Nafferton Farm – a little piece of history :

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Nafferton is Anglo-Saxon for “homestead of the night rider,” nobody really knew what he was up to riding around in the dark.

Nafferton Archaeology and History
The story of human activity at Nafferton begins with of finds of flint artefacts collected by archaeology students during fieldwork on the farm in the 1980s and 90s. The earliest items date from the Mesolithic period, and may be eight or nine thousand years old. At this time, farming had not been invented and people came to the area to hunt and forage in the woods that mantled the landscape after the melting of the ice sheets. This research also produced evidence of activity in the area by the early farmers of the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, but this was transitory and the evidence, also mainly flints, is slight.

No prehistoric settlements have been identified at Nafferton but research nearby at Horsley and Harlow Hill has shown that by about 500 BC, at the beginning of the Iron Age, permanent farmsteads had begun to dot the landscape. Also by this time, most of the old woods had been cleared and turned into fields demarcated by ditches and hedges. When Hadrian’s Wall was built to the north of Nafferton, it ran through open farmland and its construction may have had a similar effect to the building of a modern by-pass, cutting farm holdings in two.

It is in the mid 12th century AD that Nafferton first appears in the historical record. Throughout the Middle Ages there was a small village of that name, probably at the site now occupied by Old Nafferton, west of the present farm. Records suggests that in the 13th and 14th centuries there were between seven and 14 households including a mill, but by the 18th century this had dropped to three. A similar decline is recorded in other villages in the area and is usually attributed to the devastation caused by the wars between England and Scotland, which only ended with the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

Nafferton’s most prominent antiquity is Lonkin’s Hall, also known as Nafferton Castle, the remains of which lie in the dene to the east of the farm and consist of an embanked earthwork enclosure about 90m by 60m, in the south-west corner of which are the remains of a stone tower. The enclosure can be attributed to Philip of Ulecotes who is recorded as starting to build a castle there in 1217. Philip had been a supporter of King John in his dispute with the barons but after Philip’s death in 1220, King Henry III ordered that the castle be demolished. The stone tower has been shown by excavation to be later in date and was probably built in the15th or 16th centuries. The name ‘Lonkin’s Hall’ derives from the association with Lang Lonkin who reputedly murdered the lady and child of nearby Welton Hall and features in a famous border ballad. The tower was largely demolished in 1809 to provide stone for a bridge over the dene.

Little is know about Nafferton during the post-Medieval period but it was acquired by William Beaumont (later Viscount Allendale) in the 1840s and remains part of the Allendale Estate.
Chris Tolan-Smith

Agriculture has been taught at Newcastle University – originally as Kings College, Durham – for over a century. For the last 60 years the University has farmed Nafferton Farm as a tenant of the Allendale Estate, taking over from the Ministry of Agriculture who managed the farm during the Second World War.

The farm is 725 acres of medium loam land lying on the north side of the Tyne valley about 12 miles west of Newcastle. The farm was developed as a mixed demonstration unit for students reading Agriculture at the University to compliment its dedicated research farm at Cockle Park near Morpeth. Over the years, as well as the current enterprises of dairy cows, beef cattle, cereals and vegetables, Nafferton has had a pig herd, a sheep flock and was an important potato producer.

The University has had a number of eminent professors of agriculture who have played their part in shaping Nafferton. The first of these was Professor Wheldon from 1944 to 1954, followed by "Mac" Cooper until 1972 and then Professor Gordon Dickson until 1997. A number of the fields at Nafferton have been named in memory of these and earlier famous Newcastle agriculturists including Sommerville, Pawson, Gilchrist, Middleton and Wheldon. The farm will hold many memories for ex-students – sometimes for reasons other than agriculture.

Major changes began at Nafferton in 2000 with the establishment of the Nafferton Ecological Farming Group and the conversion of the eastern half of the farm to an organic system. The farm now has 350 acres of certified organic land producing vegetables, potatoes, milling wheat and the feed for its herd of 90 organic dairy cows.