SOUTH CHARLTON VILLAGE TRAIL
In the lee of the hill
‘ … the little village of South Charlton has all the charms of a beautifully situated country hamlet’. The Alnwick Guardian and County Advertiser 1909
South Charlton is a small hamlet of 26 houses, five miles north of Alnwick. Hidden away, ¾ mile from the A1, it is framed by a varied and attractive landscape of moorland and rolling farmland. It also has a long and fascinating history. The earliest evidence of human activity is in prehistoric times, continued through the turbulent border warfare of the middle ages to industrial and farming improvements of the nineteenth century. We hope this site will help you to explore and understand our past.
1. Grovewood House
Now a residential home for the elderly, this was formerly the Vicarage attached to St James’ church. It was built at the same time as the church and at almost the same cost - £2,200. Algernon, the Duke of Northumberland, endowed the living with a sum of £4,108, an attractive salary for a relatively small parish. Above the door of the vicarage, the Percy crest can be seen.
2. St James’ Church
In 1860, the Parish of South Charlton was created by Act of Parliament. Two years later, on 12th September, the present church, dedicated to St James, was consecrated. Built by Algernon, the Duke of Northumberland at a cost of £2,720, it comprises a chancel, with a vestry on the north side, a nave and with a porch on the south side. More information can be obtained inside the church.
On the east wall of the nave is a plaque dedicated to Elizabeth Hedley Dixon, a nursing sister in the Royal Navy. In January 1944, she was stationed on the H.M.S. 'David' at the Anzio beach head in Italy. The ship was hit and sunk. Elizabeth was one of the casualties and her body was never recovered. Unfortunately, the stone mason, misheard or misread the date and her death is recorded as January 1942.
3. The Churchyard
Take a little time to explore the graveyard. On the east side of the church lie the remains of Lancelot Borrel, a lieutenant in the 12th Northumberland fusiliers. After being badly wounded at the Friecourt salient on the Somme on 3rd July 1916, he was brought back to Oxford in England where he died of his wounds a week later. His parents, who were school teachers in the village, brought him home to be finally laid to rest in the churchyard. With more than one million casualties, it was one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The Allied forces attempted to break through the German lines along a 25-mile (40 km) front north and south of the River Somme in northern France during the summer and autumn of 1916. Terrifyingly high casualties eventually persuaded the Allied commanders to call a halt to the slaughter.
Tom Weightman’s grave lies to the east of the church. During World War Two, he was a rear tail gunner, surviving a crash when his plane came down in fog in the Brecon Beacons on a training exercise. Tom was to survive a second and even more spectacular crash. Eleven days before the end of World War Two his Halifax Bomber was hit by flak over Norway. The plane crashed into Lake Mjosa, near Lillehammer, about 75 miles north of Oslo. Although some of the crew managed to bail out, Tom was the sole survivor. Freezing and clinging to an upturned dinghy, he was found by local Norwegians and hidden until the German surrender. At the time of his death, in 2007, he was not forgotten by the RAF who provided a formal guard of honour for his burial.
4. Site of former village
The years 1850 – 1870 were a time of great prosperity in farming, sometimes referred to as the ‘Golden Age of Farming. The old village had seen better days and so in the mid nineteenth century the old cottages were cleared away and new houses rebuilt in their present position on the north side of the road. Traces of the former village can be seen in the field opposite. A shallow depression marks the village pond, surrounded by ‘humps’ and ‘bumps’ - all that remains of former dwellings.
5. The Village Hall
When the old school house could no longer adequately accommodate all the pupils of the village a new school was opened in 1909 on the rise of the hill overlooking the village. The Duke of Northumberland bore the expense of building the new school - £800. Local stone from the Charlton quarry was used in its construction and, in the words of the Alnwick Guardian journalist, ‘it has the appearance of a large villa’. An asphalt playground and gardens added to the amenities provided for the children.
The furnishings and interior added to the lustre of the new building, the chief features of which were ‘ the convenient cupboards… and in particular the new form of sliding partition dividing the lower from the senior class, which when thrown open makes one long room, 84ft x 20 ft which will hold 84 scholars comfortably. The heating arrangement is also quite modern, as are the two lavatories on each side of the playground.’
