Brinkburn Priory is nearer Rothbury than Alnwick.  It is surrounded by trees in the bottom of the valley in a loop of the Coquet. It was an Augustinian priory founded in 1135.  The only interesting bit of history I can remember was that they were about to be raided only the raiders couldn't find the priory (it's quite secluded and the brown signs are often covered up by binliners) and started to leave.  The monks sounded the all clear on the bells which led the raiders to return.  The ruined priory church was rebuilt in the 1850s at the expense of the people who lived next door.  The church and the house are both now in the care of English Heritage and are opened to the public in the summer (March to October kind of thing).

The inside is notable for the line of columns and for the big scary Jesus on the wall of the north transept.   The big scary Jesus is art (by Fenwick Lawson, as is some of the other sculpture in the priory) but it might frighten your children.

The house itself was lived in until the 1950s and it has recently been opened.  It is unfurnished and undecorated.  If you go in then look out for the chunk of priory wall which has been incorporated into it and also the remains of the decorative plaster work.

There are lots of small rooms in the cellars of the house.  Wandering around them reminded me of playing Doom.

The other thing about Brinkburn is that there's an old mill next door to the priory site which you can stay in.  It is owned by the Landmark Trust.   It sleeps four people.  I've not stayed in it but I've stayed in other Landmark Trust properties and they are always amazing, if rather expensive.

The best thing about them is that they put a leather-bound book in each property and invite holiday makers to write things in it.  The original idea was that you could help future guests by recording particularly good places to visit or if you had a dodgy kebab.  However, everyone uses it to prove that  they really can write brilliantly and that they could write a book  (if they wanted to, of course, and if they weren't too busy being merchant bankers or whatever).   Unfortunately their idea of good writing often makes them sound like the Famous Five rather than people of letters.

This means that people wouldn't write "weather nice" but rather "it was a bosky morning with a heavy dew".  They would not say that they liked a pub but that they "discovered a fine hostelry selling excellent fayre".  They don't even go shopping because they would rather "get provisions" where they will probably show off their knowledge of the shooting calendar by berating local butchers for selling frozen pheasant out of season.  Quite often they will write some kind of poem about the place they are staying in.

Then they often go on about how nice the housekeeper was.  I'm not sure whether this because they have left the place in a state and they want to make the housekeeper feel better when [s]he cleans up after them, or whether they want to prove that although they are terribly Metropolitan they can still befriend the odd native if they have to.

Probably they just like referring to the housekeeper because there was always a housekeeper in Enid Blyton books.

I find the logbooks unputdownable but not for reason the writer intended.

Pictures of Alnwick
FAQ
Details of where to stay
Odd Buildings
Freemen of Alnwick
Alnwick International Music Festival
Pubs in Alnwick
Holy Island
Alnwick Christmas Lights
Alnwick's Bagpuss connection
Safeway Controversy
NORTHUMBERLAND BULLETIN BOARD
Northumberland Gazette Controversy
Links
Back

A Bob Mouser Production © 2000