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Listed below are sources of information relating to farming in the North Northumberland area, along with statistical data for agriculture in Britain, from the 19th to the 21st century.

For 19th century farming in Northumberland, the Woodhorn and Northumberland Archives have produced a Farms Index for 1860. It lists the farms by name and gives the township and parish in which they were situated.

Sheep Tales & Spinning Yarns is a website [now archived] developed from a project based in North Northumberland, and it tells the story of sheep farming, shepherding and lives of families living in the border hills past and present.  It offers many contemporary and historical photographs, as well as an archive of oral histories from local people.

A comprehensive set of statistical data on agriculture and land use from the 19th century through to the 21st is provided by the following two websites:

A vision of Britain through time 1869-1910

A vision of Britain through time 1866-2001

Luke Moody was the tenant of Bowsden Farm [Bowsden West Farm], in Bowsden, Northumberland, circa 1823-1833, before he and his family emigrated to Canada in 1834.  Part of the family history, and the struggle Luke Moody experienced as tenant of Bowsden West Farm, including the correspondence between him and solicitors Dickson, Archer & Thorp, of Alnwick, can be found on this website at:

Luke Moody, farmer of Bowsden, and of Newmarket, Canada

Photograph of three sheep farmers from Langleeford in the Cheviot Hills, taken in the early 1900s. © Berwick Record Office.

 Banner image:  (a) Early 1900s farming scene, showing a horse drawn reaper-binder. © whatsthatpicture from Hanwell, London, UK [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons; (b) see main picture above.