Bingfield is a village in Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is situated to the north of Corbridge

Corbridge

 Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, situated west of Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages in the vicinity include Halton, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe.-Roman fort and town:...

, off the A68 road

A68 road

The A68 is a major road in the United Kingdom, running from Darlington in England to the A720 in Scotland.From Darlington, the road runs north, bypassing Bishop Auckland, and running through West Auckland, Toft Hill and Tow Law, past Consett and Corbridge...

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Governance

Bingfield is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham

Hexham (UK Parliament constituency)

- Elections in the 2000s :- Elections in the 1990s :- Elections in the 1980s :- Elections in the 1970s :-Notes and references:...

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Modern history of Bingfield

Bingfield likely developed from a farming community in the early 19th century, since most of the buildings date to that era. There were probably four farms: the present farm at the bottom of the road (now owned by the Whites and Sistersons); the Scott's farm, located about half a mile from Bingfield Combe Cottage, which consists of a massive farmhouse and several barn

Barn

A barn is an agricultural building used for storage and as a covered workplace. It may sometimes be used to house livestock or to store farming vehicles and equipment...

 houses, now converted into homes. There is a smaller farm fifty yards opposite from the original farmhouse

Farmhouse

Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a farm. It is a type of building or house which serves a residential purpose in a rural or agricultural setting. Most often, the surrounding environment will be a farm. Many farm houses are shaped like a T...

 at the bottom of the hill, which was owned by the Scotts and Bingfield east quarter. There was also a school in Bingfield, and a church which dates to the late 18th/early 19th century. As there is no church in Hallington (the next village along) their population would also have used this church and school. It is not clear when the school closed, but area octogenarians Nicholas White and Keith Scott attended the school.

Bingfield remained largely unchanged from the mid 19th century until after the Second World War. The change began with mechanisation. In the 1960s many farmers in England fell on hard times. It was then that the Whites, who owned the smaller farm at the bottom of Bingham hill sold of half their farm to Cuthbert Sisterson. The Suddes (a local family run farm around two miles (3 km) away) had to sell their farm house, but the son (Michael) has managed to buy it back in recent times. Since the 1970s there was a period of farmers selling off redundant farm buildings to be converted into houses.

Going further back in time, Bingfield was an ancient settlement. There are the remains of an ancient medieval village in the field in front of the church, uncovered during an oil excavation.

History of Bingfield Combe Cottage and two neighbouring houses

Bingfield Combe Cottage was originally built as a cart shed for Bingfield farm (which is the farm where about one mile (1.6 km) away, at the bottom of the hill). The cottage

Cottage

__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...

 was built to store carts and farm machinery such as plows. There are now two separately owned farms separated by about 50 yards; however, this holding used to be a single large farm (approximately 1000 acres). As far as is known the cottage was constructed in about 1830. The stone was probably sourced from the quarry along the ridge, although there are reports that claim that actual stones were stolen from Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...

, which runs less than three miles (5 km) away from Bingfield. The farm at the bottom of Bingfeld hill has most recently been owned by the Whites, and until recently the farm 500 yards from this, was owned by the Sistersons. There were three buildings up here. As well as our house the other two buildings were used to support the farm. The next door house, then a barn was for stabling horses/cattle and the house behind ours was the gin gan; this was a massive room for grinding corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

. A horse was hooked up to a gear system which operated grinding stone

Grinding Stone

Grinding Stone is a 1973 debut album by Gary Moore, released under the "The Gary Moore Band" moniker.-Track listing:All songs by Gary Moore.# "Grinding Stone" – 9:38# "Time to Heal" - 6:19# "Sail Across the Mountain" - 6:58...

s powered by the horse walking round the room. It can be deduced that these buildings were built up here (remote from the farm ) to save the farmer from having to transport equipment up and down the hill in days before mechanization (tractors). Bingfield farmhouse was the building that would have been built originally and our house, then a barn would have been built in the years after that.