Edlingham Parish, 1848

EDLINGHAM (St. John the Baptist), a parish, in the union of Alnwick, N. division of Coquetdale ward and of Northumberland; comprising the townships of Abbewick, Broom-Park, Edlingham, Learchild, and Lemmington, and the chapelry of Bolton; the whole containing 659 inhabitants, of whom 138 are in the township of Edlingham, 6 miles (S.W. by W.) from Alnwick. The parish is situated on the great road to Edinburgh, and is watered by the river Aln, which receives several small streams; it comprises by computation 1,200 acres. The surface is varied, rising in some parts into hills of considerable elevation; the soil in the lower grounds is rich, and on the uplands inclined to moor, affording tolerable sheep pasture. There are coalmines, but not in operation, and some quarries of excellent building-stone. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £6. 14. 4.; net income, £483; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Durham. The church is an ancient structure, with some Norman details still remaining, though it has undergone various alterations. At Bolton is a chapel of ease. There are remains of Edlingham Castle, built prior to the reign of Henry II., and of which Edgar Atheling, son of Edmund the Outlaw, was owner; he is said to have lived here in 1167, when he must have been 120 years old, as he came into England with his father while a boy, in 1057.