Akeld : Conclusions and Potential for Further Research
The outstanding significance of the extant late prehistoric and Romano-British monuments in Glendale needs no emphasis. Several recent surveys undertaken by English Heritage as part of the Discovering our Hillfort Heritage Project have revealed just how many elements of the more extensive landscape can be traced around these sites and demonstrated the progress which can be made in phasing the various different components through detailed survey. However major questions of chronology, site hierarchy, settlement transition remain unresolved and when set against the outstanding survival international quality of these historic landscapes it is extraordinary how little has been carried out in recent decades.
The late antique/early medieval period is still especially poorly understood. Significant progress has been made in understanding the overall pattern of estates known as 'shires' or 'multiple estates' and something of their historical development. Some of the major estate centres have been investigated or are known from aerial photography (e.g. Ad Gefrin, Maelmin, Sprouston) and a few lesser sites have been excavated, notably Thirlings. However the processes by which shift was accomplished from the numerous hilltop or hillside settlements of the Romano-British period to the nucleated villages - like Akeld - located in the valley bottom, which are apparent in the 12th and 13th centuries, remain very unclear. This shift undeniably represents a substantial reordering of settlement and society over time.
There is convincing evidence that Akeld was the centre of a pre-Conquest thanage which also embraced the contiguous townships of Coupland and Yeavering. This makes Akeld a very promising candidate for the investigation of the transition from the Anglo-Saxon to Norman periods and the origins of manorial lordship in Northumberland.
The cartulary of Kirkham Priory provides detailed information on landholding and land use in Glendale during the medieval period. Further systematic study of this source would almost certainly yield dividends in terms of our understanding of medieval settlement and society in the district. A published edition of this document is urgently awaited.
It is easy to imagine that the history of the previous century is extensively documented in a wide variety of media. Yet, despite the beautiful scenery through which it passed, relatively few photographs appear to have been taken of the Alnwick-Cornhill line in operation, for example, certainly by comparison with similar lines elsewhere, and it is now nearly 40 years since the line closed.
Many other subjects which have not received such enthusiastic attention as railway history are still more poorly documented. This underlines the importance and urgency of oral history projects and archival 'ingathering' schemes as a means of recording the profound changes experienced in so many aspects of life during the 20th century.
