NT9308 : Rectilinear enclosure north of Old Rookland
taken 4 years ago, 3 km from Biddlestone, Northumberland, England
Old Rookland is a ruined two-storey farmstead situated east of Rookland Hill just north of the valley of Rookland Sike. It has three distinctive trees.
Small stock enclosures can be seen on aerial photos to the north and south of the building and there is a small area of rigg and furrow ploughing to the rear.
There is information on the Hindmarsh family who were occupiers of Rookland from 1717 until the 1800s here: Archive Link
Previously going by the name of Rookland, at the time of the Ordnace Survey c.1860, it was described as "a one storey house, with out-buildings, garden, and a farm of moorland attached, the property of Walter Selby Esqr."
Link
It was for a time the home of shepherd, John Dagg, who left Rookland in 1939 to live at another remote cottage, Dunsdale, in the Lambden Burn valley north of The Cheviot NT8923 : Dunsdale from south-east. In 1944, he was involved with others in the rescue of US airmen from a crash site on Braydon Crag NT8921 : Aircraft crash site near Braydon Crag for which his collie, Sheila, was awarded the Dickin Medal.
Old Rookland was occupied until the 1950s when it was abandoned for the (new) cottage of Rookland NT9407 : Rookland in a more accessible location west of Biddlestone.