If you remember a while back we posted an article about the Shepherd's Cairn at Ewartly Shank about two shepherds who sadly lost their lives in a snowstorm. A little further up, we discovered another memorial, this time to Nellie Heron, who unfortunately met a similar fate.
Who Was Nellie Heron?
Eleanor “Nellie” Heron was a local woman who lived at Hartside in the Breamish Valley in the mid 19th century and was a mother to ten children! She was an ordinary working hill woman, part of the tight rural community around Alnham and the Whittingham area.
3 December 1863
But this story is a sad one. On 3rd December 1863, Nellie had been in Alnham tending to a sick shepherd then during the afternoon, around 15:00, she set off to walk home to Hartside. The journey was roughly 8km across exposed moorland, the same high ground reached via Salters Road.
The weather was deteriorating badly and a snowstorm started blowing in. We read that local accounts say Mrs Davidson of Whittingham and the Rev. Selby Thompson tried to persuade her not to leave and to stay the night, however she chose to head back.
As she climbed onto the hills, she was seen singing the popular revival hymn of the time, A Day's March Nearer Home.
Local history later described the moment in these words:
The grief of the two was great when they saw her mount the hills in the blinding drift of snow, singing in her cheery and resounding voice the popular revival hymn of the time 'A Day's March Nearer Home', never to be seen alive again but buried in the drift.
Records & Recollections, Aln & Breamish Local History Society
A Tragedy
Shortly after, a blizzard swept across the moor and Nellie never reached home. She was found the following day sitting upright in the snow, with her walking stick and basket beside her. The accepted cause of death is exposure, what we would now describe as hypothermia.
As with the Shepherd's Cairn, this simple memorial stone marks the approximate spot where she was found on the moor above Alnham. It bears her name and date of death, but no definitive record survives explaining exactly who erected the stone or when it was first placed there, which adds a small element of mystery.
Today it stands as one of several isolated memorial stones scattered across the Cheviot landscape, marking sudden or tragic deaths in an unforgiving environment.
Where Was She Buried?
Nellie Heron is neither buried at Alnham or Hartside, but instead at St. Bartholomew's Church in Whittingham. We popped in there on the way back and found her gravestone.
It's just over a 3km hike to get to Nellie Heron's Memorial Stone with 187m ascent, if you park at Alnham Church.