Elsdon In The 16th - 17th Centuries
The Tower was probably rebuilt during the 16th century to judge from the form of the standing structure. There is no mention of it in Bowes and Ellerker's survey of border defences in 1541, but no fortification in Redesdale is listed therein, including other towers, at Otterburn and Troughend, which like Elsdon are known to have existed in the early 15th century. Hence this absence may reflect the manner in which the survey was compiled, rather than the actual condition of fortified buildings in the valley.
A clear overview of settlement distribution and cultivation in the township is provided by the survey of the royal manors along the Border undertaken for James I in 1604 and a subsequent rental list prepared in 1618 (see Selected Sources and Surveys). The holdings of freeholders and customary tenants recorded in the 1604 survey list a combined total of six houses, three outhouses and a mill at Elsdon ('Ellen Towne' or 'Ellesden'; 1604 Survey 87-8, 100-1), which gives the impression that the settlement was more of a hamlet than a village at this date.
It is possible that the prolonged border conflict and economic recession of the late medieval era had led to a reduction the size of the settlement. However 'Moate' (i.e. Mote Hill farmstead) and the Glebe holding were listed separately along with two other farmsteads, The Shaw and Nightside, which lay south of the Elsdon Burn, so the building total given above does not encompass everything we would now consider to represent the entire village.
The bulk of Elsdon Town's inhabitants listed in the surveys, were members of the Hall surname, whilst various Potts, Hedleys, Dunns and Reads - all common Redesdale surnames - inhabited the neighbouring farmsteads and settlements, such as Landshot and Carrick. These surnames were those of the reiver clans demonstrating that this kinship-based society was well-entrenched in and around Elsdon by the early 17th century.
The origins of this peculiar social structure during the later medieval period are obscure, although it is presumably related to the prolonged conflicts between England and Scotland and resultant periodic chronic insecurity which generated the need for what were in effect kinship-based self protection and mutual support groups. In this context, it is particularly interesting to note the prominence of individuals with the surname de Herle in the Elsdon market affray of the 1280s. It has been plausibly suggested that this was the original form of the Hall surname (Robson 1989, 34) and it would appear that the ancestors of this clan were already well established in the village prior to the outbreak of border conflict at the end of the 13th century.
Within the village, the following buildings may date to this period: Townsfoot which may have bastle fabric in it and The Crown (bearing a datestone inscribed 'John Galion AD 1729', but the core of this building may be older - Grundy 1988, 128, ELS 9)
Picture Bridge Over Elsdon Burn
