Carrycoats is a former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

, now in the parish of Birtley, in the county of

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, England. In 1951 the parish had a population of 34.

History

Carrycoats was formerly a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

in the parish of Thockrington. In 1870–72, it was a township with nine houses and population of 41, according to

John Marius Wilson John Marius Wilson (c. 1805–1885) was a British writer and an editor, most notable for his gazetteers. The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' (published 1870–72), was a substantial topographical dictionary in six volumes. It was a c ...

's ''

Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' is a substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales. Its six volumes h ...

''. It was noted to be ESE of the village of Bellingham. From 1866 Carrycoats was a civil parish in its own right until it was abolished on 1 April 1958 and merged with Birtley. It was a single estate, Carrycoats Estate, including Carrycoats Hall and several farms. The entire estate was offered for sale at auction on 5 September 1877. The estate then produced €935 per annum, not including €49 for the leasing of a

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

and not including the value of the residence. It was mainly pasture, with four "compact occupations" (farm complexes).The estate was stated to be nearly 1,800 acres, and four miles from Bellingham. Carrycoats was part of Bellingham Poor Law Union. (See List of poor law unions in England.)

Carrycoats Hall

''Carrycoats Hall'' () is a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

located on the Carry Burn about to the east of the

A68 road The A68 is a major road in the United Kingdom, running from Darlington in England to the A720 in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It crosses the Anglo-Scottish border at Carter Bar and is the only road to do so for some distance either way ...

. It is believed to be located on the site of Carrycoats

Bastle Bastel, bastle, or bastille houses are a type of construction found along the Anglo-Scottish border, in the areas formerly plagued by border reivers. They are fortified farmhouses, characterised by security measures against raids. Their name ...

, part of the suppressed monastery of Newminster. The hall has a two-gable front characteristic of the c.1840s or c.1850s, but its central portion is probably a century older. "Carrycoats Hall" is also a tune composed by Northumbrian fiddler and composer

Robert Whinham Robert Whinham (1814–1893) was a fiddler, composer and dancing master from Morpeth, Northumberland. Many tunes composed by him are still played, notably the ''Remember Me'' hornpipe, ''Whinham's Reel,'' and ''The Cambo March''. A 1995 book on ...

, known also as "Remember Me". The property was divided into four compact "occupations" known as ''Waterfalls'', ''Whitehouse'', ''Whiteside'' and ''Cragback Farms''. It has been the site of fund-raisers, such as a 2015 fund-raiser for the church at Thockrington.http://www.chollerton-churches.org.uk/social.html

Etymology

The name ''Carrycoats'', first recorded as ''Carricot'' in 1245, may have a

Brittonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...

origin. The first part of the name may be the element ''cajr'', with a primary sense of "an enclosed, defensible site" (i.e. "a hill-fort";

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

''caer''). This is followed by the

definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...

''ï ' (Welsh ''y '). The final element might be ''cę:d'', meaning "wild country, forest, woods" (Welsh ''coed'',

Old Cornish Cornish ( Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language, having become extinct as a living community language in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. However, k ...

''cuit''), replaced by

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''-cote'', "a cottage", with the plural ''-s'' added later. ''Carrycoats'' may have had a meaning of "stronghold in the wood". It is possible, however, that the township was named from the nearby ''Carry Burn'', a river-name derived from Brittonic ''*carr'', meaning "a stone, rock", though it could also be that the river was a

back-formation In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the c ...

from ''Carrycoats''.

References

{{reflist

External links

Location on OS map
Former civil parishes in Northumberland