T HEY were once known as the Debatable Lands. Fought over ferociously by the Reivers, this border territory, along with the Scottish highlands, was one of the last parts of Britain to be brought under the rule of law.

Two years ago it became a ‘debatable’ part of Britain again when the Scottish referendum was held and Scotland’s recent vote to remain in Europe have reignited the independence campaign.

This is all grist to the mill of Zoe Childerley, who has trekked the 100-mile border from the Solway Firth to Berwick as part of a six-month artist residency with Visual Arts in Rural Communities.

Now she is in the midst of putting together an end of residency exhibition called The Debatable Lands at VARC’s HQ at Highgreen, Tarset and a limited edition book, which will offer a 21st century century view of the border landscape and its inhabitants in photography, drawing and print.

“I’m interested in their relationship to the borderlands and how this impacts their cultural identity today,” Zoe said. “This is some of the quietest, darkest and least populated parts of the country, with a tumultuous and bloody past.

“It has been a historically disputed and romanticised region, although wandering through the forests, moors and not quite so easy going peat bogs, it’s hard now to imagine the days of the Reivers.

“The two recent referendums have exposed angst over sovereignty and with nationalism rearing its head, the Anglo-Scots border is again significant.”

Miraculously perhaps, Zoe managed to cross the country without one blister, or one bite from Kielder’s notorious midges, but then she did restrict herself to doable forays of between seven and 14 miles a day, particularly since her previous rambling experience was, she admits, ‘walking to the pub’.

“I didn’t want to do it in one go because I knew I would be quite slow, stopping to take photographs or wander off. It wasn’t like a physical challenge to get over from one end to the other, so I broke it up into chunks.”

She took lots of tips on everything from socks to how to read a compass from Jerome Stonborough, a seasoned walker and cousin of William Morrison Bell, owner of the Highgreen estate, who accompanied her on some of the routes.

With her trusty GPS, she set out just south of Gretna by the River Sark, and worked her way across to just north of Berwick, finally emerging from a secret tunnel on to the North Sea coast that was once used for hauling up sea kelp by farmers to fertilise their land.

Some days she wouldn’t see another soul, which for a Londoner, is a rare pleasure.

“It definitely feels like the wildest part of England, “she said. “I know that nowhere is wild really – it’s all been farmed and mined and quarried – but for someone from the city it feels like that.”

Her photographs and drawings capture the changes in the landscape as she ventured west to east from the flatness of the Solway through the forests and up to the towering heights of the Cheviots, which she found “stunning, but quite bleak.”

Then it was on to the Tweed valley and a more lush and green agricultural perspective.

On route she sought out many interesting people who populate the borders –- sheep farmers, including Deadwater Farm’s Zoe Hall at Kielder; foragers Linus and Louise Morton of Northern Wilds at Greenhead and beekeeper Willie Robson of Chainbridge Honey Farm.

Then there was Tomasz, a Polish chef, who had crossed other borders to work in Newcastleton; Declan, a flautist with a local ceilidh band and an 80-year-old grouse farmer.

At the beginning of August, she travelled to the Common Riding at Flodden. “Talking to people both sides of the border, they are quite interested and proud of the history of the Reivers and those years of lawlessness.”

Zoe also cultivated a new interest in astronomy while she was here, volunteering at the Kielder Observatory, which has inspired some spin-off art centred on the dark skies.

Asked whether the Anglo Scottish border has engendered a desire to document other border lands, she laughs.

“People have asked, ‘Is this going to be the start of you doing borders of the world?’ And obviously there are borders everywhere.

“Whilst I’ve been doing this residency there’s been a lot about Brexit, but also there is the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe which is nowhere near finishing and that is all about crossing borders, but with thousands of people dying, and I am struck by the bad luck of being born one side of a border or another. But I never know where my work will take me next.”

Northumberland has been one of her closer residencies. After graduating from an MA at Leicester’s De Montfort University in 2002 she went to Jamaica on a two-month, photography specific, Commonwealth Games-inspired exchange. More residencies followed in Wales, Colorado and, most recently, California’s Mojave desert.

“At heart I am a bit of an explorer,” added Zoe, whose day job is lecturing at Kingston College.

“I love meeting new people and learning what life is like in different parts of the world.”

l Zoe’s exhibition opening party is on Saturday, September 10, from 2-6pm. All are welcome and the exhibition runs from 1am-4pm until September 25.