Hexhamshire

Hexhamshire is an area of southern Northumberland around the town of Hexham. It was in origin a liberty belonging to the Archbishop of York, which liberty was abolished in 1572.

Hexhamshire covers a large area of southern Northumberland. In The Story of the Shire by Frederick W Hackwood, Hexhamshire is described as a "pseudo-shire", which is to say an area using the suffix "shire" which is not a county, of which there are many in Northumberland and Yorkshire, each arising as a liberty within the county.

Hexhamshire Moors

The Hexhamshire Moors are a Site of Special Scientific Interest covering an extensive area of moorland in the Wear Valley district of north-western County Durham and south-western Northumberland, taking their name from the district of Hexhamshire.

The moors cover a broadly rectangular area, occupying most of the upland between the valleys of the River East Allen to the west and Devil's Water to the east. The southern part of the site shares boundaries with another SSSI; the Muggleswick, Stanhope and Edmundbyers Commons and Blanchland Moor SSSI to the east and is separated from the Allendale Moors SSSI only be a very narrow strip of the East Allen valley.

Eurasian golden plover, Pluvialis apricaria

The area has one of the largest expanses of blanket bog and heathland in northern England. Acid bogs occur in the vicinity of the numerous flushes that drain the moorland plateau, and localised patches of acid grassland have developed in areas that are regularly grazed by sheep.

Much of the area has little variety in the plantlife to be found, but there are small populations of some nationally scarce species, including bog orchid, Hammarbya paludosa, which is found on the blanket peat, and forked spleenwort, Asplenium septentrionale, whose presence at one locality in the Northumberland part of the site is, to date, the only known record for that county.

The site's principal importance lies in its nationally important breeding populations of birds: three species— merlin, golden plover and short-eared owl—are listed in Annex 1 of the European Commission's Birds Directive as requiring special protection and several others, including red grouse, curlew, common redshank, oystercatcher and dunlin, are listed in the United Kingdom's Red Data Book (Birds).

Much of the moorland heath also supports a rich assemblage of invertebrates, including several scarce species of ground beetle, Carabidae.

History

Hexhamshire lies within Northumberland, which, until the nineteenth century, was within the Diocese of Durham though not under the extensive temporal authority which the Bishops of Durham enjoyed in County Durham. Hexham had been the seat of a bishopric in the early Middle Ages before losing its status.

In the early 12th century, Henry I of England removed Hexham and its district from the See of Durham and granted the area to the Archbishop of York. At the same time, he granted the Archbishop extensive temporal authority in Hexhamshire, so that into the Tudor period it remained excluded from the authority of the justices of Northumberland.

In 1572, in the reign of Elizabeth I, Parliament abolished the Liberty of Hexhamshire, incorporating it spiritually into the Diocese of Durham and securely granting to the authority to the authorities of Northumberland.. It remained within the Diocese of Durham until 1882, when the Diocese of Newcastle was created.

In Christopher Saxton's map of Great Britain, commissioned by William Cecil (later Lord Burleigh), the name Examshire is marked in southern Northumberland; not in red capital letters as are county names but in red and with some prominence, along with Tynedale and such other important areas.

Parish

In modern use, Hexhamshire gives its name to a civil parish south of Hexham. The parish covers a large but mostly sparse area, including the villages of Dalton and Whitley Chapel, Broadwell House, and Hexhamshire Common. The current civil parish was formed in 1955 by the union of the Hexhamshire High Quarter, Hexhamshire Middle Quarter and Hexhamshire West Quarter parishes.[1] Hexhamshire Low Quarter remains a separate civil parish, to the north.

See also

• Durham liberties

Outside links

• Hexhamshire local information website