[Hobbie Noble team]
the Hobbie Noble team
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the Hobbie Noble team, left to right: Barbara Smith, Joan Robson, Duncan Telford and Iver Gray |
Joan Robson
Barbara Smith
Duncan Telford
Iver Gray
All are descended from reivers and want to trace the smuggling route across the Wastes of Bewcastle, which is featured in the ballad 'Hobbie Noble'.
how they got on ...
BEWCASTLE CHURCHYARD
The team and Mick Aston examine the graveyard, containing many
reivers' graves.
CARLISLE RECORD OFFICE
The team and Mick examine their ballad - 'Hobbie Noble' -- to work out the story, extract place names
and reconstruct routes. They also have a look at the text of another ballad -- 'Jock
o' the Side' -- in which Hobbie plays a part.
They look up Hobbie's name in the index of the Calendar of Border Papers and find out one direct reference -- in Thomas Musgrave's Report on the Border Riders of 1583, which gives some indication of the route. They note that there is no record of a trial or an execution.
Using maps and archaeological surveys (including Perriam and Robinson's Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumberland and the Sites & Monuments Record for Bewcastle), they work out the best route that Hobbie could have taken, avoiding any guards. They decide to re-enact it.
KERSHOPEFOOT
Joan and Mick get into a helicopter and fly over Wastes of Bewcastle
to find aerial evidence of the route, which would have started
at Kershopefoot.
the remains of Hobbie's shieling (shepherd's hut)
FOULBOGSHIELS
Duncan, Barbara and Iver trace what remains on the ground. They
look for whatever remains of Hobbie's shieling (shepherd's hut)
-- and find it. They have discovered that the route was possible,
but over very difficult terrain. If the ballad's historically
correct, Hobbie came to a bad end in a horrible place. They want
to find out more about him.
BELLINGHAM, NORTHUMBERLAND
Tam Ward shows Tony one of the few remaining bastle houses on
the Border -- 'The Hole' -- which Hobbie Noble's farm would have
resembled.
'The Hole' -- a Borders bastle house
the hole in 'The Hole' -- once the only way into the upstairs
living quarters
CARLISLE RECORD OFFICE
The team want to find Hobbie's farm. They match the acreage from
a 1604 survey through subsequent documents -- the Hodgkinson &
Donald map of 1774-6, rate books from 1831 to 1847, tithe map
of 1840 and the 1863 Ordnance Survey map -- looking for corresponding
field names to locate Hobbie's original home. But it's a dead
end.
Then they check Hobbie's name in place name indexes and find 'Hobbie's Close at Park Head'. 'Hobbie's Well' appears on the Ordnance Survey map.
Archivist David Bowcock helps them look in the wills index under Hobbie's real name - Robert Noble. They find a listing for a Robert Noble of Parkside. They get it out, look at the address on the back and find that it's actually letters of administration of a will dated 1620 for a 'Robert Noble of Park Head'! The late date of this indicates that Hobbie didn't die on the gallows as in the ballad, but at his farm.
DESMESNE FARM, BEWCASTLE
This is the home of the only Nobles left in the area. The team
examine the family tree of Margaret Noble's husband, but it doesn't
really help them.
PARK HEAD FARM, BEWCASTLE
They discover that there is still 'Hobbie's Well' and a field
called 'Hobbie' on the farm. They also find the remains of what
could very well be Hobbie's bastle house.
TRUCE FIELD
All the teams meet up to watch a re-enactment of a football match between an English side and a Scottish one, which first took
place in 1599.
