Photographs Of Newcastle: Alnwick

Alnwick (AN-ik, with a silent l and w) is a small market town in north Northumberland. The town's population was just over 8000 at the time of the 2001 census and Alnwick's district population was 31,029.

According to Country Life, October 2002, "Alnwick is the most picturesque market town in Northumberland, and the best place to live in Britain".

The town dates back to approximately AD 600, and over the centuries has thrived as an agricultural centre; as the location of Alnwick Castle and home of what were in mediaeval times the most powerful northern barons, the Earls of Northumberland; as a staging post on the Great North Road between Edinburgh and London, and latterly as a modern rural centre cum dormitory town. The fabric of the town centre has changed relatively little and still retains much of its original character; however there has been appreciable growth in size over the last ten years, with a number of housing estates covering what had been pasture, and new factory and trading estate developments along the roads to the south of the town.

At various points in the town are memorials of the constant wars between Percys and Scots in which so many Percys spent the greater part of their lives. A cross near Broomhouse Hill across the river from the castle marks the spot where Malcolm III of Scotland was killed in 1093, during the first Battle of Alnwick. At the side of the broad shady road called Rotten Row, leading from the West Lodge to Bailiffgate, a tablet of stone marks the spot where William the Lion of Scotland was captured in 1174, during the second Battle of Alnwick by a party of about four hundred mounted knights, led by Ranulf de Glanvill; and there are many others of similar interest.

In the winter of 1424, much of the town was burnt by a Scottish raiding party.

Notable people Born in Alnwick

William of Alnwick, (c. 1275-1333), Franciscan Theologian and Bishop of Giovinazzo.
William Henry Percy (1788–1855), naval commander and politician.
George Biddell Airy, (1801–1892), Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881
Bernard Bosanquet, (1848–1923), philosopher
John Busby, (1765–1857), mining engineer
Henry 'Hotspur' Percy, (1364?–1403), son of the 1st Earl of Northumberland
T. J. Cobden Sanderson, (1840–1922), artist and bookbinder associated with the Arts and Crafts movement
Prideaux John Selby, (1788–1867), ornithologist, botanist and artist
Ralph Tate, (1840–1901), botanist and geologist
Sid Waddell, (born August 10, 1940) British born Geordie commentator and television personality