PREFACE

THE study presented in the following pages is an attempt to fill a g

morphology. It is prompted by the problems of how the plan
established town has acquired its geographical complexity, what
be deduced from such an inquiry to help in the analysis of town plan
and what contribution the development of a plan makes to the region
of a town. In many respects these questions have been but imperfect
hitherto, and the deficiency became apparent during a local study o
and gave rise to this investigation of fundamental aspects.
The author has benefited much from the kindness of various pe
gave him access to relevant material or assisted in other ways.
Robson, formerly Senior Geography Master at the Duke's Schoo
was most helpful in securing access to important source materia
the Duke of Northumberland kindly permitted perusal of the v
and manorial surveys in the Muniment Room of Alnwick Castle,
Graham's readiness to assist in every way rendered the work of
profitable and pleasurable. Mr. G. Beaty, Town Surveyor of Aln
unfailing kindness made his local knowledge and the topographical m
his office available. Professor H. J. Fleure made many helpful sugge
Professor A. E. Smailes undertook the arduous task of reading th
author is especially indebted to Dr. C. I. C. Bosanquet, Recto
College, in the University of Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, wh
interest in the work has been of the greatest importance. Professor G
also gave much encouragement. Special thanks are due to the au
whose devotion and patience helped to produce this monograph.
Finally, the author wishes to express his sincere thanks for the
assistance towards the cost of publication given by the Institut
Geographers, the Sir James Knott Trust, His Grace the Duke of Nor
land, Dr. C. I. C. Bosanquet and Mr. William Robertson.
The investigation was carried out with the help of a grant fr
College, in the University of Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PART or the whole of the outlines in Figures 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 16, 1
are based on the Ordnance Survey with the sanction of the Contr
Stationery Office. Plate I is reproduced by permission of Turners (
Ltd., Newcastle upon Tyne, and Plates II, III and IV by permis
films and Aero Pictorial, Ltd.
October 1960 M. R. G. C.
1

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 PART I

PROBLEMS OF TOWN-PLAN ANALYSIS

CHAPTER I

THE AIM AND SCOPE IN TOWN-PLAN ANALYSIS

FUNCTIONALLY the geographical character of a town is determine

and social significance within some regional context, no matter w
considering a 'central place' with service functions towards
'urban field' or a specialized town. Morphologically it finds ex
physiognomy or townscape, which is a combination of town p
building forms, and pattern of urban land use. All these aspects
subject of geographical investigation.
The town plan has attracted attention as a subject where the
the geographer and others such as historians, archaeologists and
converge. In particular it has long been customary to view pla
their development and a broad genealogy of town plans has b
Yet this familiar aspect of urban morphology has remained stran
in its depth of treatment, largely through neglect of significan
particularly on the part of the geographer whose chorological vi
enable him to make a substantial contribution. Similar critic
other morphological aspects. As a result our geographical com
townscapes is hampered by the lack of a theoretical basis yieldin
general application.
The present situation in urban morphology has been the subje
sion recently, and it is sufficient here to reiterate that much geog
this field has been unduly influenced in its purpose and treatment
approaches of the architect, the economic historian, and other
towns.

Proceeding from this general criticism A. E. Smailes emphasizes th

importance of buildings in the townscape and the resulting need for field-w
against a preoccupation on the part of some geographers with the study of to
maps only. He suggests a method of analysing the townscape by field observ
tion of broad recurrent morphological characteristics susceptible to ra
survey and with some emphasis on buildings. The desire to take stock of
townscape for the purpose of a broad provisional basis for the morpholog
comparison of towns is understandable. It is also true that much more w
needs to be done on urban buildings and the whole urban fabric, though
Europe this criticism applies to research in this country more than on t
Continent.2 Yet systematic geographical knowledge of the structure of t
plans is far from adequate and its promotion seems quite as necessary as tha
other morphological aspects of towns. In the present situation this does call
3

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4 THE AIM AND SCOPE IN TOWN-PLAN ANALYSIS

some specialization of effort for the purpose of producing the nec

work. Plan, building fabric and land utilization are, of course, int
in the geographical reality of the townscape, and their treatm
can only be a matter of emphasis and not of sharp systematic
possible, however, to claim priority for the town plan on the gro
forms the inescapable framework for the other man-made feature
the physical link between these on the one hand and the physical
the town's past existence on the other.
This study, then, is concerned with geographical analysis of t
By investigating a specific case which promises results of general
and by adopting an evolutionary viewpoint, it seeks to establi
concepts applicable to recurrent phenomena in urban morphology
to an explanation of the arrangement and diversity of an urban ar
plan types and resulting geographical divisions.
A small service centre like Alnwick cannot be expected to
phenomena that characterize the morphology of town plans, an
completeness is made in this respect. Nevertheless, its modest size
structure make it the more suitable for the establishment of some
and promise to exhibit some morphological phenomena of general
as well as those peculiar to itself. It may be expected to yield a nu
cepts applicable beyond the hundreds of small English market tow
urban settlements in general and to those in other countries.
Some of these cover familiar phenomena, others bring to ligh
New concepts inevitably involve new terminology and this will be
the analysis of Alnwick's plan proceeds. It may also necessitate th
of some familiar but loosely used terms.
In this connection it is fundamental to establish what we mea
plan'. It is necessary to take a more comprehensive view of thi
account of relevant geographical detail. In the past many studies
been restricted to the consideration of the streets or street spaces o
which has its roots largely in an earlier architectural preoccupati
contrast between 'voids' and 'solids' and its aesthetic implications.
structure of street-blocks has generally been ignored as if this w
graphically relevant. Moreover, a certain crudeness of evolutio
took account merely of the broad stages of outward growth a
variety of phenomena that they cover, as well as the significant m
inside the street-blocks of already established plan component
traditional ones in town centres. In this investigation it is taken
that the town plan includes all features of the built-up area shown
Ordnance Survey Plans.
This comprises the geographical arrangement of the urban bu
its full morphological detail and diversity, bringing the plan into
tion with the aspects of building fabric and of land use. A tow
defined, therefore, as the topographical arrangement of an urban

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 THE AIM AND SCOPE IN TOWN-PLAN ANALYSIS 5

in all its man-made features. It contains three distinct complexes

elements:

(i) streets and their arrangement in a street-system;

(ii) plots and their aggregation in street-blocks; and
(iii) buildings or, more precisely, their block-plans.
The term street here refers to the open space bounded by street-lin
reserved for the use of surface traffic of whatever kind. The arrangem
these contiguous and interdependent spaces within an urban area, when
separately from the other elements of the town plan, may be called th
system.
The areas within the town plan unoccupied by streets and bounded wholly
or in part by street-lines are the street-blocks. Each street-block represents a
group of contiguous land parcels or else a single land parcel. Each parcel is
essentially a unit of land use; it is physically defined by boundaries on or above
ground and may be called a plot, whatever its size. The arrangement of con-
tiguous plots is evident from the plot boundaries and, when considered separately
from other elements of the town plan, may be called the plot pattern. Figures
5, 7, 8, 15 and 19 show contrasting examples, illustrating that street-blocks can
differ widely in their plot patterns, a fact which represents one of their most
important geographical characteristics. A row of plots, placed contiguously
along the same street-line, each with its own frontage, forms a plot series.
The block-plan of a building is the area occupied by a building and defined
on the ground by the lines of its containing walls. It is an essential element of
the town plan, loosely referred to as the 'building'.
Examination of the town plan shows that the three element complexes of
streets, plots and buildings enter into individualized combinations in different
areas of the town. Each combination derives uniqueness from its site cir-
cumstances and establishes a measure of morphological homogeneity or unity in
some or all respects over its area. It represents a plan-unit, distinct from its
neighbours.
Finally, it is important to realize that town plans originate, develop, and
function within a physical and human context without which they remain in-
comprehensible. Therefore, plan analysis properly includes the evaluation of
physical conditions of site and situation as well as of relevant economic and
social development. The latter, indeed, provides the background for the inter-
dependence of plan, building fabric, and land use, and the bridge between the
morphological and the functional approaches in urban geography.
REFERENCES

1 A. E. SMAILES, 'Some reflections on the geographical description and analy

Transactions and Papers, 1955, Institute of British Geographers, 21 (1955), 99-1
of references used in this study will be found at the end of the book.
2 Cf. W. GEISLER, Die deutsche Stadt (1924) and H. Louis, Die geographisc
Gross-Berlin (1936), to name only two of the earlier studies. For other references,
The West European city (1951), and P. SCHjLLER, 'Aufgaben und Probleme
Erdkunde, 7 (1953), 168-9.

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 CHAPTER 2

THE METHOD OF TOWN-PLAN ANALYSIS

HAVING defined the purpose of plan analysis and its scope in terms
plan, it is necessary to consider the appropriate general approach
to be followed. Inevitably, this depends on the material object of in
and its intrinsic nature.
A cursory glance at the arrangement of the built-up area of Alnwick as
seen from an aircraft or as represented on the 1/2500 Ordnance map gives a
visual experience which can be repeated in the case of the great majority of
towns: a pattern of streets, plot boundaries, and buildings of bewildering
complexity. Parts of it are shown in Figures 7, 8, 15, 18 and 19, and the
whole is summarized in morphological terms in Figure 20. Here and there
a dominating theme is evident, expressed perhaps by the street-system, as in the
great triangle of streets in the centre of the town, or by the repetition of standard-
ized buildings, as in the earlier housing estates. Such local dominance establishes
some unity within a very limited area. Its repeated manifestation gives a vague
impression of broad similarities between different parts of Alnwick as well as of
contrasts such as that between the Old Town and the newer residential districts.
On the other hand, irregularity in the arrangement of broad traits as much as of
detail, and diversity in the admixture of elements, not only render the built-up
area strictly unique but defy explanation from the plan as it stands, even when the
site is taken into account.
The reason for this is that a town, like any other object of geographical
investigation, is subject to change. Towns have a life history. Their develop-
ment, together with the cultural history of the region in which they lie, is
written deeply into the outline and fabric of their built-up areas. When one
period has achieved the manifestation of its own requirements in the urban
pattern of land use, streets, plots and buildings, another supersedes it in turn,
and the built-up area, in its functional organization as well as in its townscape,
becomes the accumulated record of the town's development.'
In some respects, however, it is an incomplete and confused record since the
features created in one period are subjected to change in another in varying
degree. The pattern of land use is the most changeable complex, responding
relatively quickly to new impulses such as the establishment of a new main road,
bridge or railway station and so tending to efface in part at least the land use of
previous periods.
In this process, however, the plan and fabric of the town, representing as
they do the static investment of past labour and capital, offer great resistance to
change. New functions in an older area do not necessarily give rise to new forms.
Adaptation rather than replacement of the existing fabric is more likely to occur
over the greater part of a built-up area established in a previous period. Old
6

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 THE METHOD OF TOWN-PLAN ANALYSIS 7

buildings are liable to be replaced by new ones in larger

centres of sizeable towns, where economic pressures overco
of inherited forms and lead to replacement on a larger sca
likely to be exclusively represented by its own new building
parts that are its contemporary accretions. In the centre th
forms is usually incomplete and tardy.
If, then, land use and building fabric differ significantly
town plan does even more so and is the most conserva
complex. Though numerous new buildings may appear in th
most of their block-plans conform to their respective plot
centuries old. This is due partly to the closed developm
street-line, the usual building arrangement in central areas
standing concentration of economic activities here. Even w
altered (and few central areas escape this form of chang
pattern as a whole is full of residual features from earlier
fact appear unaltered in all its essential characteristics. The
the most refractory element of the town plan. New thoro
areas of the 'Corporation Street' or 'City Road' type are rar
extent, and changes affecting the street-system are gener
detail of street-lines and even then are slow to appear. I
of a town, of course, each period is free to add example
layout. The older, generally more central, parts of the
subject to changes of varying intensity and morphological a
established plan-units, while the outer areas form successiv
plan-units.
From this comparison of land use, building fabric, and town plan, the last
emerges as the complex that contains the fullest record of the town's physical
development because it produces the most complete collection of residual
features. An evolutionary approach, tracing existing forms back to the under-
lying formative processes and interpreting them accordingly, would seem to
provide the rational method of analysis.
The processes are those of economic and social development, and this
changes in its intensity as well as in its material and spiritual forms, thus allow-
ing recognition of distinct cultural periods. Regions vary in the sequence and
contents of the cultural periods that affect them, and this holds good for towns.
Each period leaves its distinctive material residues in the landscape and for the
purpose of geographical analysis can be viewed as a morphological period.
In a townscape any particular period expresses itself in the town plan as well as
in the fabric of buildings. Generally the newer plan-units in more peripheral
situations show homogeneity because of the contemporaneous nature of streets,
plots and buildings.
With the exception of the prehistoric and Roman eras, the major morpho-
logical periods in the case of Alnwick are those applicable to the rest of England.'
However, uncertainties in the earlier topographical and historical evidence, as

