| Alnmouth | |
View of Alnmouth and the estuary of the River Aln |
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Alnmouth
Alnmouth shown within Northumberland |
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| Population | 562 [1] |
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| OS grid reference | NU245105 |
| District | Alnwick |
| Shire county | Northumberland |
| Region | North East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ALNWICK |
| Postcode district | NE66 |
| Dialling code | 01665 |
| Police | Northumbria |
| Fire | Northumberland |
| Ambulance | North East |
| EU Parliament | North East England |
| UK Parliament | Berwick-upon-Tweed |
| List of places: UK • England • Northumberland | |
Alnmouth ( /ˈælənmaʊθ/ al-ən-mowth)[2] is a village in Northumberland, England. It is situated just off the main A1068 road (to Ashington), about 4 miles (6 km) south-east of Alnwick.
Located at the mouth of the River Aln, the village has been an important trading port in Northumberland's past, mainly involved in the export of grain, and smuggling. Due to the trade in grain, the village contained a number of granaries. The port declined after the river changed course during a violent storm in 1806. This incident also resulted in the original church which stood on Church Hill being destroyed. The church had already suffered much erosion by the river and was in a state of collapse. After the loss of the grain exports, the old granaries were converted to houses.
Today, Alnmouth is a popular tourist resort. It is within the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village boasts the fourth oldest golf course in the country.
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Adtwifyrdi or Adtuifyrdi ("at the two fords") is the name used by the Venerable Bede believed to describe the meeting of river and tributary at the mouth of the River Aln at Alnmouth. Here, according to Bede's account in Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Book IV, ch. 28, Archbishop Theodore presided over a synod in 684 (in the presence of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria), at which bishop Tunberht of Hexham was deposed and St Cuthbert elected Bishop of Lindisfarne[3][4].
According to the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, Alnmouth was taken and fortified by the French during the reign of Queen Elizabeth[5][6]. Schooner Hotel was built in the 1600s and is reported to be one of the most haunted locations in the United Kingdom.
During the American War of Independence, Alnmouth was attacked by the American privateer John Paul Jones. On September 23, 1779, Jones fired a cannonball at the town; fortunately it missed the church tower and landed in a field before striking a farmhouse roof.
An exhaustive history of the village was written in 1851 by one William Dickson, entitled Four Chapters from the History of Alnmouth.
The village was in 1860 selected as one of fourteen weather stations, and equipped with barometer by the Duke of Northumberland acting as president of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution[7]. The barometer and a chart of recent readings was kept on public display, to seek to provide fishermen with indications of likely weather patterns so as to assist in diminishing losses at sea. The barometer remains on display, in the window of a cottage facing on the main street, to this day.
Alnmouth is served by Alnmouth railway station which is situated in Hipsburn, a mile inland to the west.
John Wesley is reputed to have visited Alnmouth in 1742 and stayed at the Schooner Hotel and afterwards said about the village that it was famous for all kinds of wickedness.
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