|
|
|
|
The sweep of hills has Harwood Forest at its base and is the boundary of Northumberland National Park. The next 20 miles of the route heads along this border and frequent warning signs from this point on refer to military training at the Ministry of Defence's Otterburn Training which is situated inside the Park. This is an odd mixture of beautiful scenery and military exercises - the National Parks throughout the UK have a long tradition of defence use - regular visitors to other National Parks like the Lake District are used to the sound of military aircraft low-flying the area. It's perhaps a necessity of national security but strangely at odds with the quiet of the National Parks in the UK.
Otterburn Military Training Area was first established as far back as 1911 as an artillery range, and the training area now consists of approximately 57,000 acres. It's intersected by public and military roads and the training area is used for both live firing and non-firing training throughout the year, except for a four week period during the height of the lambing season. Live shells and mortar bombs, dating from the First World War onwards, are found regularly during clearance operations.
Ministry of Defence:
"Otterburn has ample evidence of previous military presence and in particular of the Roman Army's ventures north of Hadrian's Wall. Sites such as Chew Green, Dere Street and Rochester Roman Camps are visible evidence of this today. The northern boundary of the training area is the Scottish Border and in the turbulent times from 1400 to 1603 the area was part of the English Middle March. Cross border raiding or 'reiving' was a way of life, and there was a general unwillingness by both the Scottish and English governments to do anything about the situation until the Union of the Crowns in 1603 made it politically desirable to bring law and order to the Borders.
In 1910 British Defence policy changed in reaction to the threat of a European war. Lord Haldane formed the Territorial Army, from the Volunteers, Militias, Fencibles and Yeomanries which had been set up during the previous century or so to protect the country from a French invasion, and he created Artillery Batteries which required ranges to practice on. As a result 20,000 acres were purchased at Redesdale in 1911 and the ranges and a tented camp were established."
