The Border Reivers and Hexham

For nearly four centuries, the hills and valleys around Hexham were among the most dangerous places in England. The Border Reivers — armed raiding clans who operated across the Anglo-Scottish frontier — made life on the fringes of Hexhamshire a matter of constant fear and survival.

Who Were the Border Reivers?

The Border Reivers were not simple bandits. They were families — clans — whose entire way of life was built around raiding, feuding, and surviving in a lawless no-man's land between the English and Scottish crowns. Operating from roughly the 13th century through to the early 17th century, they carried out raids that could involve murder, arson, kidnapping, extortion, and the wholesale theft of livestock.

Their territory spanned the Marches — the border regions divided into East, Middle, and West Marches. Common Reiver family names on the English side included the Charltons, the Dodds, the Milburns, and the Robsons — many with deep roots in Tynedale and Hexhamshire. The Armstrongs, from Liddesdale in Scotland, were arguably the most feared: by 1528 they could reportedly put 3,000 men in the saddle.

Hexham Under Threat

Hexham was not insulated from Reiver violence. In 1543, the Liddesdale Armstrongs carried out a direct attack on Hexham itself. The Charlton family suffered particularly brutal treatment: in 1595, a feud saw a Charlton widow's house burned to the ground, and the very next week raiders returned and murdered four Charlton men. This was the Reiver world: cyclical, personal, and savage.

Hexhamshire: A Liberty Apart

Hexhamshire was a Liberty — a jurisdiction outside the direct control of the English Crown. Authority here belonged to the Archbishop of York, who exercised the rights of a king within its boundaries. This semi-autonomous status made Hexhamshire a grey zone — neither fully under royal control nor outside it. For the Reivers, such ambiguities were an opportunity.

The Old Gaol: England's Oldest Prison

The most tangible reminder of this turbulent era stands on Hallgate: Hexham Old Gaol, the earliest recorded purpose-built prison in England, completed in 1333 from stone salvaged from the Roman fort at Corbridge. For three centuries it processed the criminals of Hexhamshire — a significant proportion of them Reivers. The gaol now houses a museum dedicated to the history of Hexham and the border.

Legacy

The Reivers left a deep cultural mark on this part of England. Many modern Northumberland surnames — Charlton, Dodd, Milburn, Robson, Armstrong — trace directly back to the riding clans. The word "bereaved" is said by some etymologists to derive from "reived," reflecting the scale of loss these raids caused. Their story is not a comfortable one, but it is inseparable from the history of Hexham and the Tyne Valley.