The Origins of Greenhaugh

Greenhaugh is first mentioned in the Comyn Inquisition Post Mortem of 1326 as a shieling. By 15th century it may well be a permanent settlement. It is included in a list of placenames in an Inquisition Post Mortem of Henry Percy, third Earl of Northumberland, in 1464, along with Sidwood, Gatehouse and Dunstead, though it is not clear which of these were settlements and which were shieling grounds (cf. Harbottle & Newman 1973, 142; Hartshorne 1858, 260; see Selected Sources and Surveys 2).

It was certainly a permanent settlement - perhaps a small hamlet - by the 16th century (Harbottle & Newman 1973, 143). The place name Gatehouse - or Yethouse as it was often appears in documentary sources - suggests there was a road, or 'gate', probably already of some antiquity, running up Tarsetdale by this date.