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8 THE METHOD OF TOWN-PLAN ANALYSIS

well as the incidence of modern cartographic sources, make it

purpose of our analysis to adopt certain contractions and sub
in the following table:

The Morphological Periods of Alnwick

(1) Anglian (c. seventh century? - c. 1070)
(2) Norman to Early Georgian (c. 1070 - c. 175
(3) Later Georgian and Early Victorian (c. 1750
(4) Mid- and Late Victorian (1851-1914)
(a) Mid-Victorian (1851-75)
(b) Late Victorian (1875-97)
(c) Edwardian (1897-1914)
(5) Modern (post-1918)
(a) Inter-war (1918-39)
(b) Post-war (post-1945)

Alnwick began its existence relatively late in the Ang

Northumberland, possibly some time in the seventh century.
The Norman period of Alnwick began after the Wasting o
1069-70," though a Norman castle may not have been built her
ning of the twelfth century.' The long interval from then unt
eighteenth century comprises more than one cultural epoch,
in the cartographical record of Alnwick make it virtually
divide this long span for morphological purposes, although th
the eight traditional plan-units of the Old Town can be arran
time-sequence. Evidence of domestic architecture in the town
does not allow precise dating, nor do the manorial surveys of
early seventeenth centuries, in spite of the maps contained in
Indeed, when it is first presented in these detailed records, th
already complete. In other respects, however, these manorial
Alnwick Castle, are invaluable in providing a bridge of evi
growth of the Old Town in the Middle Ages and the appearan
features on the first large-scale plan of the town in the eighte
It is not until shortly after the middle of the eighteenth
cartographical record of Alnwick begins to show significa
town plan. Though small at first, they dominate developmen
half of the nineteenth century, before the arrival of the railw
years from c. 1750 to 1851 to be distinguished as a separa
period. Henceforth new additions to the town plan corres
contemporary architectural house-types, and it is possible
names of more specific cultural and architectural connota
together of 'Later Georgian' and 'Early Victorian' seems justif
of the homogeneous character and continuity of plan deve
1750 and 1850 and because of the quasi-Georgian character

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 THE METHOD OF TOWN-PLAN ANALYSIS 9

Early Victorian building, which reflects a certain time-lag in bu

reaching the North of England.
The advent of the railway in 1850 marks the beginning of
period. In Alnwick this Mid- and Late Victorian period brou
congestion in the centre and additional peripheral housing of par
By these indices the period lasts until the beginning of the First
Certain formative factors in the development of housing, howev
whole span from 1850 to 1914 to be subdivided into Mid-Vi
Victorian, and Edwardian periods. They are the Public Health
well as contemporary Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Acts, an
of more open development propagated in connection with the ga
at the end of the nineteenth century.
The last major period is characterized by similar factors and
the end of the First World War. It can be conveniently divided i
periods by the hiatus of the Second World War.
Finally, implementation of the evolutionary approach6 de
objective of this study and on the nature of the town plan that is
gated. The formative processes underlying areal phenomena m
strated if concepts of general significance are to be produced. Th
freedom to investigate time-sequence as much as spatial arrangem
larly where successive changes of different character have affect
but with varying results, as is the case with the Old Town. Cont
features more or less widely separated in area within Alnwic
suggests the method of successive geographical cross-sections. So
that the present townscape is the accumulated record of distinct
periods. The complexity of the actual plan structure militat
method of starting from the present and working backwards in
residual features. It seems more rational, therefore, to proce
cross-sections in time, taking account of the economic and social
each period,' to emphasize processes where this seems essentia
standing of forms, and, finally, to examine the town plan in term
ment that has been investigated. The ultimate criterion whether
study is geographical is provided not by its methods but by i
explanation of the town plan as we find it today.

REFERENCES

1 The development and physical growth of towns is one of the earliest subje
attention of investigators in urban geography. Cf. H. J. FLEURE, 'Some types
Europe', Geographical Review, 10 (1920), 357-74; 'City morphology in Europe
Royal Institution of Great Britain, 27 (1931); and 'The historic city in western
Bulletin of John Rylands Library, Manchester, 20 (1936). H. D6RRIES, 'Der geg
Stadtgeographie', Petermanns Mitteilungen Erg. H., 209 (1930), 315-18, 320-1. R
cit., 279-509, 559-64. M. SORRE, Fondements de la gdographie humaine, iii
SMAILES, The geography of towns (1953), 7-40, 68-134, 157-60. P. SCHiLLER, op
2 Cf. S. W. WOOLDRIDGE and W. G. EAST, The spirit andpurpose of geograph

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 PART II

THE GROWTH OF ALNWICK'S BUILT-UP AREA

CHAPTER 3

THE GENERAL PATTERN OF GROWTH

BEFORE investigating the detail of plan development in the dif

logical periods, a brief introduction to the broad pattern of grow
ful (Fig. 1). The heavy symbols that denote plan-units origin
periods before 1620 form a contiguous and relatively compact a

ALNW ICK -GROWTH OF BUILT-UP ARE

ANGUAN ROUTEWAYS DEVELOPMENT ON THE CENTRAL TRIAN
CONJECTURED ANCLIAN NUCLEUS OTHER ROADS If DEVELOPMENT TO

A l MEDIEVAL CASTLE , BAILIFFCATE -- ROADS b DEVELOPMENT 1

- EARLIER MEDIEVAL BOROUGH DO* O 1775 TO
SMEDIEVAL BOROUGH EXTENSION O D 1852 TO
00 0000 0 0d.0 Da 1898
D" REVERTING TO OPEN LANDTO LATER1918
D 898 TO 918
SALNW CK ABBEY C, CANONCATE D 1919 TO 1939
DIP REVERIING TO OPEN LAND LATER Do 1q40 TO I95b
r, nAREA OF EARLIER MEDIEVAL BOROUGH 1 REVERTING TO

d ADJOINING DEVELOPMENT TO 1620 OPEN LAND LATER

1/-; -
. '. ' :. ,J
Af2
-? 7-

0.0%l

:::" " ,,,.!: ! ~ .

0 0
. ,- -,',_

0 So 100 500 200

o II Ir
Ne V_ _ _
1/ _____ ______________ _____

FIGURE 1

the centre of Alnw

From it two short,
western arterial roa
its plan dominated b
street-system. Being
ent major plan-units
11

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12 THE GENERAL PATTERN OF GROWTH

them contains the conjectured Anglian nucleus. The other thre

southern arterial prongs and the development on the Central Trian
originated in the Middle Ages and were certainly established by 1
Additions to the Old Town form the Accretions,2 their plan-un
by non-traditional features. They are arranged as a very irregular,
many places discontinuous zone round the kernel on its west,
sides, but not on the north-west, north and north-east. This
traversed on all sides by distinctly older roads that radiate from
and its arterials.
Within these accretions the development between 1620 and 185
an equally broken and irregular inner zone. Its various more o
areas are all associated either with old arterial roads and field lanes
ring road that surrounds much of the Old Town, separating the l
remainder of the Outer Accretions.
The development between 1852 and 1918 has been largely conf
south and east, its individual blocks of land tending to form rather
than those of previous accretions and lying in groups more isolate
other. Again they are in contact with old roads, though in on
south-east side between Wagonway Road and South Road a unit
its own contemporaneous street-system.3
The accretions belonging to the period from 1919 to 1956 form
zone, still more discontinuous than those of the previous per
represented on the west side of the town. Individual units tend to
and form two markedly concentrated groups, one in the west
Lane and the other to the south and south-east of Swansfield Park
tendency to be patterned with contemporaneous internal roads is
units of this period except where they have incorporated older ro
This general picture of growth already shows some broad d
between the various parts of Alnwick's built-up area. They ar
important structural differences and, together with these, will for
of investigation in the following chapters.

REFERENCES

1 Cf. SMAILES, op. cit., 108-12.

2 Cf. SMAILES, op. cit., 92, 113, 125. For a further discussion of the Old Tow
cf. Chapter 6, pp. 52-6.
3 Figure 3, of the site of modern Alnwick, contains a street-plan and so
graphical names.

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 CHAPTER 4

ANGLIAN ALNWICK

Situation and Anglian Roads

THE name Alnwick puts the origin of a settlement on the site int
stage of Anglian colonization, perhaps after A.D. 600. The other p
mid-Northumberland and the evidence of local history give a clue
situation and relative importance at that time (Fig. 2).1
Earlier, Lesbury seems to have been the major settlement in th
of the Aln, and as late as the twelfth century Alnwick and Denwi
ecclesiastically dependent upon Lesbury.2 Trackways of minor imp
have connected the last place with the -ingham villages in the uppe
Aln before Alnwick and Denwick were founded in the intermediate stretch of
wild country. It is possible that the forking of these roads and the layout of the
original Anglian village at Alnwick are discernible in the present town plan,
although the establishment of the great Norman castle and changes in the
system of major routeways probably interfered with such earlier features.
The single trackway from Lesbury could reach the Alnwick area on the line
of the present Alnmouth Road using the dry stretches of sandy glacial drift.
Instead of continuing along the tract of similar sands at Denwick, it could
cross the Aln half-way at a convenient point in a more open stretch of the
valley. The antiquity of this road is suggested by its appearance as a main road
on Mayson's Map of 16223 with much the same alignment as today. On geo-
logical grounds the most likely place for its major fork would be the present
town centre because it is about this locality that the rock outcrops that form the
Alnwick Ridge come nearest to the Alnwick sheet of sandy drift (Fig. 3).4 This
enabled the three westward branches to Eglingham, Whittingham and Edling-
ham to reach their separate objectives by following the firm dry ground of solid
rocks and glacial sands.
The route north-west to Eglingham could traverse the sands at Alnwick
and farther north-west the Fell Sandstone on the flanks of Brizlee Hill. The
routes to Whittingham and Edlingham could jointly use the Alnwick Ridge in a
south-westward direction, forking only where the solid outcrop gave way to the
boulder clay of Alnwick Moor. Indeed, all three routes are shown on Mayson's
Moor Map of 1622 as main roads in corresponding position. The road from
Eglingham approached Alnwick by Bassington, East Brizlee, Stony Peth and
Ratten Row on the north-west side of the town. It appears as the only highway
to Eglingham on Armstrong's Map of Northumberland of 1769 and as late as
1824 existed as a 'bridle road'- before the extension and re-design of Hulne Park
had obliterated this ancient right of way altogether. The combined route from
Whittingham and Edlingham approached Clayport Bank on the south-west side
13

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14 ANGLIAN ALNWICK

THE SITUATION OF ANGLIAN ALNWICK

% o 00 0 0 0
O O A ALNWICK
\ O BI BIRLING
0 0 CH CHILLINGHAM
O O D DENWICK
S* ED EDLINGHAM
S0 O EG EGLINGHAM
*1 0 E0 O EL ELLINGHAM
. OL L ESBURY
S..".. RO ROTHBURY
W. ., wARKWORTH
40.... o

WH 75 0
0w'-"OW " IIH WHITTINGH
O o 0
O: O% 0"
00
2 3
O O

= O O
0 0
0

* EARLY ANGLIAN PLACE - NAMES ENDING IN -ING AND -INGHAM

* ANGLIAN PLACE - NAMES OF THE SECOND SETTLEMENT PHASE COMPOSED
OF PERSONAL NAMES AND SUFFIXES -BURY, - BOTTLE, -TON, -WICK,
a D? OF LATER ROYAL BOROUGHS -WORTH

0 LATE ANGLIAN AND SCANDINAV

o D? OF MINOR SETTLEMENTS WITHIN ALNWICK AND DENWICK PARISHES
--- ROMAN ROAD (DEVIL'S CAUSEWAY)
40..ca TRACKWAYS FROM LESBURY TO EARLY ANGLIAN SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST
........ PRESENT PARISH BOUNDARIES OF ALNWICK AND DENWICK
2 LAND ABOVE 800 FEET EXTENT OF SANDY GLACIAL DRIFT
/- LAND BETW. 400 AND 800 FEET AT ALNWICK AND DENWICK

