Battlefield Britain [00] Northumbria at War by Derek Dodds

Author:Derek Dodds [Dodds, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Home Front, Campaigns, Multiperiod
ISBN: 9781844151493
Google: etUUpDvTZcEC
Amazon: 1844151492
Goodreads: 2889525
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 2005-03-02T10:00:00+00:00

South-east of Otterburn: the way to war. A view from the modern road towards the medieval ‘drove road’ which ran from Belsay to Elsdon.

The baronial Otterburn Towers was built in 1830, supposedly on the site of a peel tower which stood firm against the Scots in 1388.

Failing to dent the defences of Newcastle, the Scottish raiders struck out for home on the morning of 18 August. A few miles from the town, at Ponteland, they found a less resilient tower and captured its custodian, Aymer de Athol. From there they continued on their well-beaten track, climbing steadily to the Cheviots and the border beyond. A day’s march brought them up high on a broad riverside haugh of the Rede and the Northumbrian hamlet of Otterburn. Its peel withstood the Scots before they moved on to make camp on higher ground slightly north-west of the settlement. In the wooded area around Greenchesters, trees were felled to build a substantial rampart, signs of which it is claimed were still visible in the nineteenth century. In battle, however, this defensive precaution of Douglas was only short-lived.

The feast of St Oswald, 19 August, was drawing to a close as an English army, containing many retainers from the Percy household, hastened towards Otterburn. On a forced march from Newcastle, Ralph Percy had joined his older brother in the vanguard of the finally galvanised English response. They might initially have expected to catch a Scottish rearguard slowed by herds of stolen cattle. But now, warned by the local population, the English hot pursuit ground to a halt. The entire Scots army was encamped and at rest ahead of them.

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