Longhorsley
| Longhorsley | |
| Northumberland | |
|---|---|
 Longhorsley | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NZ145945 |
| Location: | 55°14’38"N, 1°46’23"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 887 (2011) |
| Post town: | Morpeth |
| Postcode: | NE65 |
| Dialling code: | 01670 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Northumberland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Berwick upon Tweed |
Longhorsley is a village in Northumberland about seven miles northwest of Morpeth, and about fourteen miles south of Alnwick. The A697 road passes through the village linking it with Morpeth, Wooler and Coldstream (in Berwickshire).
There are seven streets in Longhorsley: Whitegates, Church View, Drummonds Close, South Road, West Road, East Road and Reivers Gate. The village is bordered on the north by the River Coquet. The village formerly lay in three separate townships: Bigges Quarter, Freeholders Quarter and Riddells Quarter.[1]
The population of Longhorsley Parish is approximately 800, measured at the 2011 Census as 887, and it is essentially a residential community for those who work in the towns in the south of the county.
History
The village has a long history. In 1196 we find it referred to as Horsieg, possibly "horse woodland-clearing" - although it was a pretty tough place for a horse: one traveller, Eneas Mackenzie (1778–1832), described it in his view of Northumberland, as "the prolific source of contagious disorders incident to cattle and of little real use in its present state". Longhorsley Moor is high and bleak (in the winter of 1890 the mail-gig was blown over in a gale and the driver found with his neck broken).
In the course of time the manor of Longhorsley was owned by the Gospatricks who gave it to the Merlays, and then it passed into the hands of the Horsleys and, later, to the wealthy Roman Catholic family, the Riddells.[2]
Churches
The parish church is the Church is St Helen. It has registers dating from 1688.[1]
A Roman Catholic church, St Thomas of Canterbury, was built in 1841, before which a Roman Catholic congregation had met in the pele tower which stands adjacent to the present church.[1]
Sights about the village
The Devil's Causeway passes the village less than two miles to the west. The causeway is a Roman road which starts at Port Gate on Hadrian's Wall, north of Corbridge, and extends fifty-five miles northwards across Northumberland to the mouth of the River Tweed at Berwick-upon-Tweed.
An ancient, battlemented peel tower lies on the western edge of Longhorsley, dating from the early 16th century and formerly belonging to the Horsley family of Brinkburn. Sir Thomas Horsley entertained General Monck here on his way south to effect the Restoration of King Charles II. For a time the tower was used as a Roman Catholic chapel. It is now a private residence.[1][2]
Linden Hall was built in 1812 for Charles William Bigge, a member of one of Northumberland's most notable merchant and banking families. He had acquired the estate from the Earl of Carlisle, whose family had held it since the time of Henry I. His close friend, Sir Charles Monck, designed the mansion, which consisted of six large rooms on each floor, a sweeping staircase with a domed lantern above, and a basement in the main hall. In addition there were kitchens, servants' quarters, a schoolroom, a brew house, a slaughterhouse and stables. In 1861 it passed from the Bigge family into the hands of the Ames, who held it until 1904, when they moved to Ghyllheugh, their Victorian baronial-style house nearby.[3] Linden Hall then passed to the Adamson family, until 1963. The Hall was purchased in 1978 from John Liddell and opened as a first class hotel three years later.[1]
The Longhorsley horde
A hoard of Roman coins discovered by metal-detecting enthusiasts on a farm near Longhorsley, Northumberland, could be evidence that entrepreneurial native Northumbrian settlers were recycling old bronze coins and making trinkets to sell back to soldiers in the Roman army, according to experts.
The hoard of 70 Roman coins – 61 sestercii and 9 dupondii — dates from the reign of Emperor Vespasian to the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD69–180) — a period when the northerly Antonine Wall, and not Hadrian's Wall, marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain, and for a short period, Northumberland, which had until then been barbarian territory, became part of the Roman Empire.
The hoard was found close to the route of the Devil's Causeway, the main Roman road which ran north through Northumberland.
Roman expert Lindsay Allason-Jones, Director of Archaeological Museums at Newcastle University, where the coins have gone on display, says: 'What makes this find unusual is that it dates from a period when there was no Roman fort close to Longhorsley, although there were a number of native settlement sites in the area'.[4]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Longhorsley) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Northumberland Communities: Longhorsley
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Linden Hall". http://www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk/lindenHall/outings/townsandvillages.htm. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
- ↑ "Property details: Ghyllheugh". http://www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/18315456?search_identifier=881dc538f90669fcd7e1abf7e7f2f303.
- ↑ "Hoard of Roman coins". http://www.treasurehunting.tv/archived_treasure_hunting/2006/07/roman_coin_hoard_points_to_ear.html. Retrieved 14 March 2009.
- Baglee, Christopher. Linden Hall a Concise History, 2006 ISBN 0 9507964 0 9