FIGURE 2

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 ANGLIAN ALNWICK 15

of the town across the Moor past the ol

the crest of the Alnwick Ridge than th
The junction of these roads with the
detected in the plan of central Alnwick
be impressed by the broad and simple
pointing to the north-west and Market
In approaching this fork by the line of
the road from Lesbury could keep to t
and just below the 200-foot contour. Th
five drainage lines on the north-east
Aller Burn in the east to the Wash B
allowed the Anglian route to Egling
south-east stretch of Narrowgate.
Beyond the Bow Burn the Anglian
been disrupted by great changes tha
castle, the construction of the Great N
of Hulne Park centuries later. Yet the road fork of central Alnwick is there to
suggest that the Anglian route to Eglingham did continue north-west immed-
iately beyond the Bow Burn. Here a ledge of level ground has the same relation
to the supposed Anglian routeway as two similar features in Bondgate (Fig. 4).6
The next objective of the Eglingham road would be the line of Ratten Row.
There is definite evidence that considerable changes have taken place before
1567 in the street-block between Bailiffgate and Pottergate. In Clarkson's
Survey of that year, the traditional holdings or burgages occupying the west side
of Narrowgate just north of Pottergate are all reported in a contemporary
marginal note as having in ancient times formed one common way to the church
enabling strangers to come into Alnwick town by Walkergate and past the
church, thus avoiding entry into Bailiffgate which was not part of the town but
under the direct administration of the castle.' The northern holding in fact was
still recorded as the 'churchwaye' enclosed by the building of the late medieval
town-wall between Narrowgate and the present Northumberland Street. The
same holding appears in the Northumberland Survey of 1586 as 'a toft late a
Comon way called the Church way als Alyene Lane'.8 Mayson's Survey of
1622-24 has an identical entry. Its map shows the unenclosed remnants of the
old road traversing the street-block half-way between the corner of Bailiffgate
and the present Northumberland Street in the direction of the Bow Burn cross-
ing in Narrowgate (Fig. 5 and outlines of 1620 in Fig. 9). On Wilkin's Map of
1774 this vestigial feature is shortened, but is none the less evident. In addition
Mayson's Map, while representing the south side of Bailiffgate and the north
side of Pottergate as fully built-up, shows no houses on the intermediate stretch
of Narrowgate. The east end of Ratten Row has a trumpet-shaped widening, as
if to indicate a large wayside waste or an ancient drove road. The position and
configuration of a close (Salisbury Lands) immediately to the east, occupying
the ground between the top of Canongate and the present vicarage, is such as to

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 16 ANGLIAN ALNWICK

suggest that this parcel had been taken f

abrupt change of direction shown by N
appears to be a later feature. On the ot
Street) seems always to have formed a pu
Lane and the adjoining fields of Barr
Mayson's Survey supports this, and the co
Pottergate also suggests that any road w
the northern flank rather than directly
Know, Lookout Hill; Figs. 3 and 9). Al
routeway running north-westward from
of Ratten Row, and continuing along the
The combined line of the Anglian rout
forked from the Eglingham road in B
thereby avoiding the steep rise immed
Clayport Street to Clayport Bank and s
The smooth informal outline and the wi
and Clayport Bank certainly suggest a fe
plan, again faithfully portrayed on M
the ancient road is shown continuing sou
Ridge past St. Thomas's Farm and via B
From this discussion the great road fo
eastward trunk and its two diverging br
ancient feature of the present town pl
Anglian vill. As such it represents an inh

Site and Settlement Form

In the absence of both historical and archaeological evidence, the location

of the Anglian vill presents a tantalizing problem, and the topographical evi-
dence is sufficiently ambiguous to admit of at least two different hypotheses.
The site of the earlier village is broadly but not closely circumscribed by
geology and relief on the south bank of the Aln (Figs. 2 and 3). Here the Aln-
wick sheet of fairly thick sandy drift overlies the boulder clay, giving a site of a
type commonly favoured by Anglo-Saxon settlers as it meant easier clearing,
well-drained building ground, and the certainty of local water supply.
A possible site for the original village might be one close to the church on
the broad spur of relatively level land now occupied by Bailiffgate and including
perhaps the area of the present castle, for the case of a Norman castle displacing
parts of an earlier settlement is not uncommon (Fig. 4). In 1147, the date of its
first mention, the present parish church at the western end of Bailiffgate was the
'capella de Alnewic', belonging to Lesbury church and, like this, forming part of
the endowment of the newly founded Alnwick Abbey across the river.1o It may
or may not occupy the site of its Anglian predecessor. At all events its site is
completely contiguous to the territory belonging to Bailiffgate which right up to

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 T 'IT THE SITE
-*- STREAM COU
.I1 / ~.u, I . ,"----- 25-FT. CONTOURS to NORTHUMB
S, ALLUVIUM
bIUhRA I BOULDER CLAY 14 YORK CRESCE
0 " ", SANDY GLACIAL L j j CARBONIFEROUS
SAL5 :*:*:*:* ANGLIAN ROUT
STREE
. . 2 AYDON CRESCENT C-C ALNWICK CA
......
..i c ...-1
.IR~....1 I AUGUR
i?Ntf3 FLATS
BRIDGE B ALNWI
STREET DALNW
: ,I ..C...5
.. ... ..4 ..5 .LISBURN
.....--- . STREET
GREY PLACE E ALN
F BARNDALE H
7. .N-. .... .6 . T GLISBURN TERRACE GBE

. "-' .:....
'-"2ALWYNSIDE Av.
.. . ' .'... 7 MARKET
. ... .......:.:.. KCROFT H
.F. '.:''. ..'.' . 9-9 NAR
': .;..." "" " ? ?. ~ ~ . ......
0. " 50
"".
...T HO./ ORBATT. s . .

AB. . . .. ... ....

I;. . . HOE.aA o

..i i
.....5 : LU.
I U::: . 3. 0.....
. . . .. ...0
.
o Tl.o~ ~ : : : : :PiP.a~r
: ::??:??? . . -TT.
;-?? ??~?o:I'~ .;(_ ,
:f:% ?,::::::::::

'FIGURE3.~

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 ANGLIAN ALNWICK 17

the early nineteenth century was und

so quite distinct from the walled town
of Alnwick it included the Salisbur
Row, thus separating the church and
If the original village occupied the sit
edge of the sandy drift, fully conform
excentrically and less conveniently in
to judge by the field-names on Mayso
of the sandy drift but overlapped the
south-west (Fig. 3).
However, the area about the presen
(Fig. 1). Though this alternative separ
give us quite so clearly a 'wic by the A
ations. We have seen that the origina
pansion phase of Anglian settlement.
villages of the early Anglo-Saxon period
those of the expansion phase during
often evinced such close relation in
might be simply that of a street lined
influenced directly by existing road
consolidation of political and economi
hazards of a roadside location were in
tages. Siting within the road fork in t
this view. Moreover, it would offer
strong relief, as spacious as that at B
with water. It would also be better pl
field system.
On balance, the ancient road for
But wherever its initial site lay, it
layout of the vill and to compare i
North-east England. The broadened st
equilateral triangle formed in the cent
of Fenkle Street suggest two varian
common type: the green-village.12 Th
tion by H. Thorpe, who comes to n
evidence is indeed perplexing. Gree
Anglo-Saxon place-names, and some
the large, squat triangular greens look
Trimdon (Co. Durham), are striking
villages of the East German colonizatio
One cannot help suspecting that, in vie
the comprehensive term 'green-villag
even within this country. If the pr
regarded as the product of post-An

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 18 ANGLIAN ALNWICK

preserving the shape of a narrow street

formed by Bondgate, Market Street
village, i.e. one grafted on to the pre-ex
name Fenkle ('angle')'" Street appears as
an early one. That the whole of this tria
this study, must have been originally o
blocks within it are a more recent de
central site, then, it appears likely that
fairly large triangular green of som
southern part by a watercourse that ap
Like many similar green-villages in
economy needing protection for its sto
and later from border raiders. Conveni
such a community may have needed o
something more than a peasant village.

REFERENCES

' A. MAWER, The place-names of Northumberland and Durham (1920), 5: Al

or wic (dwelling-place, village) by the Aln. S. W. WOOLDRIDGE, 'The Anglo-Saxo
16 and p. 120, in H. C. DARBY, An historical geography of England before A
COLLINGWOOD & J. N. L. MYRES, Roman Britain and the English settlemen
STENTON, Anglo-Saxon England (1947), 74, 76. NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY HI
History of Northumberland, vol. vii (1904), 14; vol. xiv (1935), 361-483.
2 MAWER, op. cit., 133-4: Lesbury = Leech's burh or fortified place. History
vol. ii (1895), 438-9. TATE, op. cit., vol. i, 38.
3 This, together with Mayson's Moor Map in The exemplification of Mayson
Cf. the references on p. 121.
4 In Figure 3, the contours are those of the 1/25,000 O.S. provisional edition
46/21. The geology shown is that of the 6-inch Geological Survey of England and
land N.S. sheet N XXXV. N.W. For the geology of the Alnwick area cf. also CARR
The geology of the Alnwick district, Memoir of the Geological Survey of Engla
(1930) 98-9. T. S. WESTOLL, D. A. ROBSON & R. GREEN, A guide to the geology o
Alnwick (1955).
5 A map of a projected turnpike road from Haggerston blacksmith's shop to
N. WEATHERLY, surveyor (1824).
6 In Figure 4, the 25-foot contours are those of the 1/25,000 0.S. provisional edi
The 5-foot contours have been obtained by interpolation from the spot
foot (1/528) O.S. series of Alnwick (1866), sheets 1-8, adjusted as far as possible
by field observation. The reconstruction of old watercourses is based on peru
maps: Map of part of the Town of Alnwick, 1726; A plan of the Town and the C
by I. THOMPSON, 1760; Plan of the Town and Castle of Alnwick by TH. WILKIN
water course which supplies Alnwick Castle with water by TH. WILKIN, 1785; Grou
levels, etc. by R. TATE, 1815; and a map of Alnwick showing lines of drainage,
Report to the General Board of Health, 1850.
7 Clarkson's Survey, 1567, fol. 43.
8 Survey of Northumberland, 1586, fol. 26.
9 TATE, op. cit., vol. ii (1868-9), 366, 370-1.
10 TATE, op. cit., vol. ii, 105.
1x W. PAGE, 'The origin and forms of Hertfordshire towns and villages', Arc
18), 49.

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 CHAPTER 5

MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

Situation and Site

IN North-east England the Norman Conquest meant a considerable reorienta-

tion in regional relations. Anglian Northumberland had been the heart of the
Bernician kingdom with its early capital at Bamburgh, but its different parts,
even with such improvement in land communications as the later Anglian
period achieved, must have enjoyed complete economic and a considerable
measure of administrative autonomy. Norman Northumberland on the other
hand was the border march of a very much larger kingdom with its centre in
the distant south, and lay on a continually contested frontier. The elaborate
mechanism of military defence so characteristic of the highly organized Norman
r6gime was superimposed on Anglian Northumberland and gave it new strategic
lines like the Great North Road capable of carrying elaborate armies with their
trains, and a system of great border castles securing those lines. The distance of
Northumberland from the south necessitated the delegation of military power
from king to chief vassal and so gave it border barons and some peculiarities of
social and political life that are reflected in its settlement geography.
Alnwick, situated midway between Newcastle and Berwick on the great
lowland routeway of Northumberland where it crosses one of the transverse
river lines, was fully affected by these changes and rapidly became a major
point in the strategic defence system of the Border. As an important resting
point on the new strategic line of the Great North Road, it combined an excel-
lent regional situation with a suitable site for a fortress at the north-eastern end
of the Alnwick Ridge. Here the long northward slope of the ridge is interrupted
conveniently by a ledge of more level ground at and above 180 feet, and is also
dissected by five streams so as to form a series of spurs (Fig. 4). Among these,
that formed by the erosion of the Bow Burn offered all the advantages needed
for the siting of an important castle. Relatively level on top, it was bounded by
steep slopes on three sides and lay sufficiently near the river to bring the crossing
point of the great highway within the range of fire from the new fortress. During
the Middle Ages and until 1770 the only medieval bridge stood some thirty
yards downstream from the present Lion Bridge and so a little nearer to the
castle (Figs. 1 and 5).1 The new Great North Road was made to climb the
northward slope of the spur as a steep approach road (Northumbrian 'peth'2),
steep enough to break the force of the enemy's onrush but not too steep for the
freight transport of those days. In addition, the existence of an agricultural
community in the immediate neighbourhood, if of no decisive advantage, must
at least have been convenient for the castle garrison.
20

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to IN

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . %..? . . . . . . . . . . . .