The article was also fulsome in its praise for the two teachers, Mr and Mrs Borrill (sic) who ‘loved to labour amongst their scholars during the 13 summers they have been at Charlton.’ It is of course, the same Mr and Mrs Borrell, whose son is buried in the churchyard after being killed on the Somme, 7 years later.
Declining school populations, and the bussing of pupils to larger neighbouring schools, led to its closure in the 1970s. It now provides a venue for a host of village social activities.
6. South Charlton Farm
Built and renovated in several stages. The earliest part of the house was built pre 1800 with renovations in 1806 – 1819 and later in 1843. The farm has been in the present family’s occupation since 1927. Lying south of the farm is one of the few remaining lowland peat bogs.
7. The Old School House
Raids either side of the border were a constant hazard from the 14th to the 16th century until the crowns of England and Scotland were joined together in 1603 under James I of England and the VI of Scotland. The Old School House is a much altered bastle (fortified house). It was built in the 16th or early 17th century and altered in Tudor style about 1840 to make it into the local schoolmaster's house. The school bell hung beneath a small stone structure at the western gable end of the house. Before the age when every household had an accurate timepiece the bell would summon the pupils to their desks. The walls are about 90cm thick on the ground floor but get thinner on the upper floor. Some original bastle features have survived, including a blocked byre doorway and a blocked slit, or narrow opening. By the mid nineteenth century, as the Guardian explained, ’the old premises, situated half way down the only street in the village, and adjoining the school master’s residence,‘ was finally recognised as inadequate. Difficult to believe but, the large room of the old school, measuring 28ft x 14 ft was thought sufficient for 40 pupils, whereas in fact, the school population had grown to a staggering 78 ‘scholars.’
8. The Old Post Office
Originally run by one of the oldest families in the village, the Bowdens, the post office was closed in common with many others in small villages where the population could not sustain its continued existence. There is still, however, a post box on the side of the present house as a reminder of its former function.
9. South Charlton chapel
A medieval chapel and tower once stood at South Charlton at the east end of the village where No 8 now stands. The chapel is mentioned in 1273 and was probably built by the Lucker family. Services stopped here in 1343, possibly because of border warfare, but also as a result of a dispute with the ‘mother church’ at Ellingham. So fractious did the quarrel become that the Bishop of Durham sent his man Ralph Braykston to settle the matter. The settlement was a foregone conclusion and the parishioners were ordered to attend services at Ellingham. The chapel thereafter, fell into disrepair and the last vestiges of the church walls were removed in 1829. The present Anvil Kirk cottage was built on the site of the chapel using the original stones of the chapel as building material.
10. South Charlton Tower
If the quarrel with the vicar was not sufficient to account for the chapel’s decline the Scottish raids probably were. In 1450, a tower was built at the end of the chapel to provide a refuge for the villagers. It is after this time that the chapel fell into ruin. Although it became semi-ruinous in the 16th and 17th centuries we know the chapel was in use up to the mid 18th century. In the past, gargoyles and the occasional human bone have been turned up as reminders of the chapel that had once stood on this site.
11. Blacksmith’s shop
A curious collection of metal artefacts can be seen decorating the walls of the garages attached to Anvilkirk Cottage, a reminder of its former use as a blacksmith’s shop on the site of the former chapel. The first blacksmith who came to the village was Thomas Bowden from Bamburgh, in 1771. The ancestors of Thomas still live in the same house and it was their grandfather who discovered the bronze age urn at the sand quarry.
12. Taylor’s Field
Bob and Dick Taylor were batchelors who lived in the end cottage and from which the field behind is named. Five newly-built houses now stand on the site of the field. Dick used to collect the parcels from Alnwick to deliver to the village. Of course, he would not miss the opportunity for some ‘refreshment’ and more often that not he would fall asleep on the return journey in his cart. Fortunately, the horse knew the way well and the parcels and Dick safely arrived in the village even if Dick was not always aware of it!
13. Brockley Hall Farm
Like its counterpart, South Charlton Farm, the farmhouse was built and renovated in several stages. The earliest building pre-dated 1800 but the present structure is mid nineteenth century. The Stafford family have farmed here since the late nineteenth century and several past family members are buried in the local churchyard.