An archaeological survey on Hartington Moor on the Wallington Hall Estate, near Morpeth, Northumberland.

Description/Abstract

An area of unimproved heathland on Hartington Moor situated some 250m above OD on the higher western limit of the Wansbeck drainage basin, was chosen for archaeological survey as a piece of landscape intermediate between the higher uplands to west and north and the lower claylands of central and coastal Northumberland. The aim of the survey was to assess the extent and nature of the upstanding archaeology and associated patterns of land-use. Our methodology combined field-walking with detailed planning of important monuments and basic documentary research. Results indicated a range of settlement nuclei and associated landuse across the moorland, the whole forming an archaeological landscape, with a sequence of sites dating from the Neolithic onwards including quite intensive occupation of the area in the Bronze Age and Iron Age through to the period of Roman occupation. A change in the pattern of settlement seems to have then taken place, with a decrease in the nuclei represented in the archaeology, and a shift from mixed agriculture to pasture.