Limestone Brae, West Allendale
Limestone Brae is located in West Allendale about 2km along the
road from Carrshield to Ninebanks (NY795498). The old cottage is adjacent to the
Methodist Chapel built in 1825. A Sunday School extension was added to the
Chapel for Queen Victoria's golden jubilee in 1875. There used to be a
woollen mill in Wolf Cleugh but I
do not know when it opened or closed (it is shown on the 1865 map). High Wolf Cleugh Farm is 1km up the road. Lower (or Nether) Limestone Brae is located at
NY792500 (with a more recent dwelling beside the road and another house on the
east side of the road); the property called Linn View in reference 2 is at NY795497. This latter is said to be originally a bastle of
early 17th century date being extended southwards over the next two centuries.
This must be 'Over LimestoneBrey' - but is it 'High/upper Limestone Brae'?. The building now known as
Woodbine Cottage is opposite the chapel. Between Woodbine Cottage and Lower
Limestone Brae is a small burial ground containing maybe twenty headstones. I
have noted down
details from a few.
The only other dwellings in Limestone Brae,
Thrush Hole, together with Myrtle Bank, have become a Buddhist Abbey!
.
|
1865 6" to 1 mile map (Click map to display a larger area) |
|
 Limestone Brae Methodist Chapel |
 |
 Lower (Nether) Limestone Brae |
 Linn View (Over Limestone Brae?) |
 Woodbine Cottage (front) |
 Woodbine Cottage (rear) |
In 1547 'Overlynestane braye' was held by Thomas Woodmas and 'Netherlynestane braye' by Hugh Philipson. In 1608 William Stout (or Stowte) owned the Over 'Limestonbrey', which he had inherited from his brother Christopher in 1601, and George Philipson 'Nether Limestonbrey'. In 1665 both tenements were held by Ralph Featherstone. There is said to have been an old lead mine at the place. (Hodgson 'History of Northumberland'). A lead level is shown on the 1865 OS map at Thrush Hole.
In 1688 the Quarterly Meeting of the Society of Friends advised that a meeting house should be built at Wooley Burnfoot and another in some convenient place in West Allendale. Accordingly in 1690, Ralph Featherstone surrendered a piece of ground at Limestone Brea for a meeting house and graveyard; and in 1691 the meeting house was recorded at the General Quarter Sessions. 1 In 1718 the Quaker Hugh Watson of Studden (in East Allen) was made trustee of the Meeting House at Limestone Brae. (In 1694 Cuthbert Featherston of Taylor-bourn and Thomas Williamson of Hesleywell were, with other Quakers, committed to prison for non-payment of tithes). It is not apparent which building would have been the meeting house. 3
In 1765 Thomas Whitfield lived at Nether Limestonebrey with his wife Hannah (Makepeace).
In 1787 John Swindale (or his father) bought the old meeting house5 from the Friends and in 1793 he married Barbara Bowman who had been born at Limestone Brae in 1773. They lived there for the rest of their lives. In about 1800 in the inclosure settlement4 for the Allendale Commons he was allotted land stretching east from the road up towards the remaining moor. Over the next 17 years at least seven children were born - Sarah, Barbara, John, Thomas, George, Betty and Mary - and at some time, following the death of John's father (1790) and brother Thomas (1791), his mother Sarah joined them to live with until she died in 1827. John died in 1812 and Barbara in 1835.
In 1811 tithes were collected from William Ridley and John Swindale in respect of Limestone Bree. In April 1812 John Swindle provided Limestone Brae as the security (mortgage) for a £200 loan at 5% interest.
John's eldest daughter, Sarah, married Matthew Chester in 1811 and their children Joseph, John, Barbara and Matthew were born at (High) Limestone Brae between 1812 and 1824 but the Chester family were not living there in 1851.
John's second daughter, Barbara, probably married John Coates in 1815. In any case Joseph and Barbara's children were born at Limestone Brae between 1818 and 1831. However the Coates family were not living there in 1851.
