Nesbit is a hamlet and 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Doddington,

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. It was once the site of a medieval village. In maps published during the 17th to 19th centuries, the name of the settlement was variously spelled Nesbet, Nesbitt or Nesbit. In 1951 the parish had a population of 143. Nesbit is near the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

of the

Glen A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. The word is Goidelic in origin: ''gleann'' in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, ''glion'' in Manx. ...

and

Till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

rivers and the hypothesized location of one of

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

's battles against invading

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

. Latin documentation dating to 1242 lists "Dodington cum Nesebit membro suo" (Doddington with its member Nesbit) as among the holdings of Baron William de Vesci. In 1346, Edward III granted land at Nesbit to Thomas Grey (or Gray) of Heaton after the rebellion of the previous holder, John de Trollope. Documents note the existence in 1415 of a defensive tower at Nesbit belonging to his grandson, Thomas Grey. However, in a 1541 survey it was observed that: :At Nesebytte (Nesebitt) there was a towre of thinheritaunce of Sir Roger Gray but yt is longe synce for laske of reparacons decayed & fallen and no fortresse there now remayneth. During the 19th century, the township was productive farmland supporting a small community of workers. An 1855 survey of Northumberland reports as follows. :Nesbit township is situated four miles north by west of Wooler. It contains 776 acres, and the landowners are the Messrs. Clarke of Newcastle. The number of inhabitants in 1801, was 63; in 1811, 65; in 1821, 52; in 1831, 47; in 1841, 59 and in 1851, 63 souls. Nesbit was formerly a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in Doddington parish, from 1866 Nesbit was a civil parish in its own right until it was abolished on 1 April 1955 and merged with Doddington. Today, Nesbit is the site of a sheep farm with no visible trace of the medieval tower or village.

References

Dodds, M. H. (1935). ''A history of Northumberland ''vol 14, Newcastle upon Tyne, 178. Hodgson, J. C. (1916). ''Archaeologia Aeliana'' 3rd Series, 3, 6.

External links

*{{gbmapping, NT983335 Hamlets in Northumberland Former civil parishes in Northumberland

See also

References

External links