EARLY HISTORY.

 

 

   The early history of Pegswood is deeply embedded in the early English culture of this part of the Country. For this area was not Saxon but Angle, the true English and not British. The name of Pegswood has been spelt, and pronounced, in a number of ways throughout the ages, mainly; Peggeswhurthe and Peggesworth before it was, as Hodgson puts it; ‘…often corruptly called Pegswood.’ All names derive from something or someone connected with a given area and Pegswood is no exception here. In old English, ‘Peggeswurthe’ translates into ‘Pegg’s or Pegc’s enclosure’. The enclosure of a small farmstead looked after by someone called ‘Pegc’. To get any clearer view of ‘Pegc’ is practically impossible. Suffice to say that he was important enough to hold the land or farmstead he was on and have it carry his name. More than likely he was in the employ of the chief who oversaw the area and the land, small that it was, and it was probably in the form of payment or recognition for services.

 

    However, Saxon and Norman rulers were to oversee Bothal and its area. It was during this time that a slight hiccup took effect. The northern earls revolted against King John, aligning themselves with the Scottish King. This had the effect of forcing King John into signing the Magna Carta of 1215. However, the signature of the king came at a price and that price was a visit from the King who laid waste to most of the area in the north of England. Certainly Morpeth felt his revenge with Bothal suffering as well and, as Pegswood lay in between, it would have suffered as well. Being small it was probably burnt into extinction as part of the land of Richard Bertram II.

 

   It is not until this Norman period that Pegswood, or Peggeswurthe, gets its first official mention. For at this time one Robert Pinzun who held all of twelve acres of land there ran the settlement that was Peggeswurthe. In exchange for this land he paid the annual rent of two geese per annum every Michaelmass. It can be assumed that Robert Pinzun was in the employ of the Bothal Lords as he paid for his land by soccagge rather than monitorial payment. In other words he paid by kind rather than money. During this period, Bothal was in the hands of the Bertram family and at the time when Robert Pinzun was at Pegswood, Sir Roger Bertram was baron having taken over when his father died in 1239. Sir Roger Bertram was to hold the lands around Bothal in ‘capite’ (directly to the King). It is notable that Pegswood in 1381 had a ratable value of two shillings. Nearby Ashington’s ratable value was one shilling and fourpence. Presumably the fact that Pegswood had better or more hunting land at this time made the difference in rates.

 

   The Bothal lands, including Pegswood, appeared to pass from hand to hand as it was used in various settlements of one kind or another. August 12 1530 saw the land pass from the hands of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland to Robert, Lord Ogle. Among the land passed on was ‘Peggsworth’ (Pegswood). When Robert, 6th Baron Ogle died in 1562 he left his tenants rent free for twelve years as stated in his will. In 1583, Pegswood was included in a marriage settlement as part of the marriage of Edward Talbot and Jane Ogle. The settlement including Peggeswoorthe. Also in 1583 the ratable value had increased as a tenant of the hamlet, Thomas Clarke a yeoman of Piggsworth in the Barony of Bothal, was paying a yearly rent of thirty-eight shillings and eight pence.

 

   It has been said that history has passed Bothal by. As Pegswood is in the parish of Bothal, it has suffered the same fate. No battles were ever fought here and the area was relatively quiet even in the sixteenth century when the Border Reivers, today much loved and hyped by tourist boards and councils, roamed the Borderlands. However, much hyped as they are by the tourist board, this was not an Anglo-Scottish war. The men who fought it were little more than the precursor’s of the gangster’s of today and little more than ruthless killers. The conflicts fought, far from being an Anglo-Scottish war, were merely family feuds fed by personal greed. Although Pegswood was relatively safe from the nightly wanderings of these men there was still the fear. This can be seen in the fact that landowners had to maintain a vigilance and it is recorded in 1580 that; ‘The nightly watches against incursions of the Scots…’ meant that a nightly watch had to be maintained; ‘…from Morpeth Lonngnge to Rauf Lillie’s house, to be watched with twelve men of the inhibitors of Langherst, Peggsworth…..’ Although conflict was not in the immediate area its possibility brought much unsettlement.

 

   A later conflict to have similar results was the English Civil War. Soldiery was regularly to pass through the area, in particular mounted cavalry troops that moved rapidly from one area to the next. Cromwellian Commander, Major John Sanderson of Hedgehope was to record in his diary of 1648 that after marching his men up through Morpeth and seeing off some of the enemy they returned on 17th August through; ‘…Langhurst, Pegsworth and Ougham…’ This was not a Cromwell stronghold, however. The local Lord at this time was Sir William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle and strong supporter of the King’s cause. After the defeat of Marston Moor, the Duke sailed to Hamburg. With the restoration The Duke regained his Bothal Estates and when he died in 1676 he was buried in Westminster Abbey. By marriage, the estates of Bothal passed through the Earl of Oxford and then to the Duke of Portland. Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford was a known studious man. His great collection of books was passed on to the nation and became the Harleian Library. Studious he may well have been, however, in his early life he spent two years in the Tower of London for his support of the Stewart cause of 1715.

 

   In 1801, one of the more famous visitors to the area was the artist J.M.W. Turner. Walking from Morpeth he arrived in Bothal where he drew at least two drawings: one of the street, from the north end showing the castle and another from near the river Wansbeck, looking north and showing a bridge. To get from Morpeth to Bothal, Turner would have had to pass through Pegswood one way or another: either the village or the Banks. As a social artist, Turner used his drawing book like a diary and it would have been hard for him to resist a chance of recording the colliery, village or the Banks cottages. Perhaps in some dusty vault there is a drawing, unknown, of one or more of these places. Not as impossible as it sounds as a large amount of Turner’s work remains missing.

 

   It was from the eighteenth century that the more genteel history of Pegswood gave way to the beginnings of the coal mining industry. A different culture, a different way of life but conflict was still never far away from Pegswood in one way or another.

 

 

RETURN.