Thirlwall

The manor of Thirlwall was in the liberty of Tyndale.  Recorded as a vill in the Iter of Wark for 1279; and 1314-15 was one of the towns of South Tynedale which claimed exclusion from the manor of Wark.  Six tofts were granted to the monks of Hexham in the late 12th/early 13th century - the Priory's holdings were recorded in the Black Book of 1379.  Thirlwall's entry was unusual because the Thirlwall holdings had place names; no mention was made of husbandlands, which were the normal type of holding elsewhere, and at least some of the tenements had lands enclosed rather than in common fields.  Similar evidence in an undated rental of the early 16th century evidence suggests dispersed settlement.  Armstrong's map of 1769 does not show a village.  Not conclusive however.  The castle (NY 66 NE 29) is ruinous and one farmstead remains. No earthworks seen to locate the village.

The ruins of Thirlwall Castle, to the east of Gilsland, lie close to what was arguably the weakest part of Hadrian's Wall. It was here that the Caledonians `thirled', or threw down part of the wall, during a Barbarian raid in Roman times. The castle at Thirlwall was constructed in the thirteenth century, long after the Roman period, but was built using Roman stones taken from the ruins of the nearby fort of Carvoran.

For many years Thirlwall was the home of a notorious Border family called the Thirlwalls, who in 1550 were recorded as `prone and inclined to theft'. The family were immortalised in a well known local ballad, commemorating a border fray in which Albany Featherstonehaugh, a High Sheriff of Northumberland, was murdered;

Hoot awa', lads Hoot awa',

Ha'ye heard how the Ridleys and Thirlwalls and a'

Ha' set upon Albany Featherstonehaugh

And taken his life at the Deadmanshaw ?

There was Williemontswick

And Hardriding Dick,

And Hughie of Hawden and Will of the wa'

I canno' tell a', I canno' tell a'

And mony a mair that the De'il may knaw.

These verses were part of a ballad sent to Sir Walter Scott by his great friend, the Durham historian Robert Surtees, who claimed he had heard it recited by an old woman on the moors near Alston in South Tynedale. In truth the ballad had been composed by Surtees himself. It was enough to fool Sir Walter, who included it in his lengthy poem called `Marmion'.