Kirknewton And Westnewton : Palaeolithic And Mesolithic (500,000 BC – 5000 BC)

There are no recorded sites on the Northumberland Sites and Monuments Record (NSMR) for the Upper Palaeolithic or Mesolithic periods within the Kirknewton and Westnewton study areas. Research in the vicinity of Milfield village to the north did not produce diagnostic Late Upper Palaeolithic finds, and it seems likely that this area was not densely settled until the Late Mesolithic (Waddington 1999, 180-1). However, Mesolithic finds are known from the gravel terraces at Yeavering (Approx. NT 936304), though the exact location is unknown and the artefacts cannot now be traced (ibid. 1999, 97), so it is clear that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were active very close by.

The Cheviot slopes to the south of Westnewton, in common with other upland areas in the Cheviots, would have been wooded at this time and may have been exploited in the Later Mesolithic on a seasonal basis by hunting or foraging parties (ibid. 1999: 104 –6). As the gravel terraces adjacent to the alluvial floodplain of the rivers Till and Glen are thought to have supported year round occupation by the Later Mesolithic, the scarcity of recorded Mesolithic finds in the immediate vicinity of Kirknewton and Westnewton probably reflects the lack of detailed research, rather than genuine absence of occupation.