Hethpool : The Township Fields And Waste

Much of Hethpool Township along with tracts of the Cheviots which fell within neighbouring townships, is covered by surviving ridge-and-furrow and terracing representing medieval cultivation systems. These earthworks encompass both valley bottom and hillsides. They have been discussed and mapped by Dixon (1985, I).

More detailed analysis of these field systems, including complete mapping and consideration in conjunction with the documentary evidence, will require examination of the full aerial photographic corpus and topographical field survey data (notably that conducted by the RCHME in the 1980s and 1990s) for this extensive upland area. As such it goes beyond the scope of the present study, but the importance of such a programme is self-evident.

Dixon notes that a late Iron Age/Romano-British scooped enclosure settlement in the Hetha Burn Valley (NT 881275), about half a mile from the village site, produced evidence of secondary occupation (Dixon 1985, II, 332, citing Burgess pers. comm.) in the form of a club-rimmed straight-sided jar dating back to the 13th century. This site may have been a shepherd’s house.