Housesteads

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Under-floor heated granary at Vercovicium
Under-floor heated granary at Vercovicium
This article is about the farm at Housesteads, for the Roman fort, see Vercovicium.

Housesteads is a former farm in the civil parish of Bardon Mill in the English county of Northumberland. Its lands include the ruins of the Roman fort of Vercovicium. Housesteads lies somewhat to the south of Broomlee Lough.

[edit] Border reivers

During Elizabethan and Stuart times, Housesteads was the home of the Armstrongs, a notorious family of border reivers. They were a well-known band of horse thieves and cattle rustlers who used the old Roman fort as a corral for their ill-gotten gains. They traded as far afield as Aberdeen and the south of England. At one time every male member of the family was said to have been a 'broken man', formally outlawed by English or Scottish authorities. The last of the family was hanged at the end of the 17th century and his brothers fled to America.

The Armstrongs lived in a typical 16th century defensive bastle house of two storeys: the ground floor for livestock and the upper level for living quarters. Its ruins remain built up against the south gate of the Roman fort and clearly show its defensive nature, with external stone steps and narrow loop windows. A corn drying kiln was inserted into the gate's guardchamber in the 17th century.

[edit] Later history

In 1698, the farm was sold to Thomas Gibson, who turned the land around the fort to agriculture and thus ploughed up numerous Roman artefacts. Interest in the fort increased in the 19th century, particularly after the farm was purchased by the historian, John Clayton in 1838. John Maurice Clayton, his descendant, presented the fort to the National Trust in 1930. The farm was later owned by the Trevelyans, who gave the land for the site museum.

[edit] References