St Mary's Church, Belford, Northumberland, England

  • Description

    Grade II listed historic church. It likely incorporates some masonry from the 1100's. Much built in the 1500's. Restored in the 1800's. "Belford is a village and civil parish in Northumberland, England, about halfway between Alnwick and Berwick-upon-Tweed, a few miles inland from the east coast and just off the Great North Road, the A1. At the 2001 census it had a population of 1,055, increasing to 1,258 at the 2011 Census. Belford is surrounded by rich pastoral farmland, and to the west of the village is found one of the better rock climbing locations in the county, Bowden Doors. For much of the Middle Ages, Belford was at the forefront of the ongoing border conflict between the Scots and the English and it is believed that only Well House escaped damage or destruction at the hands of Scottish raiders. In 1272 it is recorded that Walter de Huntercombe, the Lord of the Manor, was charged with 'assisting pirates'! They had seized, by force, goods belonging to some wealthy Spanish merchants and landed with their booty on Holy Island. In 1726, A wealthy city merchant, Abraham Dixon bought the Belford Estate. He made improvements which enhanced the fortunes of its inhabitants significantly including purchasing a licence in 1742 allowing him to hold a weekly market and two annual fairs at Belford. His son continued improvements after his death in 1746 and by 1770, a visitor was able to report the existence of a woollen mill, a tannery, collieries and a 'large lime kiln'. Improvements to hygiene were also imposed upon the inhabitants with the forced removal of muck heaps from the houses and the banning of swine. Larger market towns have gradually replaced Belford in importance and the location of the station outside of the town itself did nothing to halt a gradual decline in its fortunes since the end of the 19th century. Many of the features of its heyday have been retained however." - info from Wikipedia. Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos. Now on https://www.instagram.com/billyd.wilson/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">Instagram. Become a patron to my photography on https://www.patreon.com/billywilson" rel="noreferrer nofollow">Patreon.
  • Owner

    Billy Wilson Photography
  • Source

    Flickr (Flickr)
  • License

    What does this mean? Attribution-NonCommercial License
  • Further information

    Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/32132568@N06/49996680277/
    Resource type: Image
    Added by: Simon Cotterill
    Last modified: 3 years, 11 months ago
    Viewed: 315 times
    Picture Taken: 2019-05-18T07:15:57
  • Co-Curate tags

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