Prudhoe Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey
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Prudhoe Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey The Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey Project was carried out between 1995 and 2008 by Northumberland County Council with the support of English Heritage. © Northumberland County Council and English Heritage 2009 Produced by Rhona Finlayson and Caroline Hardie 1995-7 Revised by Alan Williams 2007-8 Strategic Summary by Karen Derham 2008 Planning policies revised 2010 All the mapping contained in this report is based upon the Ordnance Survey mapping with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationary Office. © Crown copyright. All rights reserved 100049048 (2009) All historic mapping contained in this report is reproduced courtesy of the Northumberland Collections Service unless otherwise stated. Copies of this report and further information can be obtained from: Northumberland Conservation Development & Delivery Planning Economy & Housing Northumberland County Council County Hall Morpeth NE61 2EF Tel: 01670 620305 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/archaeology Prudhoe 1 CONTENTS PART ONE: THE STORY OF PRUDHOE 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Project Background 1.2 Location, Topography, Geology 1.3 Brief History 1.4 Documentary and Secondary Sources 1.5 Cartographic Sources 1.6 Archaeological Evidence 1.7 Protected Sites 2 PREHISTORIC AND- ROMAN 3 EARLY MEDIEVAL 4 MEDIEVAL 4.1 Context of the Settlement 4.2 Prudhoe Castle 4.3 Bridge 4.4 Chantry of St Thomas 4.5 Ford and Ferry 4.6 Village 4.7 Collieries 5 POST MEDIEVAL AND NINETEENTH CENTURY 5.1 Village 5.2 Buildings 5.3 Places of Worship 5.4 Schools 5.5 Kiln 5.6 Mill 5.7 Ford and Ferry 5.8 Bridge 5.9 Road and Railway 5.10 Collieries 5.11 Brick and Tile Works PART TWO: ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF PRUDHOE 6 RESEARCH FRAMEWORK 6.1 Prehistoric and Roman Potential 6.2 Early Medieval Potential 6.3 Medieval Potential 6.4 Post-Medieval and 19th Century Potential PART THREE: ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE PLANNING PROCESS 7 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE PLANNING PROCESS 7.1 Planning Policy statement 5: Planning for the Historic Environment (PPS5) 7.2 Scheduled Ancient Monuments 7.3 Listed Buildings 7.4 Conservation Areas 7.5 Archaeological Sites without Statutory Designation 7.6 Development Plan Policies 7.7 Pre-Application Discussion 7.8 Archaeological Planning Conditions Prudhoe 2 7.9 Unexpected Discoveries 8 SOURCES Bibliography Documentary Sources APPENDIX 1: LISTED BUILDINGS APPENDIX 2: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVENTS APPENDIX 3: HISTORIC MAPS APPENDIX 4: STRATEGIC SUMMARY LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Location Figure 2: Study Area Figure 3: Prehistoric Prudhoe Figure 4: Early Medieval Prudhoe Figure 5: Medieval Prudhoe Figure 6: Post-medieval and 19th century Prudhoe Figure 7: Armstrong’s map of Northumberland 1769 Figure 8: First Edition Ordnance Survey 1860 Figure 9: Second Edition Ordnance Survey 1897 Figure 10: Third Edition Ordnance Survey 1920 Figure 11: Prudhoe areas of archaeological sensitivity Prudhoe 3 Figure 1: Location Prudhoe 4 PART ONE: THE STORY OF HALTWHISTLE 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Project Background Towns and villages have been the focus of settlement in this country for many hundreds of years. Beneath our workplaces, beneath our houses and gardens, streets and shops – beneath our feet – there lies archaeological remains which can tell us how these settlements were once organised and how people went about their lives. Awareness and appreciation of this resource can enhance our sense of place and identity and help us understand how the past has directly shaped our present and how we can benefit from it in the shaping of our future. To ensure that evidence for our urban past is not needlessly lost during development local and national government have put in place a range of statutory designations and policies to make sure that valuable remains are protected, preserved and understood. In 1992, English Heritage published a national policy to help planners and developers deal with urban archaeology and any issues that might arise during the planning process (Managing the Urban Archaeological Resource). This led to the Extensive Urban Survey programme, where funds were made available to individual planning authorities to prepare material to explain how archaeology fits into the planning process and how issues raised can be best resolved. Prudhoe is one of 20 towns in Northumberland to have been reviewed, the results appearing in the following report which is divided into three main parts: Part 1 summarises the development of Prudhoe using documentary, cartographic and archaeological sources, and examines the evidence for the survival of archaeological remains in the town. Part 2 assesses the detailed archaeological potential of the town of Prudhoe