Last updated at 14:36, Monday, 30 November 2009

ONE of Britain’s most popular dog breeds evolved here, Rudyard Kipling wrote about the joys of foxhunting in this very patch, and Tynesides’s early 20th century residents were grateful for the sacrifice made by this remote area.

Rugged isolation: Parts of Chattlehope farmhouse, on the shores of Catcleugh Reservoir, date from the time Queen Anne ruled the country.

Catcleugh in Redesdale – where Chattlehope farmhouse is up for sale – has woven many strands in the rich tapestry of Northumberland history.

The breed of dog which honed its particular skills in combat with Redesdale’s rough, tough foxes is the Border terrier. These determined little dogs owe their name and character to John Robson of Kielder and John Dodd of Catcleugh, who became masters of the newly-named Border Foxhounds in 1857.

The first official Border terriers debuted at Bellingham Show in the 1870s, and the British Kennel Club recognised the breed in 1913.

Meanwhile one of England’s most beloved authors, Rudyard Kipling, wrote about hunting around Catcleugh in his 1933 poem The Fox Meditates.

When Rome lay massed on Hadrian's Wall,

And nothing much was doing,

Her bored Centurions heard my call

0' nights when I went wooing.

They raised a pack - they ran it well

(For I was there to run 'em)

From Aesica to Carter Fell,

And down North Tyne to Hunnum.

Hunnum was near Chesters, and Carter Fell was where John Dodd of Catcleugh kept his pack.

While the Border terrier was developing from the earlier Coquetdale terrier, Chattlehope Farm was also on to its second incarnation.

The Chattlehope we see today, sitting in ivy-trimmed isolation on the shore of Catcleugh Reservoir, dates from 1901. An engraved date-stone on its frontage proves it. But parts of the house are much older, and have moved in space as well as time.

The original Chattlehope Farm was built when Queen Anne not Queen Victoria, ruled, but its original site is now under fathoms of water. Old fashioned features – such as the triangular ‘eyebrow’ pediments above the three front windows – were probably among the stone salvaged when Chattlehope had to be moved out of the way of the Catcleugh Reservoir.

In 1899, it was agreed that desperate measures were needed to improve the water supply for sprawling Tyneside. A new reservoir was needed, and the Chattlehope valley in Redesdale was chosen for sacrifice.

An army of navvies from the Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company dammed the River Rede and created a lake more than a mile long – the Catcleugh Reservoir.

The Catcleugh dam was a massive engineering project in its day, and 64 workers died from accidents or disease while working to complete it. A 1903 stained glass window in the church of St Francis of Assisi, at nearby Byrness, preserves the memory of those who gave their lives for Tyneside’s water supply.

Chattlehope was another victim, but some of its stonework was rescued before the waters rose, and it was used to beautify today’s Chattlehope, built safely out of harm’s way.

The name ‘Chattlehope’ is very old and its most obvious root is ‘chattel’ or property. We know that among Chattlehope’s owners were Umfravilles, Widdringtons, Halls and Percys. It was the influential Hall family who built the first Chattlehope farmhouse.

In 1705 High Sheriff of Northumberland Gabriel Hall made a good name for himself by setting up stone markers to help travellers along the North Pennine Way. In 1727 Gabriel tarnished that good name by griping over legal tithes from his farms – including Chattlehope – due to the Rev. Hugh Farrington of Elsdon.

Later, when the Duke of Northumberland owned the farm at Chattlehope, he seems to have rented it out to the Turnbull family.

A record from September 9, 1789, notes Janet Turnbull being christened “at Chattlehope, Birdhope Craig”. Only the faithful or the foolhardy ventured up Birdhope Craig then. The path was haunted by the ghost of Percy Reed who, before he became a moaning wraith, was a 16th century Keeper of Redesdale.

Percy’s hard line on crime offended the young blades of some local families, including the Halls. Johnnie, Willy and Tommie Hall invited Percy for a day’s hunting and sabotaged his weapons. The unfortunate Keeper of Redesdale was then finished off by the Crozier clan as a favour to their Hall chums. And like Waltzing Matilda, “his ghost may be heard, as you pass by the River Rede . . .”

Whether or not local spooks provided colour, the jury has often been split on the attractiveness of the terrain around Chattlehope.

A monkish chronicler mourned: “Continual Scottish invasions forced the men of Tynedale and Redesdale from their allegiance to England. For fifteen years the country remained desolate, without human life, abandoned to beasts of prey.”

In 1825 Eneas Mackenzie – the Alan Whicker of his day – recorded sniffily: “The precipices all around are rude and barren, and there are no picturesque beauties in the whole scene.” This was despite Eneas witnessing the Chattlehope Spout in full flow – “a cataract 75 feet in height”.

But the Duke of Northumberland appreciated a picturesque spot. Just over 200 years ago, in a dimple of land circled by Echo Crags, Byrness Hill, Chattlehope Crag and Girdle Fell, his grace built a hunting lodge.

A succession of Georgian, Regency and Victorian hunting dukes enjoyed the comforts of Catcleugh when they didn’t want to ride all the way to Kielder Castle.

The lodge near Byrness, now known as Catcleugh Farm, still stands on the north shore of the Catcleugh Reservoir. The centrepiece of its fine view across the water is the new Chattlehope.

l Chattlehope at Catcleugh, Redesdale, is for sale though George F White.

First published at 09:48, Friday, 06 November 2009
Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk