Northumbria (modern)

Northumbria North East
Region
Angel of the North
Flag
Etymology: Lands in the former rump Kingdom of Northumbria
Historic counties of Northumberland and Durham
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North East England

Northumbria is a traditional area of England. It corresponds to or includes the historic county areas of Northumberland and Durham^[1] but may also be taken to be synonymous with North East England. A representative provincial flag of Northumbria is registered for the area.

Definition[]

Precise definitions vary but typically centre around the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham; the ceremonial counties of Northumberland, Durham and Tyne and Wear;^[2] or the North East England region. Parts of historic Yorkshire and ceremonial North Yorkshire are however included in these areas, respectfully.^[3] It is in the title of several institutions:

• Northumbrian Water: North East England excluding Hartlepool
• Northumbria Police: Northumberland and Tyne-and-Wear
• Northumbria University: non-geographic
• The Environment Agency and Britain in Bloom: North East England
• Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust: historic Northumberland
• Northumbria River Basin district: North East England excluding the Tweed drainage basin
• Northumbrian UOTC: Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, and Teesside Universities

Historical background[]

Roman[]

Hadrian's Wall was one of the frontiers of the Roman Empire.^[4] In fact, Roman archaeology can be found widely across the region and a special exhibition based around the Roman Fort of Segedunum at Wallsend^[5] and the other forts along Hadrian's Wall are complemented by the numerous artifacts that are displayed in the Great North Museum Hancock^[6] in Newcastle. St. Peter's Church in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland and St. Pauls in Jarrow also hold significant historical value and have a joint bid to become a World Heritage Site.

Angles[]

12th-century wall-painting of St Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral

The area has a strong religious past, as can be seen in works such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[7] The works of Cuthbert (634–687 AD), Bede (673–735 AD) and Hilda of Whitby (614–680 AD) were hugely influential in the early church, and are still venerated by some today.^[8][9] These saints are usually associated with the monasteries on the island of Lindisfarne, Wearmouth-Jarrow, and the Abbey at Whitby, though they are also associated with many other religious sites in the region. Bede is regarded as the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholar. He worked at the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, translating some forty books on all areas of knowledge, including nature, history, astronomy, poetry and theological matters such as the lives of the saints. His best known work is "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People".^[10] One of the most famous pieces of art and literature created in the region is the Lindisfarne Gospels, thought to be the work of a monk named Eadfrith, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698. This body of work is thought to have been created in honour of Cuthbert, around 710–720.^[11]

At its greatest extent, the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria extended from the Scottish borders (then Pictish borders) at the Firth of Forth to the north, and to the south of York, its capital, down to the Humber and Mersey. On 6 June 793 the Vikings arrived on the shores of north-east England with a raiding party from Norway who attacked the monastic settlement on Lindisfarne.^[12] The monks fled or were slaughtered, and Bishop Higbald sought refuge on the mainland. A chronicler recorded: "On the 8th June, the harrying of the heathen miserably destroyed God's church by rapine and slaughter." There were three hundred years of Viking raids, battles and settlement until William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at Hastings in 1066.^[13] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes the change from raiding to settlement when it records that in 876 the Vikings "Shared out the land of the Northumbrians and they proceeded to plough and support themselves"^[14]

In 866 Ivar the Boneless captured York and reduced the Northumbrian kingdom to just Durham, Northumberland, and Lothian. The lands north of the Tees were outside the immediate control of the Scandinavian Kings of York and remained under Anglian rule. Place-name evidence suggests that County Durham and Northumberland were not settled by Scandinavians to the extent that Yorkshire and other parts of Northern England were. The Scottish victory at the Battle of Carham in 1018 set Northumbria’s northern frontier on the Tweed rather than the Forth and helped to forge what then became an Earldom of Northumbria within the new English kingdom.^[15]

Normans[]

Following the conquest of England, the Normans who formed the County of Northumberland or Comitatus Northumbriae, a single royal county encompassing all of north-eastern England between the Tweed and Tees. The county included several 'royal liberties' where the king's writ did not run, such as Hexhamshire, Redesdale, and Tynedale. The most important liberty was that of the Liberty of Durham, which retained a high degree of autonomy under the Bishops of Durham and lacked representation in the lower parliament.^[16][17]

In 1293 the Bishop of Durham and his steward failed to attend proceedings of quo warranto held by the justices of Northumberland. The bishop's case was heard in Parliament, where he stated that Durham lay outside the bounds of any English shire.^[18] The arguments appear to have been accepted, as by the fourteenth century Durham was accepted as a liberty which received royal mandates direct. In effect it was a private shire, with the bishop appointing his own sheriff.^[19] The area thus became known as the "County Palatine of Durham".

