Alwinton Parish, 1848

ALLENTON, or Allwinton (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Rothbury, W. division of Coquetdale ward, N. division of Northumberland; comprising the townships of Allenton, Biddleston, Borrowdon, Clennell, Fairhaugh, Farnham, Linbriggs, Netherton, North and South Sides, Peals, and Sharperton; and containing 1,255 inhabitants, of whom 78 are in the township of Allenton, 19 miles (W. by S.) from Alnwick. The parish is of great extent, stretching from the parish of Rothbury to Scotland, and 20 miles from east to west; and consists almost entirely of porphyritic mountains, presenting very abrupt elevations, covered with short thick grass, valuable for rearing sheep. The river Coquet rises within its limits, and here pursues a winding course through a very narrow valley, the mountains rising in many parts almost perpendicularly from its bed; it is joined by the Alwine, which gives name to the parish. The living is a vicarage not in charge, with the curacy of Hallystone annexed; net income, £130, with a glebe-house lately built; patron, the Duke of Northumberland; impropriators, Thomas Clennell, Esq., and others. The church is an ancient edifice, greatly disfigured by repairs. Here was formerly an hospital belonging to the convent at Hallystone; and on the south side of the Coquet are vestiges of an old structure, called Barrow Peel, to the west of which is Ridlee-Cairn Hill, supposed to have been a burial-place of the ancient Britons. Throughout the district are numerous other remains of the Britons, consisting of encampments, cromlechs, &c.; and at Chew green, near the Scottish border, are the remains of a very extensive Roman station, the next to the north from Bremenium, High Rochester.