Local History

The Parish of Corsenside is about six miles long by four and a half broad, totalling about 12,000 acres (5,000 ha). The Parish is bisected by the River Rede and the A68 (the road largely follows the line of Dere Street, the Roman road which ran from York to Scotland). This largely agricultural area has been occupied historically by Neolithic man, the Romans, and St Cuthbert’s Celtic monks. It has been an area of war in the turbulent times of the Scots raiders (the Reivers) up to the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England in 1603. Later it became a site of heavy industry with the iron works in Ridsdale, a woollen mill at West Woodburn and was served by the eccentric Border Counties Railway from 1865 until 1965.

The name Corsenside is probably derived from “Cressentsit” or “Crossensite”, the site of a Celtic Cross erected by St. Columba’s monks to mark where they preached in 9th Century.
There were early settlements at: 

• Corsenside where the Church sheltered St Cuthbert’s corpse as it was carried from Lindisfarne to Chester le Street
• The Brig; - Habitancum where the Roman Fort guarded the bridge where Dere Street crossed the River Rede
• East Woodburn which held the seat of the important Norman family de Lisle after whom the Lisle’s Burn is named
• Ridsdale where iron was smelted with local coal and iron ore, initially within the village and then in later years was taken to Elswick for Lord Armstrong’s works there.

Apart from extensive stock rearing other industries in the parish include:

• Two sandstone quarries from where the stone goes to reface Victorian buildings in Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow
• Lord Armstrong’s former gun testing range at The Steel continues to meet research and development needs of the 21st Century defence industries, now under the ownership of Vickers
• A substantial drainage and pipe laying contractor.