Ingram : Outlying Settlements
As noted above, the outlying settlements of Hartside and Reaveley seem to have formed separate territorial townships or vills from at least the time of the earliest comprehensive record of Northumbrian vills, the feudal aid of 1242 (Liber Feodorum II, 1117-8; see Selected Sources and Surveys no.1), which documents very nearly the high water mark of medieval settlement. However, they both remained integral parts (or 'members') of the manor of Ingram and the three townships of Ingram, Reaveley and Hartside probably formed a single 'administrative vill' for official governmental purposes. Hartside was evidently a substantial village settlement in the 13th and 14th centuries.
In 1340, Thomas, son of John of Hartside, and his wife Emma sold 10 messuages (house plots), one mill, 100 acres of arable land and 10 acres of meadow in Hartside to John Heron and John, son of Thomas of Hartside, for 100 marks of silver, whilst in 1349 Thomas Horsley granted a further two messuages and two husbandlands (customary tenant holdings of 24-30 acres) to Sir John Heron of Crawley, which Thomas had from John Forest, formerly lord of Hartside. In the late medieval period, Hartside seems to have formed part of the Swinburne third of the manor. The remains of the village occupy a south-facing site at the headwaters of the Knock Burn, a tributary of the Breamish, 3.2 km WNW of Ingram. A series of rectangular house platforms with associated enclosure garths are evident, with ridge and furrow field systems to the south. Overlying the ridge and furrow are the remains of a much later, square, 18th/19th century sheepfold.
Hartside was eventually absorbed by the other townships of the parish, after the village was abandoned in the late medieval/early modern era. By the 18th century it formed part of Fawdon and Clinch Township - although its territory was not contiguous with that township - then, in the 1880s it was incorporated in Ingram Township, to form a more coherent district.
Not all settlement in the valley was nucleated. An example of an isolated farmstead of probable medieval date, with attached field system, can be seen at Hunt Law, just east of Greenside Hill. The building remains are 18m long and 5m wide. Ultimately the settlement pattern in upper Breamish valley, above Ingram, was transformed into a series of such isolated farmsteads, such as Hartside itself, about 1 mile (1.6km) south west of the deserted village site, Greensidehill and Linhope.
Most striking of all is the extent of the ridge and furrow field systems in the township. The earthworks not only cover large areas to the south and south west of Ingram village, but also the slopes south of deserted village of Hartside and covering Hartside Hill to the south of Greensidehill and Hartside farms. These testify to the degree of arable cultivation undertaken in the Cheviot uplands during the medieval period, most probably during the optimal conditions of the 13th century.
Picture : Agricultural Terraces South East of Ingram
Picture : Agricultural Terraces near Ingram
