Yetholmshire and Maelminshire

The abandonment of Ad Gefrin might be connected with the grant by King Oswine to St Cuthbert of a large tract of land beside the River Bowmont, including 12 named vills, in c. AD 651, which is recorded by the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, or ‘History of St Cuthbert’, a work probably compiled in the mid tenth century (HSC, par. 3 (Roll Series edn. i, 197); Craster 1954, 180; Barrow 1973, 32-5; Hart 1975, doc. 139; Morris 1977, 91; Higham 1986, 288-9). Craster followed by Barrow and Morris suggested that this was one of the twelve estates which King Oswiu is said by Bede to have granted to the church in 655 (HE III, xxiv). Hart was more sceptical regarding the precise historical context, but agreed that the account was probably based some early record of the endowment of Melrose, the daughter house of Lindisfarne.

The most readily identifiable of the 12 vills - Yetholm, Clifton, Shotton, Halterburn and Mindrum - all lie along the west flank of the Cheviots, but Barrow (1973, 34, n.133) has suggested that Colwela may represent ‘Colewell’, a place in Westnewton recorded in 1328 (NCH XI (1922), 152); and that Waquirtun might be associated with ‘Wakerich’ which is encountered in 1631 in one of the Laing Charters (Laing Charters, no. 2090, 499) and evidently lay somewhere in Kirknewton parish. Wakeridge Cairn, which marks the boundary between Kirknewton, Yeavering and Akeld townships on the eastern slope of Newton Tors (NT 92702767), figures on maps from the 1st edition Ordnance Survey onwards. Similarly, one could further speculate that Thornburnum might represent Thornington, the hamlet just north of Kilham. Although the very tentative nature of these identifications must be acknowledged, if correct they would extend the limits of the land grant right along the Bowmont Water to its confluence with the College Burn. Hethpool itself was perhaps excluded from the grant.

After the imposition of Norman lordship in the area in the early 12th century, Hethpool and the Cheviot Forest were incorporated in the barony of Wooler, along with neighbouring vills like Akeld, Yeavering and Coupland (cf. Lomas 1996, 22-5), none which can be identified within the earlier ecclesiastical land grant recorded in the History of St Cuthbert. In contrast, all those places on the English side of the border which can be identified, even tentatively, as part of the grant, were ‘members’ of the barony of Wark, including Kilham, Kirknewton and Westnewton as well as the more certain candidates Mindrum and Shotton (cf. Dixon 1985, I plans 3 & 5; O’Brien 2002, 66; Barrow 1973, 34-5). It is possible therefore that the dividing line between these two baronial territories in this part of the Cheviots preserved the boundary of the 7th century (?) land grant.

The alienation of so much adjacent territory to St Cuthbert’s monasteries, either Melrose, or perhaps the mother house, Lindisfarne, would have meant that a royal estate centre at Ad Gefrin was no longer so well-situated and may have prompted a shift further north to Maelmin, which was better placed to control the remaining royal estates in the Milfield basin and the eastern Cheviot fringe. O’Brien has discussed in detail the evidence for these two multiple estates, which he labels ‘Yetholmshire’ and ‘Gefrinshire’ (2002, 53-6, 61-6). For the reasons outlined above ‘Maelminshire’ would seem to be a better title than Gefrinshire for the territorial unit analysed by O’Brien, since that territory would appear to represent the residual area left after Yetholmshire had been carved out of the original royal estate (which could perhaps be properly labelled Gefrinshire) and alienated to St Cuthbert’s community at Lindisfarne or to one of the latter’s daughter houses. More generally, this serves to emphasise that the history of these multiple estates was perhaps more fluid and linked to the context of specific events than has hitherto been acknowledged.