N No

swim

nag Aq
... . ...................
4 d . ............ ........

PR too
E MOM
alga WE
a

.. .... ... .

imp: ..11 ... . .. . ..... .. .. .... ..

. ........ ...................... 1

ug ....

-x?

WIER
-OW,

7M V.- Py!

.. .... ...... . . .......

JU
4A=

M IX. ...
49
.......
.. . ... .....

MNI

VON-
....... .....

PRE

X?

mom 'A

limp Ai: "

ON

.............
Hot Ro o EMW
WASIS

PLATE I - THE OLD TOWN FROM THE SOUTH-WEST Turners

Central Triangle with market concretions and Assembly Rooms towards right. Deep-burgage se
Fenkle Street sub-type in foreground: urban fallow and augmentative redevelopment. Inner Fringe B
half of picture.

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 :C:

:. WO:
hall, man
-;i::M,

-- -?1- ~H~i- YEl' ~ ~ -.w at"::

?:. I ? , . - - .. , ii
J-; F y
?::- low
At -M
:-:::Or
a.4A

.........

~~-? 41
;::::rZ
--Rrl
?8~C:41e~ ?B~' ~ aPP - -?-~~MO

ss, ism,
:ON

:I Wit
-.116MV,..",
W%.':: --?. lit: ii~~
S to loll-

::::siWIN
..........

Ao::~: :::-:.............
:::::.00
:::AM,;
01"
1-
'r Y ::NNW:,
ORION`
-r.2

tsia-lm:?:ii~~i:: ?~)*:~li iiii

_-:
iiiiiElm

Vic: :: :
ii~iii~iii-ii~
EN:j

A
PLATE 11 - THE CASTLE AND PART OF THE OLD TOWN FROM THE NORTH-WEST

Inner Fringe Belt with Hunter's Croft (bottom left), Castle complex, Castle Grounds, and Bond
suburbium in foreground. Deep-burgage series (Bondgate sub-type) on r

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 21

Alnwick Castle

The Norman castle ante-dated the medieval borough of Alnwick, though

not, of course, the Anglian village, and in that sense only can it be regarded as
Alnwick's pre-urban nucleus. Structural evidence indicates that the Norman
Castle already had much the same general outline as the present one with its
keep and two baileys, except that the keep then abutted north directly on the
outside ground (Fig. 5).3 It was one of the largest Norman castles of the Border
and the natural advantages of its site were enhanced by artificial earthworks,
especially at the east end, to accommodate so large a structure and give it an
unassailable perimeter. But the general shape of the castle layout conforms
roughly with the wedge shape of the spur on which it was placed. From the
broad base of its west wall, which dominated the nearby highway and contained
the main gate ultimately secured by a strong barbican, the layout tapered to-
wards its apex in the Ravine Tower (Records Tower) at the east end of the spur.
As the head of a barony it doubtless housed a relatively large population with
administrative and domestic functions. But it must also have had a large garri-
son, at least when it was built by the Vescis in the late eleventh or early twelfth
century and was then known as a munitissimum castellum, or again when it was
almost completely rebuilt by Henry de Percy in the early fourteenth century.
About that time the constable of Alnwick Castle had to maintain a regular
garrison of 40 men-at-arms and 40 hobblers (light cavalry men), though in 1315
the castle garrison amounted to over 3000 men-at-arms besides the hobblers.4
In spite of its structural changes in modern times Alnwick Castle remains today
as one of the two most impressive historic features in the existing plan of the
town (Fig. 18).

Bailiffgate

In times of actual warfare, when the castle became the rallying point for the
feudal armies from the territory of the barony, the number of soldiery assembled
here would be considerably greater than could be accommodated in the castle.
The same applied on occasions when retainers and tenants of the barony
attended the baronial court. Extra quarters had then to be found near the castle
gate, and there is historical evidence to show that they were in Bailiffgate.
Clarkson's Survey not only states this in general but lists two groups of holdings
within Bailiffgate that had once formed the lodgings of some of the larger
retainers when rendering service at the castle (Fig. 5).5 One of them, known as
'in auncyent tyme mydletons lodginges', comprised three holdings at the east
end of Bailiffgate (M in Fig. 5). The other group consisted of four holdings
(tenementa) known as 'hiltones lodginges' that occupied the western half of
Bailiffgate north side (H in Fig. 5). The occurrence of these 'lodgings' in two
different parts of Bailiffgate suggests that in the Middle Ages this street was
largely, if not wholly, occupied by militia or by people assembled for adminis-
trative purposes. It is significant that in the same survey none of these holdings
C

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22 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

paid any rents to the town reeve (praepositus burgi). Furt

ancient holdings within the Bailiffgate area also carried the d
mentum in contrast to the normal burgage (burgagium) of th
their rents to the castle reeve (praepositus castri), thereby
separateness of Bailiffgate from the town previously mention
Thus, the evidence suggests that Bailiffgate was a settlemen
the town, closely related to the castle and its military and adm
tions, and under the immediate jurisdiction of the baron o
The nearby parish church, besides forming a protective feature
the west end of Bailiffgate, as did the castle on a grander sca
may have had closer connections with this military settlement
St. Michael can be taken as an indication. All this agrees with
G. Tate, who explains the name Bailiffgate (pronounced 'Belley
'bailey-gate', indicating a kind of additional bailey to the cast
with Ratten Row was used as a training ground for the ho
contradicted by the earlier cartographic and the topograph
Mayson's Map the area of northern Narrowgate, although d
shaped plots, has no buildings and so lets Bailiffgate appe
nucleus. This may indicate no more than an incidental state as
fire or even a border raid some fifty or sixty years earlier, since t
ing the site of Hilton's Lodgings in Bailiffgate and some other s
Alnwick, which one might have expected to be built up, are a
buildings. The present topographical evidence clearly prese
widening towards the castle gate with row development on
pattern of fairly short strip-plots behind each street front. A
different strip-plots of central Alnwick analysed later, the p
plots are without doubt identifiable as the holdings (tenement
son's Survey, 1567, and are more than likely to represent medi
tenure. Tate's statement that in the eighteenth century a
Castle Square at the east end of Bailiffgate and that a mar
produce was held there, may indicate a survival of medieval m
Practically all the features discussed here in connection wi
settlement show affinities to the medieval suburbium of feud
early type of unwalled settlement under the gate of a fortress
pre-urban nucleus." This supports the suggestion that in its ge
present layout of Bailiffgate may be Norman rather than a res
from Anglian times. If so, it was cleverly sited on fairly leve
castle, and in direct communication with two routeways. T
came from Eglingham, the new Barony of Wooler, and the Tw
Wark and Norham. The new one came from Berwick, went pa
and, after a stagger in front of it (probably a later feature occa
to find room for additional plots on the east side of Narrowga
went down the slope to join the old route from Edlingham
crossing. Today the layout of Bailiffgate, with its broad street

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 23

series of tenement plots, survives with relatively fewer changes

other medieval plan-unit in the town.

The Economic Development of the Manorial Borough

As stated above, the creation of the Borough of Alnwick se
have broken the topographical continuity of development on t
known charter, granted by William de Vesci, Lord of the Baron
'my burgesses of Alnewic' some time between 1157 and 1185 is
no hint of the institution of a new site or layout for the tow
applies to subsequent charters.9 It is thus very doubtful wheth
Anglian vill was at all extensively refashioned when raised to th
was after all only a manorial borough. More likely, it grew
town once the Norman castle had been built there as the seat of
Border baronies in the north.
We have seen that the Central Triangle of Alnwick suggests both the site
as well as the form of the earlier village. If this view is correct, such original
plan could be adapted to its new function as an inherited outline without any
changes. The villeins of the former village could become burgesses on the spot,
their tofts and crofts becoming burgages. Indeed, if those green-villages of
North-east England which at some time or other in the Middle Ages functioned
as markets could be proved to have received their present layout in Anglian
days, they would provide many parallel cases.
The historical evidence collected by Tate shows that the advantages of
Alnwick's situation soon proved to be economic as well as strategic, in spite of
the hazards of border warfare which more than once resulted in the destruction
of the town. The presence of the castle would tend to stimulate economic
activities beyond those of a mere peasant community. Not that the medieval
town was ever divorced from agriculture. Two inquisitions of 1289 reveal the
presence of twenty 'bondmen' in Alnwick, i.e. peasants holding their land on
bondage tenure, and according to Tate giving Bondgate its name.'0 Further,
there were seven cotmen, and the free tenants and burgesses also engaged in
farming. Moreover, the large castle as well as the attached Bailiffgate suburbium
must early have attracted craftsmen who would find there a ready market for
their products and services. In view of the special functions of Bailiffgate most
of them were probably established round the triangular green of the ancient
road junction, which gave more room for the development of a market than
Bailiffgate, with its military activities. The lord of the manor from whom the
inhabitants received their right of burgage tenure in the twelfth century probably
encouraged this geographical separation of functions as he stood to gain by it
administratively and financially. Unfortunately, the gradual process by which
the earlier settlement grew into a town is virtually unrecorded, but its results by
the end of the thirteenth century and in the first half of the fourteenth century
are clear enough. The mention of two wine-merchants in 1181 reflects the

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24 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

process of specialization in trading. About a hundred years later

fuller or walker in a deed of conveyance, and the mention of a
foundry, would seem to indicate an increasing variety of indust
judicial inquiry at the same time the market and fair are menti
tions of 'immemorial usage'."
In the meantime, William de Vesci's charter had granted the
gage tenure to the people of Alnwick in accordance with the cus
castle, and subsequent charters of the thirteenth century confirm
of the manorial borough and added to the corporate property an
the burgesses. Finally, grants usually forming part of the royal p
given: the market and fair were confirmed by Edward I to the lor
in 1297, and pontage (bridge tolls) was granted by Edward III to t
1377.12 This last charter suggests a considerable volume of tr
specified in it are assumed to yield sufficient income in the space
to cover the cost of repairing the bridge extensively and of pavin
giving a detailed specification of tolls, it also demonstrates the
commodities coming into and out of Alnwick. They included
skins, textiles, a variety of raw materials, especially those used
dyeing, timber and other constructional materials, and a g
provisions and miscellaneous merchandise. It is apparent that
labour in industrial production within the medieval system of c
well represented at Alnwick, though detailed records of the gild
the Tudor period and later. Moreover, the trade of the town wi
areas was considerable and reflected the economic character of t
and other provisions were generally imported, and the produce of
notably skins and hides, formed the chief export trade, muc
already leaving through the port of Alnmouth. The ancient road
came to be known as the Alnmouth Road.'"
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries information from the gild records
of the borough is more extensive. The trade of the town was then considerable
and among the ten incorporated companies that of the merchants was the most
important. Tanning, the chief industry in Alnwick, was based on a major local
product and by the mid-seventeenth century there were no less than twenty-two
tanneries in the town.
For all the variety of economic activities, the town was small by modern
standards and grew only slowly until the Agricultural Revolution and the
improvement of transport effected some change in the surrounding countryside.
Although the town's population about 1550 is estimated to have been little
more than two thousand it was an important regional centre, as was reflected in
its social life, and many of the country gentry of the district had town-houses
in Alnwick and frequently resided there.'1
From this picture of economic development and from the general circum-
stances of its position in the Border Marches it may be concluded that topo-
graphically the medieval and early modern borough of Alnwick experienced a

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 25

slow and moderate growth from a nucleus which was already fair
out at the outset.

