Tarset is a civil parish in Northumberland, England, created in 1955 from parts of Bellingham, Tarset West and Thorneyburn parishes. It is west-north-west of Bellingham. Today it shares a parish council with the adjacent parish of Greystead. It is partly located within the Northumberland National Park, and also mostly within the international dark skies park.

History

The Comyns, Scottish knights, were established in Tynedale in the 12th century and the manor of Tarset was granted to William Comyn in around 1222. Licence to crenellate was granted to John Comyn in 1267, and Tarset Castle was built half a mile south-west of the present village, of which only grassed-over remains can now be seen. Two miles to the south-west on Birks Moor are the remains of the fortified house known as

Dally Castle Dally Castle is a ruined 13th-century stone motte-and-bailey fortress in Northumberland, and one of the first hall houses in Northumberland. It lies west of Bellingham Castle, and west of Bellingham on the Chirdon Burn, a tributary of the Nort ...

, believed to have been erected by David Linsey in his manor of Chirdon.

Governance

Tarset is in the parliamentary constituency of

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden, Northumberland, Warden nearby, and ...

Demography

Tarset has a population of 196. In 1831, its population was 169. In 1968, its population was 149.

Transport

Tarset was served by Tarset railway station on the

Border Counties Railway The Border Counties Railway was a railway line connecting in Northumberland, with on the Waverley Route in Roxburghshire. Its promoter had hopes of exploiting mineral resources in the area, and it was taken up by the North British Railway, ...

which linked the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, near

, with the

Border Union Railway The Border Union Railway was a railway line which connected places in the south of Scotland and Cumberland in England. It was authorised on 21 July 1859 and advertised as the Waverley Route by the promoters - the North British Railway.Awdry (199 ...

Riccarton Junction Riccarton may refer to: New Zealand * Riccarton, New Zealand, a suburb of Christchurch ** Riccarton (New Zealand electorate), the electorate named after it ** The location of Riccarton Race Course * a locality on the Taieri Plains in Otago Scotl ...

. The first section of the route was opened between

and

Chollerford Chollerford is a village in Northumberland, England, approximately four miles (seven km) north of Hexham (via the A6079 road) on the B6318, the Military Road, not far from Hadrian's Wall. There is a roundabout in the village where the B6318 and B ...

in 1858, the remainder opening in 1862. The line was closed to passengers by

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in 1956. Part of the line is now beneath the surface of

Kielder Water Kielder Water is a large man-made reservoir in Northumberland in North East England. It is the largest artificial lake in the United Kingdom by capacity of water and it is surrounded by Kielder Forest, one of the biggest man-made woodlands in E ...

Notable people

John Candlish – politician, Liberal mayor of Sunderland, shipbuilder and glass-bottle manufacturer, owner of Sunderland Beacon and founder of Sunderland News. Matthew Festing – Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 2008 until his resignation in 2017

References

External links

Tarset Community WebsiteA detailed history of Tarset CastleLocation and History of Greenhaugh and Tarset (Northumberland National Park Authority)Tarset on Google MapsBlack Middens Bastle House (English Heritage)Tarset Weather (Gatehouse Weather Station)Sidwood (Forestry England)
{{authority control Civil parishes in Northumberland