The deep countryside is filled with centuries old stones, waymarkers and crosses. They're less easy to spot when you're scooting about in a motor, but walking down country lanes opens up a whole new perspective on these narrow winding lanes.

This is the remains of a medieval wayside cross, with the top being lost to time. These crosses were erected in the medieval period, up to the 15th century to reinforce Christian faith in the rurality while providing a marker that the traveller was on the right path. There are around 350-400 wayside crosses left in the whole of the country. A closer look shows the cross once featured a v shape which are the remains of an engraved cross - typical of medieval wayside crosses.

This one was used on the Stanegate Road, a Roman road from Corbridge to Carlisle which crossed this road here and led over a ford on the river. It continued to be used through medieval times, and though we know the route today a fair bit of it has been reclaimed for agriculture or incorporated into more modern roads.

It's also worth noting Homers Lane seems a fairly unusual one. After a bit of digging, it could date back to Eomaer. This was an Old English name fairly prominent in old texts and subsequently used for Lord of the Rings!

There was a small cottage on the lane named Homer's House, which was the site of one of the most notorious murders in the Georgian north. A piece was written in Archaeological Aeliana in 2018 by John Castling and Clara Woolford, after a small excavation there. It is well worth a read: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/details.xhtml?recordId=3226532