Falstone One-Place Study

Falstone parish in upper North Tynedale was created in 1811 when the extensive ancient parish of Simonburn was sub-divided by Act of Parliament.
The new parish was bounded on the north-west by Scotland (the old county of Roxburghshire), on the south-west by the Cumbrian parish of Bewcastle, and to the east by the parishes of Byrness, Thorneyburn and Greystead.

The North Tyne landscape was predominantly moorland and mountain, but suitable for sheep grazing. Towards the end of the 18th century, as demand for wool and mutton increased as a result of industrialisation and the Napoleonic wars, the Duke of Northumberland and other local landowners began to amalgamate their land into large sheep farms. Many of these farms employed shepherds from Scotland, just over the border, and one of these was my 3 x great-grandfather, Richard Common (c.1782-1866).

Most of Falstone’s inhabitants in the 18th and early 19th century lived in scattered and isolated farmsteads and hamlets. Falstone village itself was very small: it contained the Rectory, the Manse, Falstone Farm (home of the local “lairds”, the Robsons), the Blackcock Inn and a handful of cottages. The arrival of the railway in 1861 brought changes in employment and an increase in population, as well as greater contact with the wider world. Sheep farming continued to be important until after WW2, but the development of Plashetts Colliery and later the activities of the Forestry Commission changed the nature of life in the parish.

In 1982 a number of the farms west of Falstone village were submerged during the construction of the Kielder Reservoir. Other farms have disappeared under the conifers of Kielder Forest. My aim in this one-place study is to capture details of these lost farmsteads, to try to reconstruct the families who lived in them and to build a picture of their lives before the coming of the railway.