Redesdale is a valley in western

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England. It is formed by the

River Rede The Rede is a river in Northumberland, England. The river rises on Carter Fell on the Anglo-Scottish border feeding Catcleugh Reservoir and joins the River North Tyne below the village of Redesmouth. The Rede is one of only two rivers in the ...

, which rises in the

Cheviots The Cheviot Hills (), or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes T ...

and flows down to join the

North Tyne North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

Redesmouth Redesmouth is a village in Northumberland, England, just over to the south-east of Bellingham. Governance Redesmouth is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham. Transport Redesmouth (old spelling: Reedsmouth) was served by Re ...

. Redesdale is traversed by the A68 trunk road, which enters Scotland via

Carter Bar __NOTOC__ Carter Bar is a pass in the Cheviot Hills, on the Anglo-Scottish border. It lies north-east of Carter Fell at the head of Redesdale, and is crossed by the A68 road as it runs north towards Jedburgh and Teviotdale. The name "Carter B ...

at the head of the valley. Redesdale contains the settlements of Elsdon, Otterburn, Rochester, and Byrness. Otterburn is the site of a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

installation,

Otterburn Training Area The Otterburn Army Training Estate is a military training area near Otterburn, Northumberland, in northern England. It is owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and operated by Landmarc on contract from the MoD's Defence Infrastructure Organi ...

. A portion of Redesdale to the west and north of Otterburn forms part of

Northumberland National Park Northumberland National Park is the northernmost National Parks of England and Wales, national park in England. It covers an area of more than between the Scotland, Scottish border in the north to just south of Hadrian's Wall. The park lies en ...

and includes the Redesdale Forest, the northernmost part of

Kielder Forest Kielder Forest is a large forestry plantation in Northumberland, England, surrounding Kielder village and the Kielder Water reservoir. It is the largest man-made woodland in England with three-quarters of its covered by forest. The majority o ...

History

This valley has historically served as an important route into Scotland, and has seen conflict since the time of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, the Norman noble family

Umfraville The Umfraville family were Anglo-Norman landowners, administrators and soldiers who were prominent from about 1120 to 1437 on the northern border of England, where they held the strategic lordships of Prudhoe and Redesdale in Northumberland. T ...

gained lands in the area and were the first ''Lords of Redesdale''. In 1388, Otterburn was the site of a historic

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...

between armies from the kingdoms of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, largely fought by moonlight. The

Raid of the Redeswire The Raid of the Redeswire, also known as the Redeswire Fray, was a border skirmish between England and Scotland on 7 July 1575 which took place at Carter Bar, the Cheviot pass which enters Redesdale. The skirmish was between (on the English si ...

, the last major battle between England and Scotland, took place at the head of the valley in 1575. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, Elsdon was the economic centre of the area: it served as the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

and as the gathering place for the local graynes (extended

Border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

families). In modern times, the village of Otterburn now holds that distinction. The British crown created the title

Baron Redesdale Baron Redesdale, of Redesdale in the County of Northumberland, is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was firstly created in 1802 for the lawyer and politician Sir John Mitford (later Freeman-Mitford) ...

in the 19th century.

References

External links

* Valleys of Northumberland {{Northumberland-geo-stub

History

See also

References

External links