Victorian era[]

Northumbria, in the modern sense, emerged as a concept in the 19th century.^[20] During the second half of the 19th century a cultural movement appeared among the north-eastern intelligentsia who sought to identify the region as a distinct historic nation. The old kingdom of Northumbria was its underlying inspiration, albeit with medieval and early modern histories woven in as well, and the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham were its homeland. In 1834 the Surtees Society was established with focus on publishing 'manuscripts illustrative of the history of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, principally of County Durham and Northumberland'.^[21] The influence of Northumbrian romantic regionalism is most apparent in the development of a distinctly 'Northumbrian' musical identity, differentiated from English folk music as a whole, and compounded in publications such as the Northumbrian Minstrelsy and Rhymes of Northern Bards by drawing upon earlier works from both Northumberland and County Durham. In some sense, the movement paralleled the Irish, Scottish, and Welsh home ruler movements of the time, but unlike the former, did not cross the boundary from unionism to separatism and ultimately remained a cultural movement.^[22] Today, the term has been re-established as a legitimate moniker for the region,^[23] however, is not the official name for the UK region of North East England.

Culture[]

Northumbrian culture has aspects in common with the cultures of both England and Scotland,^[24] but also includes many unique traditions. Northumbria is known for its distinctive musical culture and has its own unique instrument, the Northumbrian smallpipe.^[25]

Northumbria has its own tradition of Christian saints that have given rise to localised dedications. St. Cuthbert is of particular significance; annual St. Cuthbert's day celebrations are held each year by the Northumbrian Association and marked by a walk from Chester-le-Street to Durham, followed by a procession through Durham city.^[26]

Music[]

Northumbria possesses a distinctive style of folk music characterised by border balladry, use of the Northumbrian smallpipes and strong fiddle tradition that was already well-established in the 1690s.^[27]

Blaydon Races[]

The Blaydon Races, a popular musical hall song first sung by Geordie Ridley at Balmbra's Music Hall in Newcastle in 1862, gives an idea of some of the characters attending the old meetings. These races were held on an island in the middle of the Tyne and were last held on 2 September 1916. A riot broke out after the winning horse was disqualified, and the event was discontinued. It is remembered in the famous English folk song The Blaydon Races, and the event and its characters are vividly depicted in William Irving's 1903 painting. 'The Blaydon Races – A Study from Life' which is on show at the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead.

Folklore[]

Worms (derived from Norse: ‘ormr") are a common aspect of Northumbrian folklore, notable examples from the region include the Lambton Worm, Sockburn Worm and Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh. Typically, a Northumbrian worm legend focuses upon a knight who returns home from a foreign war to defeat one of these creatures.^[28]

Politics[]

The Northern Independence Party (NIP) is a secessionist political party which seeks to make Northern England an independent state under the name Northumbria.^[29] This proposed state would encompass the entirety of Northern England based upon the full extent of the Kingdom of Northumbria and not only the modern region.

Historical and genetic origins[]

Northumberland and County Durham, together with the Scottish Borders, are conterminous with the ancient British tribal kingdom of Bernicia (Bryneich) which is notable for the stable ancestry of its present indigenous population. The people of the region have been identified by DNA analysis to be strongly related to the genetic clusters of the Scottish Lowlands, Cumbria and Northern Ireland, who share a common line of descent.^[30][31] Linguistically, the Northumbrian dialect is closely related to Scots and other traditional Northern English dialects which share a common origin in Northumbrian Middle English.^[32]

Biodiversity[]

The region has a diverse landscape that includes maritime cliffs and extensive moorland that contains a number of rare species of flora and fauna. Of particular importance are the saltmarshes of Lindisfarne, the Tees Estuary, the heaths, bogs and traditional upland hay meadows of the North Pennines, and the Arctic-alpine flora of Upper Teesdale.

The beauty of the Northumbrian coastline has led to its designation as an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) stretching 100 miles from Berwick-Upon-Tweed to the River Coquet estuary.^[33] Among the 290 bird species identified on the Farne Islands, is the rare seabird the roseate tern. One of the foremost bird sanctuaries and observatory for migratory and wading birds in the UK is now operated at "Saltholme" which is part of a wider site of special scientific interest called Seal Sands. The Saltholme reserve is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds(RSPB). This project has been pronounced as one of the best places to view birds by Bill Oddie, the celebrity bird watcher and former host of the BBC's Spring Watch Programme. In December 2012 he also presented the project with a prize as the UK's favorite National Lottery funded project.^[34] The seal colony at Seal Sands on the mouth of the River Tees is thriving and stands at more than 60 harbour seals and this is the only breeding colony of this species on the northeast coast.^[35]"Rainton Meadows" is also a recently created bird-watching site.^[36] The region is also the English stronghold of black grouse^[37] and contains 80–90% of the UK population of yellow marsh saxifrage.^[38]

The Magnesian Limestone grasslands of East Durham are a unique habitat not found nowhere else in the world which is particularly important to many species of butterfly and moths.^[39]

The Northeast of England also features woodland such as Kielder Forest, the largest man-made forest in Europe.^[40] This is located within Northumberland National Park and contains an important habitat for the endangered red squirrel.^[41]

References[]