Alnwick Castle, Alnwick, Northumberland, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

NOTE

This entry is a summary. Because of the complexity of this site, the standard Register entry format would convey neither an adequate description nor a satisfactory account of the development of the landscape. The user is advised to consult the references given below for more detailed accounts. Many Listed Buildings exist within the site, not all of which have been here referred to. Descriptions of these are to be found in the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest produced by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Extensive landscape parks and pleasure grounds developed from a series of medieval deer parks, around Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Percy family since the 14th century.

Between 1750 and 1786, a picturesque landscape park was developed for Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland, involving work by James Paine, Robert Adam, and the supervision of work by Lancelot Brown (1716-83) and his foremen Cornelius Griffin, Robson, and Biesley in the 1760-80s, working alongside James and Thomas Call, the Duke's gardeners. During the 19th century each successive Duke contributed and elaborated on the expansive, planned estate landscape, within which the landscape park was extended. This was accompanied by extensive 19th-century garden works, including a walled, formal flower garden designed in the early 19th century by John Hay (1758-1836), and remodelled in the mid-19th century by William Andrews Nesfield (1793-1881).

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Alnwick Castle parks cover a tract of countryside encircling Alnwick town on its west, north, north-east, and south sides. The land is a mixture of contrasting landscape types, with high heather moorland and the rough crags of the Northumbrian Sandstone Hills sweeping down to the improved pasture lands along the wooded Aln valley. The parks exploit the boundaries of these distinctive landforms where the rugged moorland gives way to the pastoral, rolling landscape of the Aln, on its route to the sea. In the west parklands the river is confined between hills, and in places has incised deep, narrow valleys while in the east the landscape is more open.

The registered area of 1300 hectares is bounded on its north-east side by the Hulne Park wall, west of the Bewick to Alnwick Road (B6346). The west side of the area here registered follows field boundaries to the west of Shipley Burn, starting at Shipley Bridge, and then turns south-west at a point about 1 kilometre south of the bridge. It then runs south-west for about 2.3 kilometres, to the west of Hulne Park, before crossing the River Aln and running parallel to Moorlaw Dean for about 1.2 kilometres, on the west side of the burn. The southern area is defined by Hulne Park wall running around the south point of Brizlee Wood then in a line due east, south of Cloudy Crags drive, to cross the Stocking Burn and reach Forest Lodge. The boundary then defines the north-western extent of Alnwick town and, crossing the Canongate Bridge, the southernmost extent of the Dairy Grounds.

To the east of the Castle the registered area takes in the entire North Demesne bounded on its north by Long Plantation, a perimeter belt which lies on the south side of Smiley Lane and then extends eastwards to meet the junction of the B1340 and A1 trunk road. The A1 has effectively cut through the North Demesne from north to south and, although physically divorcing the two areas, they are still visually conjoined. Defined on its north side within the hamlet of Denwick by tree belts, the park extends eastwards for one kilometre before cutting across southwards to meet the River Aln at Lough House. This latter stretch is bounded by a perimeter belt. The south boundary of the North Demesne follows the river in part, before meeting the Alnwick to Denwick road (B1340). To the south, the Castle gardens are delimited from the town by property boundaries along Bondgate. An outlying area of designed landscape at Ratcheugh is also included.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Note: There is a wealth of material about this site. The key references are cited below.

The Garden, 5 (1874), pp 100-1, 188; 20 (1881), pp 155-6

Gardeners' Chronicle, ii (1880), pp 523-4, 587; ii (1902), pp 273-4

Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener 15, (1887), pp 296-8

P Finch, History of Burley on the Hill (1901), p 330

Country Life, 65 (22 June 1929), pp 890-8; 66 (6 July 1929), pp 16-22; 174 (4 August 1983), p 275

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), pp 103-4

Garden History 9, (1981), pp 174-7

Capability Brown and the Northern Landscape, (Tyne & Wear County Council Museums 1983), pp 19, 22-3, 27, 42

Restoration Management Plan, Alnwick Castle, (Land Use Consultants 1996)

C Shrimpton, Alnwick Castle, guidebook, (1999)
 

Description written: August 2000

Edited: June 2003