Last Sunday my wife and I went walking in the Cheviot hills in the beautiful Northumberland National Park not far from our home. We have walked a lot of the Cheviots in recent months and intend to get around a lot more over the summer.
This week we decided to go up a few of the smaller hills in the north of the park so we headed for a peak known as Yeavering Bell. It was used as a hill fort since the Iron Age. There was a wall that went all the way around the double summit which is still clearly visible today as you can see in this arial photo...
The picture below shows the likely layout of huts within the fort around 300 BC...
This next picture is taken from near the top of Yeavering Bell. In the centre of the picture and just above the mid-line is a narrow strip of field with a road beneath it, a line of trees along its top border and a cluster of trees at its left end. There is a lone tree just to left at the road junction (where my car is parked)
This empty field turned out to be one of the most important historical sites in England.
1948 was a very dry summer and an aerial photograph showed up some remarkable crop marks. It led to decades of archaeology and the discovery that the field was the long-lost site of "Ad Gefrin" previously known from the writings of St Bede.
It was from here in the 7th Century that Anglo-Saxon King Edwin and Queen Aethelburgh ruled the ancient kingdom of Northumbria that extended over 200 miles from the Forth all the way to the Humber - "North-of-Humber-land"
In 627 the missionary Paulinus arrived at Ad Gefrin to preach the gospel and baptised numerous converts during his 36 day stay. Among the buildings discovered was a stadium of tiered seating that could hold over 300 people.
I love standing in old places and pondering the people who went before us. In Northumberland there is ancient history everywhere you look.