Long Cleeve

In more prosperous days, the village of Anristanan (S."Long Cloven-vale") was a jumping-off point for travelers from the Twilight Hills heading south into Siragale and Cardolan. That trade died off as population and law dwindled in the southern lands. House Peressen, lords of Anristanan , ended in the bloodshed of the Second Northern War. Their keep, on a hill west of the village , was swallowed by the forest ; their claim to the surrounding lands passed back to the Elves. The gypsum mine that had been the other source of the villagers' income could not compete with better ones to the north, so House Tarma , it s owner , shut it down. In T.A .1630 clans of Stoor and Harfoot Hobbits moved into the vale of Anristanan, renaming it Long Cleeve and buying land-rights from the few Arthadan families still living along the creek. Under the leadership of Fencon Bellager, they reopened the diggings and sent out crews to improve the trails leading into Siragale.

Long Cleeve in TA 1640
Within two years, the Hobbits were shipping cartloads of gypsum south , providing the new Shire settlements with the makings of quality wall-plaster and useful ceramics .Lord Tarma reacted with alarm ; not only was he being deprived of taxes from his family's old diggings, but the new village stood squarely astride his line of communications with western Siragale. As a stop-gap measure, Tarma peasants moved into the northern end of the valley, obliging the Hobbits to form a common moot to govern the village. Further, Lord Tarma had won recognition of his right to a tithe on the output of the mines, even going so far as to claim sovereignty over the entire area. Fencon Bellager, the only leader trusted by all the Hobbits of Long Cleeve, had spent most of the last two years in Fornost campaigning against the Tarma claims. Now Tarma warriors have moved into the mannish village of Long Cleeve, intending to enforce their Lord' s dictates. While the Harfoot clans—the Bellages, Alders, and Aspens—press for peaceful resistance, the Stoors have opted to fortify their holes. Kocho Curl, a wild and noisome trapper and herb-gather, is their leader. He almost seems to welcome a confrontation ; nowhere in the Shire is there a greater chance for bloodshed between Men and Hobbits than in Long Cleeve.