The Town Plan of the Early Manorial Borough

The extent and nature of the medieval plan and its development form an
interesting subject for cartographical analysis since the nucleus, though still
recognizable in the present townscape as a major residual feature of the Middle
Ages, has not remained unaffected by subsequent changes. Essential tools in
such an investigation, apart from the Ordnance Survey Plans, are Wilkin's
Map of 1774 and the manorial and borough surveys from Clarkson's Survey of
1567 to that of 1774. They establish a link with medieval times by allowing a
correlation of the present property boundaries with the units of land tenure in
the Tudor period. In a town like Alnwick, the majority of these may at least be
regarded as preserving the medieval pattern in modified form, even if they do
not go back to the Middle Ages in every detail. In all the surveys these units are
known individually as burgage (burgagium), i.e. the urban plot held by a burgess.
It contained his house, yard and 'garth', and was charged with a fixed rent as a
contribution to the communal borough tax or firma burgi of the town, as the
first borough entry in Clarkson's Survey expressly states.'"
The topographical development of existing plots can be traced as far back
as 1851 with the aid of the various large-scale plans of the Ordnance Survey.
Thus a direct correlation is possible between the modern plot boundaries and
the burgage boundaries of 1774, thanks to the large scale and careful execution
of Wilkin's Map, Wood's Map of 1827 providing a useful intermediate check.
This takes the analysis back to a time when the predominant forms of inter-
ference with the shapes and sizes of the anciently established burgage units had
been those of the amalgamation of neighbouring burgages, or the mediation,
i.e. halving of a burgage into two moieties, or occasionally even a quartering.
From 1774 backwards the various borough surveys allow a correlation of the
burgages of 1774 with those of 1567 by the threefold check of holder's names,
rentals and the topographical sequence employed in the recording of the
different surveys. In addition Mayson's Survey has his map of Alnwick and
gives the areas of all holdings, though this check is not always easy to apply as
the areas are given 'by estimacion' and in any case have no constant quantitative
relation to the more important frontages. Nevertheless, save for recognizable
instances of amalgamation and mediation, there is remarkable continuity in the
identity of the overwhelming majority of burgages as ownership units revealed
by this evidence stretching over more than 200 years. It makes the assumption
that, in its general features, the burgage pattern of 1567 inside the walled town is
essentially that of the Middle Ages more reasonable than it might otherwise
appear.
By plotting the burgage boundaries of 1774 on a modern plan, those that
still form elements of the existing townscape can be distinguished from those that

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26 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

THE SITE OF OLD ALNWICK

25-FT. CONTOURS A ALLER BURN
5-FT. CONTOURS B BOW BURN
FORMER RIVER ALN C WASH (CANONG.) BURN
--- STREAM COURSES G GREENWELL
ANGLIAN ROUTEWAYS
I CASTLE 10 KING'S ARMS YARD

2 ST. MICHAEL'S CH. II MONKHOUSE TERRACE

3 STONE WELL 12 POTTERGATE PLACE
4 ST. MICHAEL'S PANT 13 QUEEN'S HEAD YARD
5 BARNDALE COTTAGE 14 ROXBRO PLACE
6 CHAPEL LANE 15 THREE TUNS YARD
7 CORRECTION HO. LA. 16 WAGONWAY ROAD
8 DODD'S LANE 17 WHITE HART YARD
9 HOTSPUR STREET
SCALE OF FEET

0 500 1000

TON0. E......

..............

r 4

FIGURE 4

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 27

MEDIEVAL ALNWICK
SITE OF LATE MEDIEVAL TOWN-WALL:
E REPRESENTED BY EXISTING BOUNDARIES

/rt .m NOT SO REPRESENTED

/ I,, ANCIENT BURGAGE BOUNDARIES:
S I - - RESIDUAL OBLITERATED
Z ......... CONJECTURAL BOUNDARIES
1 IsI. WITHIN CENTRAL TRIANGLE
I
III /
I
I TENEMENT BOUNDARIES IN B
RESIDUAL OBLITERATED

I 1
I, I
, / /I
K j; /
" IME

00-

?" SL f/ T)D44E AL.NW.

IB BON.ATE TOWER
=. ~ ~ . ~?c1 * T
A? !p-

M I I IDDLETON'S

GATE TOWER
POTTERGATE 0\
TOWER I \ X
ON MAYSON'S MAP,1622 ,,-

(REBUILT IN 1767) I
POTTERGATE TOWER , ' '-" '
S STONE WELL / I i t
SL SALISBURY LANDS "-

X CONFLUENCE OF - ...A.T
8OW BURN TRIBUTARIES
*t**** ROADS AND CLOSES ON WEST SIDE OF BAILIFFGATE SCALE OF FE
, CONJECTURAL ANGLIAN ROUTE TO EGLINGHAM I I

FIGURE 5

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28 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

have vanished. Previous amalgamations and divisions that

comparison of the different surveys can be allowed for to com
original pattern as possible. The resulting picture is notable
relatively large number of residual features that survive in the
this is doubtless a common feature of smaller market towns (F
Beyond this, however, the reconstructed burgage pattern c
follow the growth and changes of the medieval plan. In Figure
as a single unitary pattern but as a compound pattern, in whic
Bow Burn and the streets defining the limits of the Central T
'seams' separating three different parts (cf. also Fig. 1). The la
the south-east of the Bow Burn and surrounds, but does not occ
of the Central Triangle. It forms a roughly circular or oval ar
distinctive arrangement of the original burgages of the borou
blocks fronting the Central Triangle and the adjoining m
individual burgages generally form rather long narrow strip-p
at right-angles to the street-line and parallel to each other.
oblongs but are often locally deformed in adaptation to s
characteristically informal, lamellate layout results and when
either side of the same street, as in the eastern stretch of Bon
presents a herringbone pattern. Although the name 'High
occur in the old part of Alnwick, what has just been described is
medieval main streets, or the widened 'street-market' variants f
our market towns, that this plan-unit may well be termed the h
In the case of Alnwick, however, a high degree of individualit
the peculiar arrangement of major traffic streets round the Cen
whole of the latter forming the early market-place as we shall
a special type within the general class based perhaps on its sugg
a pre-urban settlement, i.e. a village. Possibly the informality
shapes also indicates a particular, presumably early, type
different from the more disciplined layouts of later towns such
by Edward I.
Some further characteristics of this pattern are apparent. Each of the two
larger street-blocks, to the north and south of the Central Triangle respectively,
consists of a single plot series of burgages reaching a considerable depth (up to
475 feet in the southern block and up to over 580 feet in the northern one). The
western block is somewhat similar, but the sharper curve between Fenkle Street
and Narrowgate and the angle between Fenkle Street and Clayport Street modify
the simpler arrangement. This results in a partial break in the former case,
affecting only the rear parts of burgages, and a complete break in the latter,
giving rise to a separate plot series on Clayport Street. The relative plot sizes
here show clearly that the Fenkle Street frontage was more important than that
on Clayport Street, thus obtaining the larger burgages. In other words, frontage
to the Central Triangle or the original market was of greater economic value
than frontage to one of the main streets. Possibly the shallower series on

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 29

Clayport Street indicates also derivation from two originally

fronting Fenkle Street and remaining as two small residual pl
of Fenkle Street and Clayport Street after partition. A little f
tributary runnel to the Bow Burn marks another dicontinuity
in fact two plot series on Clayport Street, the more westerly o
majority of burgages in plot depth.
What has been discussed so far leaves little doubt that the h
of Alnwick represents the plan of the original borough. In
highly efficient, large-featured layout, in its economical conc
market-place of some 41 acres, and even in the general arr
burgages, it may preserve the trace of an earlier green-vil
adaptation to natural features it exhibits a topographical indiv
plan type that is altogether characteristically medieval.
The street-system of this central plan-unit is essentially si
sidered against the general background of street differentiatio
towns of Europe.'" In larger towns, or in towns deliberately
true bastides of south-western France, the colonial towns of e
or Edward I's boroughs in Wales, it is generally not difficult to
functional types of streets, though frequently they are comb
degrees. Major traffic streets (Verkehrsstrassen, carriere
connecting the restricted points of exit from the walled town
greatest width. Residential streets (Wohnstrassen), carrying tra
adjoining residential plots only, were often narrower. Occupat
schaftsstrassen), providing subsidiary access, were the narrow
In the earliest plan-unit of Alnwick there is virtually only on
From the corners of the triangular market in the middle thr
streets run to the three exits of this earlier town. They were tr
the medieval sense of carrying major traffic as well as combin
industrial and residential functions in the associated burgages.
of concentration in the plan is brought out by the absence of r
There was no need for them since literally every burgess had
traffic-street location and every other burgess market loc
roads, if they existed in the earliest borough, must have been
two lanes providing access from the centre to additional source
Stonewell Lane on the west side of Fenkle Street and Greenwell Lane on the
north side of Bondgate Within. Bearing in mind the technical requirements of
medieval passenger and freight transport, it is difficult to imagine a more
concentrated, economical and purposeful layout or a more generous one for the
accommodation of over 100 burgesses and other householders. Today, in spite
of the vicissitudes of many centuries and the more violent changes affecting
some of the ancient burgages in recent years, the layout of the early borough,
incorporating the inherited outlines of the distant Anglian period, survives
as the most impressive traditional plan-unit apart from Alnwick Castle
(Fig. 18).

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30 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

In the main, the ancient limits of this unit seem fairly clear
by the Bow Burn in the north and north-west, an obvious
and by Green Batt in the south. Here the siting of the perimete
combined the economic advantages of large burgage depths
a reasonably defensive position on the relatively flat shelf f
slope of Alnwick Ridge before its steep descent to Market St
and 5).
Regarding the Bow Burn line as an early borough perimeter, Mayson's
Map shows a town gate, albeit a less elaborate one than those indicated as the
Clayport and Bondgate Towers, placed astride Narrowgate in exactly the
place where one would expect to find a gate if the Bow Burn formed the town
ditch. The way the three names 'Clay-port', 'Bond-Gate' and 'Potte-gate' are
written against the three respective gate towers on the map makes it uncertain
whether 'Potte-gate' is meant to refer to the actual town gate or to northern
Narrowgate, i.e. the street space into which it has been written. If the latter, it is
certainly at variance with the burgage list of the same survey which uses 'Potter-
gate' for the present street of that name. To confuse the issue further, the map
shows no gate towers on the sites of either the present Pottergate Tower or the
supposed Narrowgate Tower. Tate records no documentary evidence of
Narrowgate Tower but only of a Pottergate Tower on the site of the present one
from 1630 onwards. According to one of his notes elsewhere, he cannot have
seen the copy of Mayson's Survey now in Alnwick Castle and therefore had no
knowledge of its maps." In view of the general accuracy of detail shown on
Mayson's Map it seems unlikely that Robert Norton, its surveyor, can have
made a major mistake in respect of what must have appeared to him as a
prominent public structure worthy of pictorial record along with the other two
gate towers. The existence of such a building, moreover, may well be respon-
sible for the adjoining stream being called the Bow Burn. The record of May-
son's Map then corroborates the conclusion already drawn from examination
of the ancient burgage pattern that the Bow Burn marks an earlier borough
limit on the north-west side.
In the south-west the original limits seem more uncertain. The short plot
series of four deep burgages on the north side of Clayport Street and their
separation from the market burgages by the possibly marshy area marked by
the confluence of the Bow Burn with its little tributary (X) seems to suggest a
later addition. If anything, this would bring the original Clayport exit of the
borough to a slightly more defensive position and might have been matched by a
similar extension of burgages on the opposite side of Clayport Street. It might
also explain the curious deviation of the Clayport tributary to the Bow Burn as
artificially effected to form an additional length of town ditch for the original
borough. The confluence area is shown on Mayson's Map as what looks like a
pond, and Stonewell Lane provides direct access to it from the market. By 1760
some sheds or other outbuildings had appeared round it, and by 1774 the pond
had disappeared altogether, giving way to a tanyard. The available evidence

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 31

does not allow one to assert firmly that the upper part of 'Clay
i.e. of Lower Clayport Street within the gate, was in fact an ext
original borough.
The only other uncertainty about the early limits of the bor
the north-east side, i.e. the area to the north-west of Allerburn
tails of the Bondgate burgages jut out in a rectangular pattern w
accord with the smooth line of the perimeter elsewhere or w
tendency to adapt itself to the defensive possibilities of relief. Th
either represents a later extension of otherwise old burgages or
the medieval town-wall was never built on this side of the b
former case the earlier borough boundary probably ran from B
with the burgage 'grain' north-north-east for some 250 feet
curved in a north-westward direction to follow the western flank
Lane valley and so join the perimeter line of the Bow Burn.
Apart from the actual street spaces the constituent elements,
were of the high-street layout, are the burgages that are fairly ev
over the three street-blocks under discussion. They are generally
elongated representing a distinct type of deep burgage rarely le
in depth, their elongation or ratio of depth to width being genera
6 : 1. There is, however, a wide range of sizes, indicating that the
no standardization of these plots here in terms of area. In any c
zation of their frontages would be more important in the plan
the accommodation of a maximum number of burgages on
available total street front. This was desirable economically
largest number of burgesses with main-street location and as de
borough perimeter in times of danger. The question arises whet
evidence to show such frontage standardization and what could
the measurements associated with it. If the borough plan o
earlier green-village, the original tofts and crofts could have de
standard. Alternatively, or in supplementation of this, the build
provided it.
It is not known whether originally the houses forming the plot dominants
of these burgages occupied the plot heads at the street-line in closed formation.
However, the discipline of direct, frontal-row development including farm-
steads is generally observable in the existing green-villages of North-east England,
and suggests that this might have been the case in an original village as much as
in the medieval town. At all events Mayson's Map shows it fully established by
the early seventeenth century and, if not an original feature, it is likely to have
been a medieval one. It presents the familiar picture of traditional burgages, as
of strip-plots generally. The greater intrinsic value of the actual frontage
normally imparts a tadpole structure to each plot. The plot head at the front
contains the plot dominant or main building, housing the essential part of the
land use of the plot, together with its yard. The plot tail, generally the larger
part in the case of burgages, is occupied by the 'garth' or garden and often

