Longhoughton is a small rural village in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, England. It lies near the coast, about northeast of

Alnwick Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116. The town is on the south bank of the River Aln, south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish bor ...

, in the similarly named parish of Longhoughton. The village lies under the spectacular

whinstone Whinstone is a term used in the quarrying industry to describe any hard dark-coloured rock. Examples include the igneous rocks, basalt and dolerite, as well as the sedimentary rock, chert. Etymology The Northern English/Scots term ''whin'' is fi ...

outcrop, Ratcheugh Crag, near which local point-to-point racing is often conducted. Longhoughton church does double-duty as the church of the nearby

RAF Boulmer Royal Air Force Boulmer or RAF Boulmer is a Royal Air Force station near Alnwick in Northumberland, England, and is home to Aerospace Surveillance and Control System (ASACS) Force Command, Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) Boulmer. The Scho ...

History

The village has a turbulent history and was often sacked in

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

times. From the 12th century until recently, the village was noted for its water and corn mills. There was local industry based on limestone, coal and lead; although agriculture was always the main occupation. On top of Ratcheugh Crag is the

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his o ...

-designed

Ratcheugh Observatory Ratcheugh Observatory is a late 18th-century folly on a prominent crag between Alnwick and Longhoughton in north Northumberland, England. Commissioned by Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, the castellated Observatory incorporates a viewing to ...

, built by

Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, (c. 17146 June 1786), was an English peer, landowner, and art patron. Origins He was born Hugh Smithson, the son of Lansdale Smithson (b. 1682) of Langdale and Philadelphia Revely. He was a grandson of ...

Governance

Longhoughton is in the

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

constituency of

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

. The MP for this constituency is currently Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the Conservative candidate who was elected in 2015. An

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

in the same name exists. This ward stretches north along the coast and east to Powburn. The ward has a total population taken at the 2011 census of 4,424.

Transport

Longhoughton once had a railway station on the main line of the North East Railway.

Buildings

The parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul dates from the Saxon era, although it was rebuilt in 1080 and now the only remaining Saxon stonework is seen in parts of the chancel and tower arches. During the 1080 rebuilding, a tower was added. This was for purposes of military defence, rather than religious use, and was used as such until the 17th century. Parish records go back as far as 1646. Smugglers used to use the church as a distribution centre in the 19th century.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

mentioned the building favourably in his review of Northumbrian architecture. A little over a mile to the north-west is Littlehoughton Hall, a house of 1686 with later additions, which incorporates the remains of a late medieval tower house.

Freedom of the Parish

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Parish of Longhoughton.

Individuals

* Eleanor Phillips: 3 November 2022.

References

External links

GENUKI
(accessed: 26 November 2008)

(accessed: 26 November 2008) {{authority control Villages in Northumberland Civil parishes in Northumberland