Akeld : 19th Century Population

The population of the township as a whole steadily rose in the first half of the 19th century, from a figure of 153 recorded in 1801 census to a maximum of 186 by 1851. Thereafter numbers declined significantly with only 136 registered by 1901, perhaps reflecting the impact on the local farming economy of the prolonged agricultural depression experienced during the late 19th century. Parson and White's Directory records a total 27 houses and families in the township in 1827.

The bulk of these households were probably located in the village itself. Only one substantial farm was situated outside the village during this period, Akeld Steads, on the north side of the Glen. This farmstead was known by a number of different names over time. It is labelled 'Red Stead' on the tithe map and the earlier estate map, but figures as 'Akeld Lodge' on Greenwood's map (1828) and as 'Broom House' on Fryer's map (1820) and, earlier still, on Armstrong's map (1769). To the east of the village, the Black Bull Inn at Bendor served traffic along the newly turnpiked routes from Wooler northward towards Coldstream and westward towards Kirknewton and the Scottish border.  

There was a shepherd's cottage to the south of the village at Gleadscleugh, built in the early-mid 19th century; Grundy 1988, AKE 15). It figures on the 1822 estate map and on Fryer's map (1820), but not on Armstrong's map (1769). Both Fryer's map and the estate map depict another building - perhaps an earlier shepherd's cottage - beside the Harehope Burn to the south east of the village. It is captioned 'Hareup in ruins' on the estate map and was evidently already out of use by this stage. It does not appear on any later map.

Bondagers

A significant, if transient element in the population of the Border villages during the 18th and 19th centuries were the females outworkers, or 'bondagers', who were employed to labour in the fields of the region's agricultural estates. The use of such female bondagers as agricultural labourers was especially prevalent in south-east Scotland and extended into north Northumberland.  

The system is recorded in the Scottish Borders as early as 1656, when it is documented that a hind (agricultural labourer) was bound to provide a women whose labour at harvest paid the rent of his house, and to be on call as a day labourer whenever required (Fenton 1976). In the mid 19th century the rate for such labour was about 10d a day. The bondager's work was regarded as paying the rent of the cottage in which the hind's family lived and it was the hind's responsibility to supply this labour, either in the shape of female relatives able to do the work or, if necessary, by engaging one or two women or girls to 'live in'.  

As well as making a major contribution to the local agricultural economy these women were noteworthy for their distinctive costume, which has been the subject of detailed study (Thompson 1977). By the turn of the 19th century the Bondage System had finally fallen into disuse, with the farmer hiring the required labourers directly, although the term bondager persisted till the end of the First World War.