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32 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

accommodates subsidiary buildings or plot accessories. The burg

have no front-gardens, i.e. the street-line and the actual or geogr
line, as distinct from that postulated by town planners, coincid
Teasdale's Yard in 1774 (Fig. 14) illustrates the arrangement.
occupy the full frontage and so form rows or serried lines of d
along the sides of the street, which represents one form of
development common to the kernels of historic towns (Fig. 10).
This means that the dimensions of earlier houses might have
standardization of frontages in Alnwick with its narrow bur
much as in the case of some later planned medieval towns for w
relation between frontage and house has been proved.'l Earlie
struction, even in districts where stone was the principal wall m
widely on the use of timber as a skeleton. This not only carried
determined largely the organization of internal space on the pr
i.e. the spaces between different pairs of 'crucks'. Although these
necessarily of standard size, the ordinary agricultural unit know
pole was used in setting out the building plan on the site. Th
16 feet, architectural evidence in England about A.D. 1200 su
18 feet length.20 In any case there may have been regional
standards of frontages originating in this way might be looked
Map on the assumption that until then the changes affecting
standard burgages of the original borough were mostly those of
mediation and quartering. Subdivision of burgages must have
usually, if not always, by splitting them longitudinally into mo
burgages, or whatever was the required division. As time went on
gage' came to be applied indiscriminately to the full units a
fractional plots. Longitudinal division is proved by Wilkin's Map
the traditional lamellate pattern with hardly any interference f
divisions. Subdivisions of burgages must generally have been ref
in the measurements of frontages. Halving or mediation, eith
repetition, was usual. Thus the existence of an original stan
would be indicated in the later plan not only by direct representa
and its multiples but also by the occurrence of such fractional v
1 , etc., the result of a prolonged process of regrouping of contig
When applying these considerations to the evidence of 1774, the
is to obtain accurate measurements within a foot on the MS. orig
Map. A check by measurements on the 1/528 Ordnance map pro
useful as the building development between 1774 and 1851 had ar
too much with the frontages, although it generally left the bur
behind the plot dominants unaltered. When measuring the
Wilkin's Map, therefore, a margin of error of 1 foot has been all
measurements deviate from either units or multiples of those dim
are most frequently found. The following table records the mea
groups them into:

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 33

(1) Those related to the most frequently occurring m

(a = 28 feet).
(2) Those related to the next most frequent measurement (b
(3) Those showing no such relation.
The evidence is interesting. Nearly half the intramural burgage
part of the borough appear to be related to a unit measurement

TABLE I

Burgage Frontages in the Oldest Part of the Medieval Borough

Frontage Measurement Street blocks Number Per cent of total

type in feet
N.E. W. S.

?a 14 - 3 - 3 2.75
la 21 3 1 - 4 3.67
a 28 8 5 4 17 15.60
lia 35 2 5 1 8 7.34 45.87
1a 42 3 3 3 9 8.25
la 49 3 3 2 8 7.34
2a 56 - - 1 1 0.92

lb 16 1 2 - 3 2.75'
xb 24 4 2 4 10 9.17
b 32 7 1 5 13 11.93 33.94
1?b 40 2 4 3 9 8.25
2b 64 - - 2 2 1.84

26 2 2 2 6 5.51

Not 30 2 - 2 4 3.67 20.19

classified 37 1 2 5 8 7.3420.19
45 1 2 1 4 3.67

TOTALS 39 35 35 109 100.00 100.00

latter is actually represented by

including the burgage marked
'Teasdale's Yard' in Figure 14.
32 feet, which again accounts f
view of the difficulties of corr
sible that some at least of the
may nevertheless belong to
medieval 'standardization' fo
modern precision, the separatio
unreal and might indicate only
but in practice loosely define
then that in Alnwick 28-32 feet

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34 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

measurement not infrequently found in medieval towns. Th

ments recorded in Alnwick, 14 feet and 16 feet, are the ha
minent units. They represent the common lower limit of 'b
construction. A standard frontage of 28-32 feet therefore se
row house occupying the head of a standard burgage norma
ing unit of two structural bays. That traditional building m
in Alnwick for a long time, probably right up to the early G
be inferred from Tate's statement that during the fourteen
sixteenth centuries the houses of Alnwick were generally lo
storey thatched buildings.21 The prevailing house depth of 1
Map indicates the traditional block-plan of the smaller 'eave
row house fronting the street with its eaves instead of its g
even in the middle of the Georgian period the majority of
earlier traditional type.

Market Colonization

Within its Central Triangle the oldest borough encloses four street-blocks
which are so different from it in their shapes and plot pattern as to form a
distinct plan-unit suggesting a different origin (Figs. 1, 4, 5 and 6). The blocks
are much smaller than those of the surrounding high-street layout, their dis-
similar shapes are irregular and angular, and yet their arrangement is not
entirely haphazard. They are in fact placed so as to leave a roughly oblong
market square between themselves and a fairly wide street space round the
perimeter of their own group, thus outlining rather than obscuring the Central
Triangle. Their plot pattern shows a mosaic of rather small, generally squat,
rectilinear plots, very different from the lamellate arrangement of the surround-
ing plan-unit. It has been maintained above that these four blocks are not part
of the original borough plan, and there is historical evidence to support this
and help to explain the topographical characteristics.
Figure 6 records the relevant evidence in Clarkson's Survey within the plot
boundaries of 1774, allowing for the addition of such earlier subdivisions as
emerge from a study of the previous borough surveys. These boundaries form
a less definite pattern than that of the present time and suggest an intermediate
stage of development. In the western block subdivision into well-defined plots
is complete. In the block between Paikes Street (formerly Paykes Hole) and
Market Passage plot definition exists only on the street fronts, while the eastern
block is even less consolidated. The three blocks appear to reflect different
stages in a process of crystallization. Doubtless the whole pattern is more
mature than that of the Middle Ages, or indeed that of 1567, especially in the
western block. The street-lines of the blocks may approximate to those of 1567,
but the plots themselves, because of the peculiar nature of their origin, and
unlike the burgages of the high-street layout, can be regarded only as topo-
graphical 'loci', not as actual outlines of the data of Clarkson's Survey. Even

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 35

A. GENERAL PROPERTY HOLDINGS IN THE CENTRAL

{- CHARACTERISTICS
TRIANGLE OF ALNWICK, 1567
S100 0 IOOFT.
A. GENERAL PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS:
S PUBLIC UTILITIES
5E: FORMERLY PUBLIC UTILITIES
r BUILT ON OUEEN'S HIGHWAY OR LORD'S
C NEW IMPROVEMENT WASTE

B. TENURIAL DESIGNATION:
SP BURGACE
2 'TENEMENT OR BURGAGE'
M HOUSE,OR SMALL HOUSE
i SHOPS
Lw WASTE, OR WASTE BURGAGE
A BURCAGE,OR HOUSE HELD
X6 'QUO TITULO IGNOTUM EST'
SL 'RENTED AT HIS LORDSHIP'S PLEASURE'

2*3 C. RENTALS:
* MARKET NORMAL RENT, PAID TO BOROUGH REEVE
6I SMALL RENT, D? (4d)
1 \" VERY SMALL RENT, D0 (2d)

7 SCRET NO RENT, D?
:D REE . RENT PAID TO CASTLE REEVE
I SMITHY 5 LITTLE HOUSE ON THE

MAE 3 SHOPS, FORMERLY 6 BAKEHOUSE

2 BERE HOUSES LORD'S W
CROJE A CHAPEL 7 BUTCHER'S SHAMBLES
4 CORPUS CHRISTI HOUSE IN 1774

B. TENURIAL DESGNATION C. RENTALS

100 1 00 FT. 0 loo o loo FT.

6 P

SMARK 2 MARKET
M sMA RKT E jjj
MA
CRO MEC
E OS.

FIGURE 6

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36 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

so, this 'localization' is quite adequate for our purpose as both

and the plots are small.
Figure 6 shows those features from Clarkson's Survey that
within the Central Triangle. In the first place, there are cert
(Map A in Fig. 6) which in the medieval manorial borough
by the lord of the manor but served the community. Th
sited on a central public open space such as the village green
Alnwick there were the bakehouse (No. 6), the 'bere Hous
building called 'Corpus Christi House' (No. 4). Three shops
of the Market Place are mentioned as having formerly bee
Premises recorded as having been built on the Queen's high
waste indicate the former open space more clearly. They are
to the Central Triangle. Among them No. I is mentioned in
as erected originally as a smithy. The other three examples
and a shop. Buildings recently erected on public ground a
improvement' (Novui impromt), an entry entirely restricted t
in Figure 6.
Further hints as to the original state of the Central Triang
from the tenurial designations (Map B in Fig. 6). The majority
in this area are actually designated 'burgage' (burgagium), but
these holdings were very different from the deep burgages of
street layout. By Tudor times the term 'burgage', referrin
holding within the walled borough, had lost some of its origi
had become a generic term for any holding for which ren
borough reeve, regardless of its origin, provided it had becom
enough on its site. But these small properties, some of them
'new improvements' in 1567, did not automatically become 'bu
rate some had not done so at the time of Clarkson's Survey, b
house' or more significantly as 'a small house', 'a shop' or just
in particular are well known as agents in the colonization of m
places by permanent houses. The usual development leads
temporary stall (selda) to the more permanent shop structure (
to the house, or what in Alnwick had become a 'burgage'
Triangle by 1567. That these burgages were of dubious ten
dicated by the not infrequent remark in Clarkson's Survey
which a certain property is held is unknown (quo titulo ig
formula is virtually restricted to properties in the western s
Central Triangle. One property in the eastern street-block is
ment or burgage' (vniu tent sie by). This suggests a transition
holdings established on the waste, and therefore directly answ
of the manor like the normal tenement, and the burgage answe
the firma burgi. Two of the holdings not designated burgages
'rented at his Lordship's pleasure'.
The distribution of all these tenurial designations is signif

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. ..... ...... ... ...

PLATE III - THE OLD TOWN FROM THE SOUTH-WEST IN 1930 Aer
Traditional arterial ribbon of Upper Clayport Street on right, with three deep-burgage series behind
Fringe Belt in background and on left, continuing to right with row houses along Dispensary Street
in foreground.

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 :::M'F

.. . ... ...

?n MR::
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W. .. .... ...... a
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m " u n a p . . . . .......... "M A.M.

