Ingram : Neolithic (c. 5000 BC – c. 2000 BC)

At Wether Hill (NU 013144), Neolithic pottery was recovered from a pit during excavations in 1997, though no associated structures were found. Just outside of the study area, a polished stone axe of distinctive Neolithic type was found in a garden at Brandon farm cottages, to the east of Ingram (NSMR 3098, NU 042172). Such axes were extensively traded throughout Britain and Europe during the Neolithic, and the Langdale area of the Cumbrian Mountains seems to have been a centre for axe production.

Some examples were manufactured from local materials such as andesite, and there may have been a smaller axe factory in the cheviots (Waddington 1999). The functional role of these axes is often emphasised, for example, as tools for forest clearance (e.g. Higham 1986, 52) but they were also prized objects of value and beauty. It is possible that they were used as gifts between individuals, religious offerings or even as currency.

As with the preceding Mesolithic, the scarcity of Neolithic sites in this area probably reflects the lack of detailed research rather than genuine absence of occupation. The Breamish valley, like the Till valley to the north, was probably at least semi-permanently settled by the end of the Neolithic (Waddington 1999).