Edlingham

Edlingham
Northumberland
Edlingham Castle
Location
Grid reference:	NU105095
Location:	55°22’30"N, 1°49’26"W
Data
Population:	191  (2011)
Post town:	Alnwick
Postcode:	NE66
Local Government
Council:	Northumberland
Parliamentary constituency:	Berwick-upon-Tweed

Edlingham is a small, inland village in Northumberland; a little place with a recorded population of just 191 at the 2011 Census.

The road to Alnwick passes close by the village and the town of Rothbury is about six miles away.

The name Edlingham is Old English and means 'Eadwulf's Home'. Its recorded history goes back as far as 737 when King Coelwulf gave Edlingham and three other royal Northumbrian villages to Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.

Landmarks

St John the Baptist, Edlingham

St. John the Baptist's Church dates largely from the 11th and 12th centuries, with a remarkable fortified tower added around 1300.

Close to the church is Edlingham Castle. The castle has its origins in a house built by John de Edlingham in the 12th century, which was subsequently strengthened and fortified over the next three centuries. In the 15th century the castle had a moat, gate tower and strong palisade. However, agricultural requirements overtook the need for defence over the following 200 years, and after 1514 the buildings were let to local tenant farmers for housing animals and crops, and fell into disrepair.

By 1650 the castle was abandoned and over the next 300 years the theft of stonework left the building in ruins. Excavations were started in 1978 by English Heritage to make the remaining masonry safe for visitors.

The Devil's Causeway passes the western edge of the village, a Roman road which starts at Port Gate on Hadrian's Wall, north of Corbridge, and extends fifty-five miles beyond the Romans' frontier across Northumberland to the mouth of the River Tweed at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Edlingham)

• Information on Edlingham  from GENUKI