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am

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60,

PLATE IV - PART OF OUTER ALNWICK FROM THE SOUTH-WEST IN 1926

From front to back: unconsolidated Outer Fringe Belt, modern residential accretions of St. Geor
Victorian residential accretions, Intermediate Fringe Belt about Alnwick Station an

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 37

burgages predominate in the western street-block but towards th

increasingly to designations generally indicating more recent typ
ment. This points to a parallel to the degrees of plot consolidati
the boundaries on Wilkin's Map. Evidently the colonization
Triangle with houses proceeded generally from the west and nor
the present Market Place and the south-east. It was perhaps
angle inside the ancient road fork at the east end of the old ma
level with the main road from the east by the heavier traffic the
certainly suggests a protracted piecemeal progress which did
pletion by 1567 or even by 1774. Two instances illustrate this. T
berland Survey of 1586 records 'a little house lately builded
Wast and the Queens street' characteristically without specifyin
This new encroachment on the highway and perhaps Greenwell
Fig. 6) is mentioned nowhere in Clarkson's Survey and must
therefore, between 1567 and 1586. Although the Butchers' S
before 1715 and are almost certainly of medieval origin, their r
ing has changed the size and outline of the street-block which t
The outline shown in Figure 6 (No. 7) is that of the building and
the lord of the manor in 1764. As late as 1826, the block was en
the 'Assembly Rooms' and considerably enlarged so that the
Street was completely separated from the Market Place. If, there
plan-unit within the Central Triangle continued to develop unti
Mayson's Map on the other hand shows it already establishe
extent, with a number of short rows of houses parallel or at righ
other. The impression is not unlike that of the stall arrangemen
place.
To return to the evidence of Clarkson's Survey, the half-yearly rentals give
additional material that supports the other evidence (Map C in Fig. 6). The
normal rents for the ancient burgages within the walled town payable to the
borough reeve range from 7d. to 12d., but most are 8d. or 9d. They apply also
to twenty-one of the fifty-four holdings under discussion. The remainder show
anomalies that are very rare among the ancient burgages of the high-street
layout. Their borough rentals are either small (between 2d. and 4d.) or alto-
gether non-existent. This reflects the initial smallness of the properties or their
incidental origin which tends to leave them both without a proper record of
rents and without a known title. Thus no rents are paid in some cases (nihil
quia nulla in rotulis mentio). Some of these holdings show a more direct relation
to the lord of the manor by paying rent to the castle reeve. In the case of the
'bere Houses' (Nos. 2) this is not surprising, but in the other cases it suggests
building on the lord's waste.
The topographical and the historical evidence then point to the important
conclusion - independent of any hypothesis about a preceding green-village -
that the great Central Triangle of Alnwick was originally a large open space.
This was doubtless the ancient market-place of this border town. In size it may
D

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38 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

reflect the requirements of an earlier agricultural community

certainly those of a regional centre suitably equipped with
stock market. Certain buildings of public use made their ap
this market-place. During the later centuries of border wa
borough had become a walled town with a more fully developed
the restricted space within the walls appears to have put a
central location of properties. Notwithstanding the extension
area, the increasing pressure on available open space at the centr
gradual filling-up of the ancient triangular market-place.
This particular type of secondary growth on an already esta
place is common in medieval towns, especially those that w
process may be called market colonization. It implies an intern
street-plan in the full sense (i.e. one resulting in the formation
street-blocks on the old market-place, and within a previously d
system).
The general nature and result of market colonization are well exhibited in
Alnwick. The central street-blocks developed spontaneously from more or less
isolated small buildings, shops and stalls by slow coalescence into close-grained,
compact blocks distinguishable as market concretions from the surrounding
older street-blocks. Today their average building coverage (i.e. the amount of
plot area covered by buildings and expressed as a percentage of the total plot
area) ranges from 85 to 100.
Their arrangement creates a well-defined plan-unit with small internal
streets serving today as occupation roads or at most as minor shopping streets.
The whole complex of market concretions had to fit into a pre-existing outline
as its morphological frame. It tended to mould its overall shape in response to
pre-established requirements on the site, thereby giving an instance of morpho-
logical conformity characteristic of this type of plan-unit. This meant first the
preservation of a compact open area in the middle as a residual market-place,
though its shrinkage inevitably brought about a measure of dispersion of the
market function about the Central Triangle with attendant specialization."
It also meant the preservation of unimpeded frontage access to the ancient
burgages round the triangle, and the fixation of this perimeter as a series of
relatively broad double-sided streets (Bondgate-Narrowgate, Fenkle Street,
Market Street) to serve established needs and rights of circulation.

The Borough Extension

The market concretions of the Central Triangle in Alnwick developed
slowly over a long period and, so far from being contemporary with the high-
street layout of the earlier borough surrounding them, were in part at least post-
medieval. Figure 5 indicates, however, that there was in fact another addition
to the earlier borough which was included in the area surrounded by the late-
medieval town-wall (cf. also Fig. 1). It comprises the Pottergate (Barresdale

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 39

Street)2" and Narrowgate district beyond the Bow Burn and

of a peripheral accretion. Possibly the intramural burgag
Clayport Tower belonged to it.
The siting of this Pottergate accretion is explained by th
the three arterial exits from the earlier borough the north-
most sheltered position between the town and the Bailiff
incorporating it within the town-wall, moreover, the obsol
the Bow Burn could be exchanged for the more satisfac
present Dispensary Street and Northumberland Street.
The new accretion shows marked differences as well as some similarities to
the plan of the earlier borough. In it only Narrowgate preserves the informal
curving lines of the older street-plan, whereas Barresdale Street is notably
straight even though it ascends a fairly steep slope. Clarkson's Survey records
the whole quarter as occupied by burgages and other holdings but, as seen
earlier, the process of filling up the Narrowgate end and thereby enclosing the
old 'Alien Lane' was only just nearing completion in Elizabethan days.
The plot pattern of the Pottergate area supports this general impression.
It is markedly asymmetrical, and somewhat different in this respect from the
high-street layout of the earlier town. Burgages resembling those of the latter
in size and general shape form a plot series along the south side of Barresdale
Street and seem to represent burgages in the original sense of the term. They
differ from the presumably earlier borough burgages to the east only in the
greater rectilinearity of their shapes, which accords with their contourwise
arrangement and has enabled some of them, in spite of their narrowness, to
accommodate two rope-walks in the nineteenth century as well as a long straight
row of cottages. The only informal element is introduced by the morphological
frame of the Bow Burn and affects more particularly the easternmost burgage
which lay right alongside the brook. On the north side of Barresdale Street, the
holdings are rather squat and comparable to the tenement plots in Bailiffgate,
except for the more elongated plots on Narrowgate. All of them, except two on
the east side of the latter street, were recorded as burgages in 1567, but three of
the smallest at the corner of the two streets were given as subdivisions of a
former burgage. This must have had its house and main frontage on Narrow-
gate rather than Barresdale Street," thereby emphasizing the importance of
Narrowgate as a thoroughfare. Towards the north-west, within the angle of the
late-medieval town-wall, the plot pattern appears immature in that land
divisions on the site of the ancient highway remained large.

The Town-Wall

The late-medieval town-wall, enclosing the high-street layout as well as the

Pottergate area, has been mentioned repeatedly. Much of its site still forms an
important residual feature in the present town plan, although the fabric has long
disappeared except for the impressive pile of Bondgate Tower.

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40 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

The licence for fortifying the town was granted only in t

fifteenth century and the town-wall was completed, at least
west and south sides, in the second half.26 The unusually
much the result of the inability of the town to pay for the wor
ing of Anglo-Scottish tensions in the immediate pre-Tud
were Bondgate Tower, Clayport, Pottergate Tower and
Narrowgate Tower (Fig. 5). Tate produces no document
last-named, and Mayson's Map is somewhat at variance w
Nevertheless, in view of the documentary evidence fo
Pottergate Tower and the structural as well as documentary
west corner of the wall, the site of the town-walls on the n
borough as shown in Fig. 5 may be accepted at least as a
fortification.2' The wall seems to have served its purpose fo
when the union between England and Scotland made it su
and partial dismantling for building purposes must hav
though Thoresby, travelling through Alnwick in 1681, s
wall',28 there is no sign of it on the earlier map in Mayson
Tower, Clayport Tower and the 'Pottergate' by the Bow B
only parts of the defensive works shown. Tate's Pottergate
gate Tower are conspicuously absent from this map. Yet po
the north-west comer on the east side of the present North
existed in Tate's time, and from what follows it appears that
1774 the town-wall and its remains were treated cartogr
boundary lines. That the wall seems to have been extens
before 1603 is suggested by the fact that in most cases its si
the main gates were apparently held as burgages in priv
fate of the town gates varied. Narrowgate Tower, if ever b
seems to have disappeared first, as there is no record of it. T
indicative of the ancient boundary between the borough an
the existing slight stagger in the street-line on the west si
first recorded properly on Wilkin's Map. A Pottergate Tow
of the present one in 1630 when it came into the possession
existing structure was built in 1767-78. Clayport Tower was
Bondgate Tower,"9 however, stands today as the only remai
fortification.
Notwithstanding its relatively short period of use, the t
for a sufficiently long time to mark the urban fringe of th
important residual features in Alnwick's plan, and to exert
influence beyond that. It divides the great central area of t
patterns frcm the surrounding areas which have plot
characteristic of subsequent accretions. Moreover, its s
fixation line for a number of peripheral streets that now for
round most of the old borough.
The oldest of these consequent streets are the contiguous

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 41

Street, Green Batt and Tower Lane. They are first recorded on M
where the eastern part of Green Batt is shown as an open space
wide. In the Middle Ages it had been public ground used for
archery.0? Its partial enclosure and the consequent narrowing of
to its present dimensions did not begin until the middle of
century. After that it provided the space for a number of land
public functions. On Wilkin's Map Hotspur Street is an occup
ing to Green Batt, while Tower Lane is little more than a fo
obliquely the burgage established here over the site of the town
Mayson's Map shows neither Dispensary Street nor Nort
Street. These developed gradually as footpaths, and later as stre
of the town ditch, but from Pottergate southward the site of Di
was early known as the Arrowbutts, indicating another open
archery.31
On the north side of the borough, between Narrowgate and Bondgate
Tower, there is no trace of a town-wall, and it is doubtful whether a wall ever
existed here, for the castle would probably afford sufficient protection. The
O.S. Plans of 1851 and 1864 show the former site of the town-wall on other
sides of the borough but not here. The 'probable site' of the wall shown on the
O.S. 1/2500 Plans of 1921 along Bondgate is obviously absurd and is supported
neither by any historical or archaeological evidence nor, one feels, by anything
known of medieval town plans in general. As the borough appears to have found
it difficult to finance the building of the walls,"3 it seems reasonable to assume
that no wall was constructed along the castle moat in the Bow Burn valley. The
gap between the latter and Bondgate Tower, however, is less easily explained, as
the greater distance from the castle and the surface configuration here certainly
seem to require a wall. If the rear of the ancient burgages was extended in this
part to form the pattern shown on both Wilkin's Map and Mayson's Map, it
could be assumed that the wall, when coming into private ownership, was here
used as a quarry of dressed building stone. The disappearance of the line
marking the old periphery of the borough could be the more easily understood
as there was here no occasion for footpaths or open spaces along the town
ditch, since all the land to the north belonged to the demesne and was already
shown fully enclosed on Mayson's Map. At all events no traces of structural
remains appear to have been found during the continuous gardening operations
on this site since the middle of last century.33

Walkergate

Beyond its town-wall the medieval borough had one built-up area which,
though physically detached, was functionally an integral part of it. This was
Walkergate (Figs. 5 and 7; also Fig. 1), where the fullers or walkers settled near
the river."' The evidence of Mayson's Map and the remains of the late medieval
Chantry of St. Mary suggest that the present street occupies much the same site

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42 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

as its medieval predecessor, though the actual street spac

subject to a modern standardization of width. On Mayson's
built-up on both sides, with plots somewhat similar to those
this agrees with the evidence in Clarkson's Survey which d
frontages into burgage series. But later changes, mainly demo
and associated depopulation, were so great that already o

CANONGATE AND WALKERGATE

A//ClINTmT

CANO#- CATE

SCALE OF FEET

'\ WA

MID-. "AN

. ........ MODERN

A1 COURSE OFRIVER-ALN

ANCIENT FOD - - 8TH CENTURY COURSE OF VE ALN

- - - MID AND LATE VICTORIAN MODERN

- - ANCIENT BRIDGE AND ROAD SPACES OPEN FRONTAGES, FORMERLY BUILT-UP

FIGURE 7

reconstruction of the supposed medieval burgage plots is achieved only with

difficulty and is necessarily incomplete. All that can be said with reasonable
certainty is that the eastern half of the north side towards the river must have
been the main area occupied by the fullers. Here convenient water-frontage was
obtained at the rear end of each plot, for the river then followed a southerly
course through Walkergate Haugh and was artificially braided to bring the

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 43

water against the rear ends of the plots, as is shown on Mayso

Thompson's Map of 1760. But here again, subsequent chang
the extensions and improvements of the Duke's parkland, h
Altogether, the Walkergate area, although it still contains the
Chantry of St. Mary, is today a district hardly dominated by re
the Middle Ages.

