Border Reiver (Border Robber)  The Border reivers were families living in clans or in outlawed bands between the Scottish Southern Uplands and the Penines from the late 13th. century to the middle of the 16th. century. Farmers,landowners and labourers having one thing in common, the drive to survive in a harsh environment through rustling, robbing, fighting and blackmailing (a term they introduced to the English language).

Reivers were exceptional horsemen riding short stocky horses called hoblers or hobbys to combat the boggy inhospitable terrain. They wore helmets colloquially called "steel bonnets" and their clothing was a tough quilted coat (jack) sometimes with metal plates sewn into them leather breeches and boots. When enlisted for the army the reivers were catagorized as light horsemen and employed as scouts, and regarded at the time as probably the finest light cavalry in Europe. These men and women were tough and fiercely independent, products of a very unstable environment and a harsh terrain.Notable Reiver descendants; 3 American Presidents R. Nixon, J Carter, L Johnson (all Reiver surnames) the Evangalist Billy Graham and the first man on the moon Neil Armstrong as well as all the people who still live in Northumberland with surnames dating back 700yrs. (Hume, Kerr, Armstrong,Heron, Ridley, Hedley, Robson, Dodd, Milburn, Shaftoe, Fenwick, Charlton to name a few). B.G.

Size 6ins.  Cast from the original sculpture in plaster, hand tinted.  

    Price £15 inc. p&p.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Border Reiver Wall Plaque

                                                                         Size 12in. Cast from original sculpture in cement. Price  £25  inc. p&p.