William Detchon - Rothbury, Great Tosson, Elsdon

[SelDen]

Later than the dates you are looking at possibly still of interest if any of your family stayed in Rothbury area. There are a couple of refs to Detchon.

http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/NBL/Rothbury/Rothbury1816.html

I went to check Sparty Shaw on the Northumberland Farm Index but my link no longer works. A Google search brought up this Rootschat post, but that link does not work for me either.
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NORTHUMBRIA/2008-11/1226726200

Would be grateful for a working link if anyone has it. I find it impossible to find things on the NBL County Council website.

[c-side]

The only Spartyshaw on the farm index is in Melkridge, parish of Haltwhistle - way out of the relevant area.

Christine

[Craclyn]

Think we need a detailed OS Elsdon map Christine:) I spent a day driving around the Elsdon area looking for my Todholes and other farming locations where my Halls lived a couple of summers ago, but cannot remember a Sparty Shaw. However, it is mentioned as Sparty Shaw, Elsdon in the Poll Books.

[c-side]

It's not showing up on 'nearby places' on genuki for Elsdon but modern maps have High Shaw, Low Shaw and Shaw Cleugh - just east of the A68 and south of West Woodburn.

Maybe it was simply a house in this area?

Christine

[SelDen]

"Place names and Field names of NBL" by Stan Beckensall lists 'John Croft and Spartyshaw' as a field name in Elsdon ward.

The meaning of Spartyshaw is given as 'covered with shrubs or brushwood.'

[Craclyn]

So he lived in a field (covered with shrubs or brushwood) ? Never a dull moment in genealogical research. Hope he managed to build a house in the field

Did Beckensall give us any clues as to where in Elsdon Ward we might find this particular field?

[c-side]

I've got Beckensall's NBL place names but not the field names - it's not in my book so must be a field 

He does give map references so it would be interesting to know where it is.

Christine

[SelDen]

No map references, unfortunately. This is a 2006 publication, not the earlier book published in 1977 which was just on field names, and which I do not have.

Beckensall provides detailed plans of fields for some other places, but not for Elsdon.

The fields are not in alphabetical order, but in case they are are in geographical order, I will also list a few names either side of Spartyshaw.

The section starts off as follows:

"Elsdon, Monkridge, Woodside, Troughend, Otterburn & Rochester

"Two abbreviations used here are: A for "Ancient Land" and C for "Common Land". All fields are both Ancient and Common, unless A or C appears separately. All are from the nineteenth century. Meaning are given in the general index.

Elsdon Ward

"Elsdon has a very large village green, reminding us that this was a focal point of drove roads along which cattle were driven from Scotland....

"....Whiskers Shields, Harthouse, Hudspeth (path), East Nook & Colsters, John Croft and Spartyshaw, Elsdon Gate Cheek, Bainshaw Bogs (C), Redshaw, West Tod Holes, Bird in Bush Inn, Glebe Lands, Whitlees and Lea Houses...

"This impressive list of names contains many that hark back to the rig and furrow systems of arable farming..."

I am inclined to think some association is intended between John Croft and Spartyshaws, as "and" is not used all the time in the list, but that is my interpretation only.

I could not see Spartyshaw in "Northumberland Place Names, Goodwife Hot & others" by Godfrey Watson.

Perhaps the OP would like to browse amongst the many old maps available on line. Google will bring some options up, including the main site for Ordnance maps but here is another one - http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/9101

Someone gave the reference for the National Park Historical Village Atlas earlier, for Rothbury. Elsdon is also included in this project, and there should be some useful info and hopefully map references. Unfortunately I cannot access this site at the moment. Maybe my ISP is having problems again.

As the OP's ancestor was eligible to vote, and some in his family had sufficient worldly goods to leave wills, I am assuming that at some point along the way they managed to put up at least a bothy amongst the scrub   

[Craclyn]

Interesting. Monkridge, Woodside and West Todholes are all easily findable, so it should not be too difficult to figure out where Sparty Shaw may have been.