Early Accretions
How far medieval Alnwick had any built-up areas outside it
two southern main roads is not clear from historical evide
mention of a burgage in Bondgate 'beyond the tower' in 1483 su
dwellings did occur in such position.35 Clarkson's Survey lists a
'burgages' which from comparison with subsequent surveys an
must have occupied both sides of Bondgate 'Without' from Bon
Denwick Lane, and similarly both sides of Upper Clayport Stre
Tower to the present junction of Clayport Street and Lisburn
and 8).36 Intermixed with them were a smaller number of ten
styled 'toft and croft'. Similarly, the northern stretch of H
outside Pottergate Tower had a number of burgages on each sid
In addition, there were tenements in the fields near Bondgate,
specifically refers to their dwellings as abandoned by their ho
houses within the borough.38 Finally, Clayport Bank as far as
Thomas's Farm contained burgages which seem to have been all
verted into 'riggs' of land (selio).39 Of all these extramural areas
the length of Bondgate Without and a similar stretch on Cl
shown as occupied by buildings and their crofts on Mayson's M
general impression gained from this evidence is that residenti
these areas must have fluctuated a great deal in the period befor
century. The conditions of border warfare and the frequent econ
of the town could easily account for this. The restricted ex
frontages shown on Mayson's Map for these roads is certainly
trast to the relevant distribution implied by the incidence of 'bu
and crofts' in Clarkson's Survey. It suggests that these terms re
presumably late-medieval condition, and even then not all the
named were necessarily occupied by inhabited buildings at the
extent of houses shown on Mayson's Map was to remain mu
about another 150 years, except that the frontages of Bondgat
gradually and partly filled with houses up to the junction with
shown on Thompson's Map of 1760 and Wilkin's Map of 177
The uncertainty in the interpretation of the earlier eviden
any attempt at reconstruction of the old plot boundaries with
The empty burgages and other plots are shown clearly eno
Map and there can be little doubt that the existing plot pattern

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44 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

of Upper Clayport Street preserves the original burgage series a

as the plot boundaries of the old borough do in the case of thei
the existing coincidence of street-line and building-line may be r
as late medieval. Here, then, we have the earliest form of one o
mon types of plan-units resulting from peripheral expansio
arterial ribbon.
On the south side of the same road reconstruction, though not as easy, is
still possible with the help of the first O.S. plans. Subsequent developments,
however, have effaced the old plot boundaries except for the small area of
traditional cottages to the west of Monkhouse Terrace.
In the case of Bondgate Without the task is made more difficult by the
original irregularity of the pattern, as well as by considerable changes in
individual plots. Nevertheless, some existing plot boundaries here correspond
to those shown on Mayson's Map.
Finally, a reconstruction of plot boundaries to the west of Pottergate
Tower is impossible. Mayson's Map already lacks the necessary information,
and the present landscape contains no residue from these earlier times except the
street space of Howling Lane.

Canongate

The only built-up area of the Middle Ages which remains to be discussed is
Canongate, anciently forming a settlement separate from Alnwick and Bailiff-
gate (Figs. 1, 3 and 7)."o It was a manor belonging to Alnwick Abbey, separated
from it by the Aln. The close topographical relation normally found between a
pre-urban nucleus such as a castle or monastery and the trading settlement
developing under its gate in suburbium position was therefore absent. Canongate
(the street of the Canons) grew along the road from the Abbey to St. Michael's
Church and Alnwick. The ford across the Aln lay at some distance from the
monastery in a northward meander loop. The physical separation of the little
manorial market settlement from its abbey may have been dictated as much by
this as by the circumstance that the south side of the river, with its rising slope
towards Alnwick and the regional routeways, gave more room for development.
Growth during the Middle Ages was very modest and was no doubt hampered
by the rise of Alnwick. Though separate gilds developed in Canongate, its
market remained small and appears to have had no formative influence on the
earlier plan other than a small widening of the single street near the river. At
the time of the Dissolution of Monasteries the manor contained thirty-six
burgages, besides two copyholds. The reconstruction of their boundaries, as
indeed of the full medieval plan, is not easy (Fig. 7). Mayson's Map, being
chiefly concerned with Alnwick, shows Canongate simply as a single long row of
houses on the east side of the street without any plot pattern whatever. The
latter appears first on Thompson's Map, and more reliably on Wilkin's Map.
By that time both sides of the street were built up with cottages in row formation

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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 45

BONDGATE WITHOUT AND UPPER CLAYPORT STREET

... . -... .** - I. -' I .%

....*.
* o.*.*0 ; CLIVE TERRACE - 4e

Z GROVE TERRACE

...... 0* . 3 VICTORIA PLACE

. 4 FISH. TACKLE FACTORY

" 15" MEETI

00 0"0
S.. CINEMA (1 9.5) MIL
t6 METHODIST CHAPEL

N 0 % 8 ALLISON PLACE

EXISTING ROADS

AND PLOT BOUNDARIES: "

PRE-GEORGIAN ONAE
GEORGIAN AND EARLY VICTORIAN 0

HID-AND LATE VICTORIAN

MODERN

EXISTING
BUILDING FRONTAGES

r -irt -,, WAYSIDE GREEN I-*Q\

SCALE OF FEET
0 500 1000

=:4 i, [ 1 I J , t ,

FIGURE 8

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46 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK

and the pattern had already suffered considerable alterations. H

the east side showing plots comparable in character to the burga
Street outside Clayport Tower survives as the medieval residu
though its building arrangement has changed in some cases
Canongate amalgamation had proceeded far in the eighteent
remaining strip-plots on the west side of the street are so strai
Map as to suggest either that the west side was altogether of re
ment, which would agree with Mayson's Map, or that it had bee
extensive refashioning of plots.

The Fields of Alnwick

Beyond the built-up area of medieval and early modern A

open countryside, containing the borough fields with their fiel
ancient common land of Aydon Forest or Alnwick Moor, as well
demesne. The medieval field system of the town is of interest in i
together with the field systems of Northumberland in general de
investigation. For the purpose of this study it is sufficient t
conditions of ownership and enclosure in so far as they influen
expansion of Alnwick's built-up area.
Mayson's Map shows the traditional system already mod
About half of the fields were then enclosed. Over the remainde
dicates a pattern of furlongs and rigs in which the lord of the
strips intermingled with those of the burgesses and tenants.
area lay to the south-east of the town, between the river and the
ary of the manor, and mainly on the sandy drift. Most of the b
wards the eastern extremity of the manor already showed fairl
(cf. Figs. 9 and 3). The main areas of enclosed fields lay to the sou
chiefly on boulder clay and on the sandstone, whinstone and lim
Alnwick Ridge, and on the boulder clay and the sandy drift to
town. The largest enclosures in fact were located in this area
demesne lands and lands that had earlier belonged to Alnwick A
Already in 1624 enclosed demesne land dominated the pictur
and west of the town, and in the south-east at a little distance
Without, whereas the south-west and, even nearer to the old bor
was all enclosed land in the hands of freeholders. This situat
subsequent periods and meant that in the earlier stages of mode
town found it easiest to expand southward. As Tate noted, the l
willing to sell for building purposes, particularly the smaller
mainly on this side.42
Figure 9 shows the development of the field pattern43 as we
ments that have survived as residues in the present plan. Fro
with Figures 1 and 21 a fact of general significance emerges
stages the field pattern surrounding the Old Town appears as a fo

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 FIGURE 9-The fields of Alnwick.

1 Boundaries from before 1620, not now existing

Existing boundaries, dating from the period:
2 before 1620
3 1620-1760
4 1760-1866
5 1866-1897
6 after 1897

Land held in intermixed strips by the lord of the manor and other holders in
1620, thereafter held in closes by:
7 the lord of the manor in 1760 and 1846
8 the lord of the manor in 1760, and various owners in 1846
9 various owners in 1760, and the lord of the manor in 1846
10 various owners in 1760 and 1846

Land held in closes by:

11 the lord of the manor in 1620, 1760 and 1846
12 the lord of the manor in 1620 and 1760, and other owners in 1846
13 the lord of the manor in 1620, and other owners in 1760 and 1846
14 various owners in 1620, and the lord of the manor in 1760 and 1846
15 various owners in 1620 and 1760, and the lord of the manor in 1846
16 various owners in 1620 and 1846, and the lord of the manor in 1760
17 holders other than the lord of the manor since before 1620

18 holders other than the lord of the manor since before 1620, but held by
Prideaux Selby, Esq. in 1846

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 THE FIEL

,;4 -- I 7

CASTL FCLOSE
1 ?
S 5 E\O I S II
%:L:AR -

. NoA
\SNN MSIDE0

\ I . . 0 NORTHERMOS SO TH F

---THOMAS _ .-
----" : - -- OON

. .. . . . ..O//.. ./
............ ....

.E.I . L. . ? .?W I ? . . ...\. .LL

S? ...ORTHERMO ".
COLUMN HILL

. ... . '. . LA. "

STO'MIE HILL LACKLEY-CLOS SUTH CLOS MLANDDIN STEAD

' 1NEWDAIL IS C ZWPJ

EL

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"IELDS OF ALNWICK
0 7 13
8 T 14 FIELD NAMES AT DIFFERENT DATES
SHOWN THUS :-
S9 15s 1620 - GOOSE FLAT

7 10 i 16 1760 - (CROSS FLATS)

o II 17 1846 - wesr CROFT
12 18

SCALE OF FEET

0 500 I000 1500 2000

I I. I I

6 ,, ESLEYSIDE HA

SN, BANK
-ICLOSE A NG
SIDE/
////I, X.4
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 MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ALNWICK 47

in the evolution of the street-plan. It serves as a guiding fr

sequent development, determining the topographical detail o
Its field lanes tend to become minor traffic streets or majo
new built-up areas, and its field boundaries to define the ac
plan-units. In short, the field pattern serves as a morpholo
sequent urban growth, a common phenomenon in urban geo

REFERENCES

x The position of the medieval bridge has been plotted on the basis of Mayso
Thompson's Map, 1760.
2 MAWER, op. cit., 237.
3 The medieval castle in Figure 5 is based on TATE, op. cit., vol. i, plate iv, fi
4 TATE, op. cit., vol. i, 84, 117-18, 134.
5 Clarkson's Survey, 1567, fols. 43, 44, 46.
6 TATE, op. cit., vol. i, 135.
7 Ibid., vol. i, 448; vol. ii, 366.
8 R. E. DICKINSON, op. cit., 345, 360, 369, 404. E. J. SIEDLER, Miirkischer Stiidte
(1914), 12. Cf. also E. ENNEN, Friihgeschichte der europdischen Stadt (1953), 124
9 TATE, op. cit., vol. i, app. i.
10 Ibid., vol. i, 87.
11 Ibid., vol. i, 86, 93, 149.
12 Ibid., app. iii and iv.
13 Ibid., vol. i, 249-50, 312, 319; vol. ii, 321-49.
14 Ibid., vol. i, 245, 247.
15 Clarkson's Survey, 1567, fol. 24. For the meaning of burgagium vide J. T
English borough (1936), 99, n. 7, 106-7; forfirma burgi, ibid., chapter vii.
16 Street differentiation like many other details of medieval urban morpho
attention from investigators on the Continent. The latter evolved the first term
street types, especially in the area of medieval German colonization which prov
good field of observation in this respect. Cf. CH. KLAIBER, Die Grundrissbildung
im Mittelalter (1912), 49-52; SIEDLER, op. cit., 46-56; DICKINSON, op. cit., 316, 4
17 TATE, op. cit., vol. ii, 71 f.n., 286-7.
18 So called in the Survey of Northumberland, 1586, fol. 37.
19 SIEDLER, op. cit., 60, cites the cases of Soldin and Spremberg in eastern Ge
comparable frontages occur in Sauveterre de Guienne and Valence d'Agen. Cf. T
town planning (1934), 20. For the best known example (Bern), cf. H. STRAHM
Griindungsplan der Stadt Bern', Archiv des Historischen Vereins des Kantons Ber
20 HUGH BRAUN, An introduction to English medieval architecture (1951), 70-1.
21 TATE, op. cit., vol. i, 245.
22 Survey of Northumberland, 1586, fol. 26.
23 TATE, op. cit., vol. i, 450-2.
24 Before the survey of 1586 Pottergate bore the name Barresdale Street, be
'Hooling Lane' (1677) to the 'Burndales' (Mayson's Survey, 1624) or 'Barres
occupied by Barndale Riggs, Barndale House and Barndale Cottage. Cf. TATE,
25 Clarkson's Survey, 1567, fol. 42.
26 TATE, op. cit., vol. i, 236-44, app. iv; vol. ii, app. vii.
27 Cf. also Clarkson's Survey, 1567, fol. 44.
28 TATE, op. cit., vol. i, 244.
29 Now popularly, though erroneously, referred to as Hotspur Tower. C
vol. i, 241.
30 Ibid., vol. ii, 283.
31 Ibid., vol. ii, 283.
32 Ibid., vol. ii, app. vii.
33 Information kindly supplied by the Duke of Northumberland's head garde
"4 TATE, op. cit., vol. i, 101, 245; vol. ii, 366.

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