Border Villages.
falstone
At the southern end of Kielder Reservoir, in Redesdale.
The village of Falstone lies at the boundary of the Northumberland National Park.
Falstone is a mile downstream of the dam of the Kielder Reservoir, the largest man made lake in Europe amidst the largest man made forest.
This is a conservation village neatly kept and deservedly the pride of the villagers. There is an attractive riverside walk. There is car parking besides the village hall.
The bridge takes the old toll road to Scotland.
Nearby Falstone Farm incorporates a tower and a lintel gives the date as 1604 although the tower was earlier. At nearby Hawkhope are two well preserved bastles still being used as houses.
Falstone suffered severely from raids and counter raids of the Border reivers. The principal family were the Robsons were great reivers and the name is still common in the region. Falstone is believed to be the original location of the Robson family.
On one occasion a group of Robsons set out on their reiving activities and, instead of pursuing their usual route through Redesdale into Scotland, they chose to travel west along Tynedale into Scotland. Eventually they acquired a good number of sheep, the property of the Grahams, and made off home with them.
The journey was necessarily slow, but uneventful. No doubt they were observed en route by many but were not challenged. Probably the good people along the way were only too glad that the sheep were not theirs.
But on arriving back home the Robson gang were very upset to discover that the animals they had stolen were infected with sheep scab and it wasn’t long before the whole of the Robson flock was infected.
Feeling angry and cheated, the Robsons returned to Graham country, and this time they captured seven Grahams who were immediately hanged as a warning to all future victims to ensure that the next time the Robsons paid them a visit, they had better not keep ’scabbit schepe.’