Middleton is a settlement and

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England. The parish is situated on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast, south of the island of

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

, and contains the villages of Ross, Detchant and Elwick; all are shrunken medieval villages. Both the A1 London to Edinburgh road and

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

pass through the parish. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 136, falling to 115 at the 2011 Census.

Etymology

Middleton is one of many English place-names deriving from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''middel'' 'middle' and ''tūn'' 'estate, settlement'; thus the name once meant 'middle settlement', perhaps because it performed a central function for a number of surrounding communities. The name of this particular example is first attested in 1201. The name ''Detchant'' is first attested in 1166 as ''Dichende'' and comes from the Old English words ''dic'' 'ditch' and ''ende'' 'end', and thus once meant 'settlement at the end of a ditch'. Elwick is first recorded between 1154 and 1166 as ''Ellewich''. The name is thought to derive from an Old English

personal name A personal name, full name or prosoponym (from Ancient Greek ''prósōpon'' – person, and ''onoma'' –name) is the set of names by which an individual person or animal is known. When taken together as a word-group, they all relate to that on ...

''Ella'' and the word ''wīc'' 'dwelling place, farm'; thus it once meant 'Ella's farm'. The name of Ross, first attested between 1208 and 1210, comes from the Brittonic language, the modern Welsh equivalent being ''rhos'' 'promontory', though in the case of the Northumberland Ross the word might originally have meant 'moor'.

Governance

The parish is in the

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

constituency of

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

Landmarks

The

Devil's Causeway The Devil's Causeway is a Roman roads, Roman road in Northumberland, in North East England, North East England. It branches off Dere Street north of Corbridge and can be traced through Northumberland for about north to Berwick-upon-Tweed. D ...

passes the village of Middleton just over to the east. The causeway is a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

road which starts at Port Gate on

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

, north of

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Northumberland, Halton, Acomb, Northumberland, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was k ...

, and extends northwards across Northumberland to the mouth of the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the River Tweed. The Tweed is one of the great salmon rivers ...

. ''Middleton Hall'' is a Grade II listed Tudor style mansion. After World War II it was sold to the Greenwich Hospital Trust. It has since been restored as a private residence.

References

External links

Local History: Belford with Middleton, Northumberland
Villages in Northumberland Civil parishes in Northumberland Northumberland places with etymologically Brittonic names {{Northumberland-geo-stub