John's eldest son, also named John, married Jane Ridley in 1827 and their children were born at Limestone Brae between 1828 and 1839; he died at Limestone Brae in 1848. His son John died, again at Limestone Brae, in 1859 Leaving no known family). His daughter, Barbara, who had married William Armstrong, was living with her family at 'Limestone Brae' in 1851 and 'High Limestone Brae' in 1881 while her mother, Jane, was living with Caleb Hetherington (who had married their daughter Mary) at Myrtle Bank (which was built some time after the 1865 map was surveyed)
John's middle son Thomas died when aged 18.
John's youngest son, George, married Margaret Whitfield and was bringing up a family at the same time as his brother John. (Confusingly several children had the same Christian names as their cousins and were the same age!). (George died in 1839 and Margaret in 1841)
Both brothers John and George describe themselves as miners, but their father John had changed from miner to farmer by 1841.
Their cousin Christopher also lived at the old Meeting House at Limestone Brae from before 1837 to at least 1851 but had moved to Farneyside before he died in 1857.
In 1897 John Hodgson reports in his 'History of Northumberland' that Limestone Brae was owned by Mr W. C. B. Beaumont and Mr John Swindle. (Wentworth Canning Blackett Beaumont had been the owner of the lead mines in Allendale and and was the main landowner in the area). I have not yet traced which John Swindle this could be.
According Marina Wallace from Farney Shield John Swindle gave all or part of what is now Woodbine Cottage for use as a Meeting House with a plot alongside as a burial ground - however as noted above this occurred some two centuries earlier. The building is not shown on the 1865 map. (See note, however, for 1718 above).
References
1 Allendale and Whitfield: Historical Notices of the Two Parishes. George Dickinson 3rd Edition 1903
2 Bastle Houses in the Northern Pennines. Peter Ryder. North Pennines Heritage Trust 1996
Notes
3 According Marina Wallace from Farney Shield John Swindle gave all or part of what is now Woodbine Cottage for use as a Meeting House with a plot alongside as a burial ground - however as noted above this occurred some two centuries earlier. The building is not shown on the 1865 map. (See note, however, for 1718 above).
According to reference 1,
two cottages had been erected on the old burial ground ... and near them the
base of an old wayside cross. This cross is marked on the modern Ordnance Survey
as being at the corner of the 1875 Sunday School extension but the base in fact
can be found in the field on the opposite side of the road to where it was
presumably moved when the extension was built.
If the modern OS location represents the original location of the base of the
cross, then it would appear that the Methodist Chapel was built on the site of
the old Friends meeting house; the two cottages mentioned are probably the
building pictured as Limestone Brae cottage above.
4 The inclosure map shows Limestone Brae Grounds - extending from the road to the river - as an existing inclosure. The land on the moor allocated to John Swindale stretches up from the road towards the higher new road to East Allendale. This raises an interesting point - if the land to the east of the road was not enclosed then John Swindale must have bought part of the old Limestone Brae Ground to have established an entitlement. This is supported by the 'surrender' to Hexham Manor in 1812. However the Methodist Chapel and the cottage are on the east of the road and thus probably also the old Meeting House. It seems likely that there was a small unauthorised inclosure on the east of the road made by Ralph Featherstone to provide the land for the meeting house.
5 According to Hodgson the "meeting house at Limestone Brae, on the West Allen, ..., at the end of the last century, was turned into a dwelling house and the graveyard into a garden".
6 In 1910 Kelly's Directory lists Armstrong Hindmarsh as the farmer at Lower Limestone Brae.
7 Limestone Brae mortgage of 1812
8 Raine's wills, Vol II p29:
4 May 1601 Adm Chr Stowte jun of Lymestone Brae par Alln to Wm S prox
cons
20 Jan 1601 Adm Chr Stowte jun of Lymestone Brae to Wm S of L his bror,
Mr Edwaward Teigate, cler