Byrness Chapel : Date and Function

What was the date of this chapel and who did it serve? As the chapel was already ruined in 1715, it is clear that it was not constructed to serve the newly established farms at Byrness, Catcleugh, Raw etc., following the expansion of settlement up to the head of the valley in the later 17th and early 18th century. The earliest documentary reference to a burial at Birness is in 1692, whilst one of the gravestones is dated 1685. The chapel must therefore have been built to serve the religious needs of an earlier population at the other end of the valley.

Since Byrness does not figure on Saxton's map of 1576 nor Speed's of 1610, nor is it listed in the most comprehensive documentary summaries of settlement in Redesdale during the 16th and early 17th centuries, the chapel must originate during the medieval period.

However, this conclusion poses its own problems. As we have seen, not a single permanent settlement above Elishaw is named in 13th and early 14th century documents. There was perhaps some slight expansion by the end of the 14th century, but it is not until 16th century that settlements at High Rochester, Birdhope, Evistones and Woollaw are mentioned and these appear to mark the upper limit of settlement at that stage.

There would at first sight appear to be no permanent settlement at the upper end of Redsdale for the Byrness chapel to minister to. The solution to this problem is probably provided by the Umfraville's cattle and sheep farms (vaccaries and berceries), which were discussed above. Only the stud ranch on the west side of Cottonshope is mentioned by name, but the existence of as many as 24 vaccaries or cow pastures in the manor of Otterburn was affirmed in the inquisition post mortem for Gilbert de Umfraville in 1308.

It is likely that many of these lay at the upper end of the valley, in the side valleys, or "hopes" (OE. hoppa), created by tributory burns. Redeshead, Earlside (the west side of the dale opposite Byrness), Ramshope, Spithope and Cottonshope are all mentioned in the detailed inquisitions post mortem of the 14th century, where they are variously described as moor, woods, waste and occasionally pasture (cf. Hodgson 1827, 31 - AD 1325; 1827: 109 - 1331; 1827: 110, 135 - 1363).

A chapel at Byrness would also have served the needs of tenants summering or shielding in the upper end of the valley. For instance it would have been far more convenient to bury any fatalities amongst this transhumant population at a consecrated ground somewhere in the highlands such as/like Byrness, rather transporting the corpse all the way to Elsdon for proper burial.