on Horsley and Cay's map of 1753 and subsequently on Armstrong's map (where Breadless Row is simply Row and Foulshiels may be represented by Ruken). These may therefore already have been permanent farmsteads by 1719.

The Militia List of 1762 contains the names of 24 adult males eligible for service in the upper part of the valley (labelled the 'Upper Part of Rochester Ward Constablery'), including three at Byrness itself. As might be expected, the great majority (15) of these were shepherds and most of the remainder either farmers (5) or servants (3) in the household of the principal farmer, James Selby of Catcleugh. Two of the residents of Byrness were shepherds whilst other was listed as a labourer.