ALNWICK

Identity: confirmed — The registry record is the manor of Alnwick in Northumberland. Its associated archive references repeatedly identify courts and other records as relating to the Alnwick Barony, while independent historical material identifies Alnwick Castle as the baronial residence and principal Percy seat. The record must be distinguished from the wider Alnwick Barony, which included numerous dependent manors.
Representative point: 55.4155, -1.7057
Basis: documented_manor_site — Alnwick Castle, the documented baronial residence and principal manorial centre of Alnwick, on the south side of the River Aln. The point is based on the castle site at approximately OS grid reference NU 187 135.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period:
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The evidence confirms the location of the manor and shows that historical surveys of the manor and borough existed, including Clarkson's Survey of 1567 and Mayson's Survey of 1622. However, the accessible evidence does not provide a sufficiently clear, source-backed perimeter for the exact manorial landholding. The Alnwick Barony records are broader than the exact manor and include dependent manors, while the 1848 parish and township extent cannot be substituted for the manor boundary.
Sources:
- The National Archives: Alnwick manor record F282246: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F282246 — Registry record for the manor named Alnwick, located at Alnwick, Northumberland, with the supplied authority reference GB/NNAF/M305513.
- Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey: Alnwick: https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/NorthumberlandCountyCouncil/media/Planning-and-Building/Conservation/Archaeology/Alnwick.pdf — Identifies Clarkson's 1567 and Mayson's 1622 surveys as the earliest surveys of the manor and borough of Alnwick, confirming that manorial surveys existed but not supplying an accessible exact polygon here.
- Historic England: Alnwick Castle, Denwick, List Entry 1001041: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001041 — Describes Alnwick Castle as the seat of the Percy family and documents the surrounding historical park and demesne landscape. It places the castle and associated historic landscape around Alnwick town.
- Alnwick, Historical Account, 1848: https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/alnwick-historical-account-1848/ — States that the castle became the baronial residence of Ivo de Vescy, lord of Alnwick, and that the Duke of Northumberland was lord of the manor with courts held at Alnwick.
- Alnwick Castle georeferenced site record: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1312626 — Provides the castle site at OSGB36 NU 187 135 and WGS84 approximately 55.41507, -1.70617, supporting the representative point used here.
- Northumberland Estates: Alnwick Castle and Barony: https://northumberlandestates.co.uk/about/ — States that Percy ownership in the north began with the purchase of Alnwick Castle and the Barony of Alnwick in 1309, supporting the identification of the castle as the central manorial and baronial site.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The supplied archive references frequently use the phrase Alnwick Barony; that is a wider lordship containing multiple dependent manors and should not be treated as the polygon of the exact manor of Alnwick.
- The registered Alnwick Castle park and demesne landscape is a later designed-estate boundary and is not equivalent to the medieval or early-modern manorial boundary.
- No boundary polygon is returned because a defensible exact perimeter for the manor itself was not established from the accessible evidence.