When the Romans built Hadrian's Wall across our region in 122 AD it was built as a means of military control and more or less marked the northern limit, or border of the Roman Empire. It was the Romans who thus established the North East as a border region. However, the wall was not built, as is often thought, to keep the English and Scots apart. In fact there was no such thing as England in those days. Nor was there a Kingdom called Scotland.

In Roman times, the land on both sides of Hadrian's Wall was inhabited by tribal groups of ancient Britons who spoke a language resembling Welsh. The English and the Scots came later.

Much further north and beyond the Firth of Forth, in the highlands of what was then called Caledonia, lived the Picts a race about whom we know very little. The Scots were yet to arrive. It was only about 300 years later during the final century or so of the Roman occupation that the people known as the Scots began their invasion and settlement of Caledonia. They originated from Ulster in the northern part of Ireland.

Raiding and warfare were a way of life in and around Hadrian's Wall during the Roman period. The Romans had to contend with the war like nature of native Britons, Picts and in the later days, Scots and Anglo-Saxons. In fact border warfare would be a constant aspect of our region's history for centuries after the Roman departure. At about the time the Romans departed from Britain, the Anglo-Saxons (or English) started to arrive on Britain's shores from southern Denmark and Germany. In the north the new invaders established the powerful Kingdom of Northumbria, defeating the native Britons with who they gradually absorbed through intermarriage. Northumbria's territory eventually stretched from the River Humber and River Mersey as far north as the Firth of Forth. It included all of present northern England and much of what is now lowland Scotland, including Edinburgh.

The people of Northumbria spoke a form of Anglo-Saxon called Northumbrian, whilst the Scots who were gradually establishing a kingdom in the highlands to the north, spoke a Celtic language called Gaelic. There was constant warfare between the Kingdoms of Northumbria and Scotland and for centuries Northumbria maintained the upper hand.

However, Northumbria had powerful Anglo-Saxon neighbours to its south. With the rise of Mercia and Wessex, Northumbria was ultimately subjugated. It eventually became part of a much larger Kingdom of Anglo-Saxons called England. Nevertheless, the defence of Northumbria's northern border still remained a problem and the threat from Scottish raids never ceased.

Durham had been fortified as early as 1006 when King Malcolm and his Scottish army were defeated in a raid upon the city. The heads of the best looking Scottish soldiers were displayed around the city walls and Durham women were presented with the gift of a cow for washing the heads and combing the hair.

However the region was not so fortunate in 1019 when the Scots under King Malcolm II defeated the Northumbrians in a great battle. Such a defeat seemed inevitable sooner or later. Northumbria was no longer a kingdom, but merely an earldom of England. Northumbria was severely weakened and rather left to its own devices.

The Northumbrian leader Earl Eadulf Cudel of Bamburgh fought bravely against Malcolm at the battle of Carham on the banks of the Tweed in 1019 but the price of Cudel's eventual defeat was a great one. All land north of the Tweed as far north as the Firth of Forth was seized from Northumbria and became part of Scotland. It remains so to this day. Only Berwick, just north of the Tweed is still in English territory, but it has changed hands on no less than thirteen occasions.

Nevertheless Northumbrian influence continued in a rather surprising way north of the border and especially in the lowlands beyond the Tweed. This whole area including the emerging Scottish capital of Edinburgh continued to speak its Anglo-Saxon language that was riddled with Northumbrian words. This form of English would eventually take on a character of its own north of the border and ultimately replaced the Gaelic spoken across the Highlands in all but a few isolated areas of Caledonia. The form of English spoken in Scotland ultimately has its roots in Northumbria.