Tarset, Lanehead And Greenhaugh : In The 19th And 20th Centuries

Armstrong's map of 1769 provides a comprehensive view of the dispersed settlement pattern in Tarsetdale in the later 17th century, whilst Fryer supplies another snapshot 50 years later. Tarset Hall, 'Heads' or Loanhead' and 'Green heughs'/'Green Haugh' are indistinguishable from any of the neighbouring settlements in the manner of their depiction on these two maps and there is nothing to suggest they were anything other than farmsteads at this date. The development of the three settlements principally concerned can be traced in detail only from the mid 19th century when accurate map evidence becomes available

Thereafter their development can be traced in detail through estate plans, tithe maps and awards and successive editions of the Ordnance Survey. The overall pattern, however, changed relatively little. The three settlements are significantly different in form. Greenheugh displays the form of a recognisably nucleated settlement - a small village or at any rate a hamlet - laid out on either side of a single street.

By contrast, Tarset and Lanehead can be characterised as a cluster of dispersed settlements of somewhat greater density than the surrounding pattern of dispersed settlement. The cluster includes the farmstead, Tarset Hall, to the south west, the railway station to the south east, Lanehead to the northeast, centred around a crossroads where the roads from Bellingham, Falstone, Tarset and Greenhaugh all meet, and another farmstead cluster at Redmire to the west.

At Greenhaugh, the Holly Bush Inn already figures on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey (c. 1860) and a smithy is also shown. The village also had a post office by the early 20th century (cf. Roberts & West 1998, 23). However, the construction of Greenhaugh Hall on the south side of Lancy's Cleugh, to the south of the village, between 1860 and 1897 probably had the major impact on the village economy with many of the settlement's inhabitants finding employment there, and at a similarly large residence at Sidwood (Roberts & West 1998, 23). Greenhaugh Hall was built by the Spencers who owned Spencer's Iron Works on the River Tyne at Newburn.

The enclosure of the commons in much of upper North Tynedale at the beginning of the 19th century resulted in the creation of a number of more direct roads which improved communications in the district. Even more significant was the coming of the Border Counties Railway in the 1850s, which sliced off the south-west corner of the castle platform at Tarset, but also, rather more constructively, resulted in the opening of a station there, a short distance to the south east. The station is already evident on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey. This served as a railhead for the farmsteads of Tarsetdale for the next 100 years.

Other important facilities established during the 19th century include the parish church, dedicated to St Aidan. This was, built in 1818 by the Greenwich Hospital Commissioners at a cost of £4000, ostensibly to serve Thorneyburn, but actually located much closer to Greenhaugh, 'in a sequestered nook' at Drapercroft, on the west side of the Tarset Burn (NCH XV (1940), 269-70). The construction of the church followed the break up of the massive parish of Simonburn into seven separate parishes in 1811.

However, as Archdeacon Singleton prophesied in 1832 (op. cit., 269), the division of this stetch of North Tynedale between Falstone and Bellingham into two parishes, Thorneyburn on the north bank and Greystead on the south, was never a success as there was insufficient income to support the rector and the parishes eventually combined in 1922 to form Thorneyburn with Greystead Parish. Thereafter the rector resided at Thorneyburn rectory situated on the south side of the church, and like the latter, originally built in 1818.

A Methodist chapel was opened on the south side of the crossroads at Lanehead in 1903 (cf. Charlton 1987, 128). However an earlier Methodist chapel is already shown on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey (1897), located just to the south of Craghead School. The school itself, situated midway between Greenhaugh and Lanehead, figures on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey. The present school at the north end of Greenhaugh was built in the 20th century. A village hall was built at Lanehead in the early 20th century with wooden plank walls on a brick base and a corrugated metal roof.

Despite the great changes of the 20th century, including the establishment of Kielder Forest, the same basic settlement distribution pattern continues today. This stretch of the North Tynedale between Falstone and Bellingham (but not including the latter) was incorporated in the Northumberland National Park in 1956 to include the corridor of the Pennine Way and link the landscape of Hadrian's Wall to the south with that of the Cheviots to the north. This did not prevent the closure of services built up during the 19th century, a seemingly inevitable result of profound economic, social and demographic changes.

Thus the railway station finally closed, along with most of the Border Counties line, in 1958 (the passenger service had ended two years earlier in 1956). St Aidan's church no longer has its own rector and services are carried out by vicars from Bellingham and Falstone, whilst the Methodist chapel at Lanehead, like Thorneyburn rectory, is now a private dwelling. However, the school is still open at present and the Holly Bush remains a welcoming focal point for the community.

The density of population in Tarsetdale and in the main valley between Bellingham and Falstone is greater than in many parts of Northumberland National Park and that has helped to the area to retain some services and a degree of 'critical mass'. This should provide a base for a vibrant community which can continue to develop into the future.