Kirknewton : Village Layout

Our understanding of the layout of the medieval settlement is a little better in the case of Kirknewton, due to the benefit of earlier map evidence covering that township, namely the 'Plan of the Lands of Kirk Newton belonging to Mr Thomas James, 1763' (BRO.0001). There are obviously problems in using a mid 18th century map to elucidate details of settlement three or four hundred years previously, particularly when the settlement details are depicted rather schematically as in this case.

However, when used in conjunction with other source material, in particular the detailed evidence provided by the medieval charters preserved in the cartulary of Kirham Priory and the Laing Charters, it can yield interesting results and at least allows us to strip away some of the more recent accretions.

The 1763 estate map clearly shows that the present dogleg in Wooler to Yetholm road already featured at that date, although the road carried on through the village rather diverting round it as today. The street pattern created by the road is essentially that of today running from east to west then making a right-angled turn north along the east side of the churchyard to reach the junction with the road to Lanton.

The main road then continued west towards Westnewton running north of the churchyard as today. However the six cottages depicted all lie to the west or south of the first bend, i.e. south of the churchyard in the area now occupied by Kirknewton House and apparently even further west still, beyond the western edge of the churchyard and the current extent of settlement (contra Dixon 1985 II, 378).

This corresponds with what is shown in simplified form on Armstrong's map, which marks buildings on either side of the southern bend of the dogleg. With a lane continuing westward under the area occupied by Kirknewton House. The 1763 map suggests there were more houses along this lane than Armstrong's depiction implies.

In addition, two buildings or structures which do not appear to represent dwellings (they lack chimneys) are depicted, plus two larger buildings and the church. The smaller structures, one of them located at the east end of the village, in the corner of a group of enclosed fields or meadows, the other on the south side, again in the corner of a small paddock or enclosure, may represent barns, stables, byres or some other type of agricultural building.

The two much larger houses are shown to east and south east of the churchyard. One is clearly the vicarage. It is located at the southern edge of the parcel of land designated 'glebe' and occupies the same location as the vicarage marked on the tithe map of 1843 (NRO DT 279), the 1st edition Ordnance Survey and later maps. The other building is shown enclosed by the bend in the road to the south east of the churchyard, and evidently represents West Kirknewton Farm in the centre of the village.

The appearance of this farm complex on the tithe map is particularly intriguing. It is set within a roughly square, walled enclosure, separated from all the other buildings in the settlement by the main road through the village, which surrounds the enclosure on two sides, and by the lanes leading to the vicarage, which frame it on the other two sides. This quadrangular enclosure represents the best candidate for the site of the ruined tower and manor house with its turreted circuit wall observed by Warburton in 1715 (see Kirknewton Tower and Manor House). Armstrong's map of 1769 marks 'ruins' in this same general area to the north east of the village, although the limitations of the scale and manner of depiction used there mean it does not provide firm corroboration of this suggested identification.

Conclusions

This is a mid 18th layout, as emphasised above and the depiction has a somewhat schematic character. Nevertheless it has important implications for our understanding of the medieval layout of Kirknewton. The number of cottages shown may well represent a denuded version of the medieval settlement pattern with the number of tenancies having already been reduced by consolidation following the widespread pattern of the later 17th - 18th Centuries.

The medieval village was probably orientated east west along the main street and laid out in two main rows. The church was situated to the north and the manor house to the north east.. Additional cottages may have lain to the south of the main row but the details here are too schematic to indicate whether there was once a further row here or simply a looser agglomeration.