History of Wall

Some of the great upheavals in British history have touched the village of Wall.

Bronze and Iron Age sites lie on ground leading up to and on the fell above the village with similar sites close at hand near Fallowfield and Grottington. But the most observable traces of early occupation exist near the village due to the construction of Hadrian’s Wall from Wallsend in the East to the Solway Firth in the West. Before the days of organised archaeology and historical preservation there was much ‘re-cycling’ of the Hadrian Wall masonry for buildings of all types in the area including many in the village. However there are excellent elements of the Wall still to be seen at locations near by such Planetrees, Brunton, Chollerford and Chesters.

A second notable historical event was the battle of Heavenfield fought in about 630 between Oswald King of Bernicia (then part of Northumbria) and Cadwallon of Gwynedd (North Wales). Oswald triumphed, put the Welsh to flight and reunited Deira with Bernicia to rule over the whole of Northumbria.  According to the early English historian Bede this victory affirmed Christianity in Northumbria and a church named for St Oswald, which for many years was Wall Parish church, marks the site of the battle.

Although the turmoil of the Jacobite rebellion swirled around the Tynedale region perhaps the most important local impact was  the subsequent building in the 1750s of the Military Road (B6318) which runs North of the village crossing England from just West of Newcastle to Cumbria. This was constructed in response to the failure of Crown troops to intercept Bonnie Prince Charlie due to inadequate roads.

No further military matters disturbed the soil of Wall, or indeed England, but the two World Wars drew on the resources of men and women of the parish to support war efforts and a memorial to their service was erected on the inner Village Green.

A detailed history of the village of Wall can be found in ‘Wall. Our Northumbrian Village‘, a book distributed by Wall Village Society.