Hethpool : Romano-British Period And After (From AD 70)

Towards the end of the first millennium BC, pollen evidence suggests that all remaining upland forest had been cleared, and small-enclosed settlements or “homesteads” were established in increasing numbers on slopes and high moorland. Some of these new settlements seem to have been established within the ramparts of earlier hillforts, or overlying the defences, which in some cases were seen to have been abandoned for some time (Welfare 2002, 75).

There are, unfortunately, very few well dated first millennium BC settlement sites, and it is often not possible to determine without excavation whether an individual settlement belongs to the Bronze Age, Iron Age, or Roman period. It some cases, such as at Hetha Burn Head in the College valley, settlements seem to have continued in use throughout all of these periods. East of Laddies Knowe (No. 15, NT 883289), the Iron Age farmstead of possible earlier foundation is succeeded by a Roman-British “scooped” settlement.

Scooped settlements (another example is recorded at NT 897271, No. 30) are very common in this region, their distinctive appearance being the result of digging out or “scooping” house platforms and stockyards directly into the hill slopes. Though they are usually considered Romano-British, it is possible that they may have originated in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age and are likely to have been in use for a considerable period.

This part of Northumberland lay beyond the Roman frontier for much of the period of occupation, and the influence of Roman culture is likely to have been slight and very indirect (Higham 1986, 224-6). Small enclosed homesteads such as these are likely to have continued to be used for several centuries, and were perhaps only eventually abandoned in favour of lower-lying hamlets and villages, many of which are in existence today, in the Early medieval period.

The gradual adoption of lower lying sites may have occurred in the 8th or 9th centuries AD, probably as a result of a complex mixture of social, political and environmental factors, which included the arrival of some settlers from Northern Europe and, later, Scandinavia. It is interesting to note that water mills, the earliest English examples of which are known from the seventh and eighth centuries, would have required a constant supply of running water, something that would only be found in the river valleys.