and how development could, potentially, impact on significant archaeological resources which are of both national and local significance. Part 3 looks at the national and local planning process with regard to archaeology and is designed to give the developer, planner, and general public, the framework within which development in an historic town will normally proceed. The area covered by this survey (fig 2) encompasses the historic core of the town of Prudhoe. Material within this report includes information available on the Northumberland Historic Environment Record (HER) at the time this report was updated. Information on the HER is constantly being updated and should be used as the primary source for historical and archaeological information. Prudhoe 5 1.2 Location, Topography and Geology The town of Prudhoe lies on the steep slopes of the south bank of the River Tyne around 10 miles east of Hexham and a similar distance west of Newcastle (NZ 09 62). It is bisected by the B6395, part of an historic east-west route (now the A695) along the south side of Tyne. Prudhoe is, today, Tynedale’s largest town with a population of around 11,500. But it has expanded from its roots as a village only since the second half of the 19th century when coal mining and associated industries in the area massively increased in scale. Today it still has a number of major industries including Kimberly-Clark and Hammerite Products along the riverside, but it is largely a post-industrial town. The main historic component of the town, Prudhoe Castle, lies strategically on a promontory jutting out from the valley side, overlooking the east-west route between Newcastle and Carlisle and commanding the ancient ford which crossed the river at this point. Figure 2: Study Area (purple boundary), Prudhoe Castle Scheduled Monument (red), Listed Buildings (pink). Geologically, the Prudhoe area coincides with the outcrop of the complex Stublick Fault System, a belt of faulting which delimits the northern margin of the North Pennines. The area is everywhere underlain by a solid geology of sedimentary rocks of Carboniferous age. These comprise a repetitive succession of limestones, sandstones and shales, locally with thin coals, and a small number of mineral veins. Most of these rocks belong to the Middle or Upper Limestone Groups, although several small areas of Coal Measures rocks are preserved as faulted inliers along the line of the Stublick Fault System. Prudhoe lies within the North Eastern Coalfield and coal mining has played an important role in the economy of the area from the 18th century. Superficial geology includes postglacial gravels formed into terraces with later sands Prudhoe 6 and clays in the valley bottom forming haugh lands. 1.3 Brief History The earliest evidence of human activity in the Prudhoe area, found during archaeological fieldwalking to the east of the town, is scatters of worked flints, probably of Mesolithic date. A few other prehistoric objects found in the vicinity indicate an early human presence in the area but give no clues as to the whereabouts of settlements. The plateau of land above the River Tyne at Broomhouse Lane has provided the first evidence of in-situ human activity in the form of a Bronze-Age burial ground, found whilst ploughing in the later 19th century. It is possible that there was an associated settlement in the area although modern archaeological investigation failed to find any evidence (Event No 13596). Placename evidence suggests Prudhoe may have an Anglian origin and that an earlier defended settlement may have been located on the hill which became the site of the later castle. Neighbouring places suggest that there may have been a Viking presence in the vicinity. Following the Norman Conquest, lands which were to become the preserve of the barony of Ovingham or Prudhoe or the Barony of Umfraville were confiscated by William Rufus after the revolt of Robert de Mowbray in 1095 and granted to the Umfraville family by Henry I (1100-35). A stronghold was built at Prudhoe and became the seat of the Umfravilles and successfully withstood sieges by the army of King William of Scotland in 1173 and 1174. The village of Prudhoe grew up in association with the castle and was, until the middle of the 19th century, strongly agricultural in character, with three farms situated on the main street of the village. The rich coal seams in the Tyne valley are known to have been worked in the area from the 14th century onwards but it was not until the second half of the 19th century that the coal resources of the area began to be intensively exploited and Prudhoe and nearby villages rapidly expanded. By the turn of the 19th century Prudhoe was a busy mining town and shops developed along Front Street to serve the growing community. Modern expansion has increased the size of Prudhoe to such an extent that it is the largest town in Tynedale. 1.4 Documentary and Secondary Sources Research on the town in this survey began with a review of information held in the county’s Historic Environment Record (HER).