The Lord Crewe Arms Hotel is a medieval hotel in

Blanchland Blanchland is a village in Northumberland, England, on the County Durham boundary. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 135. Set beside the river in a wooded section of the Derwent valley, Blanchland is an attractive small ...

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 England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is dated to 1165 and was used as a hiding hole by monks of nearby

Blanchland Abbey Blanchland Abbey at Blanchland, in the English county of Northumberland, was founded as a premonstratensian priory in 1165 by Walter de Bolbec II, and was a daughter house of Croxton Abbey in Leicestershire. It became an abbey in the late 13th ...

for centuries and contains hidden stairways and stone flagged floors. The hotel is built upon the former abbey guest house. It is named after Lord Crewe the

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler has been the Bishop of Durham ...

. The ''Lord Crewe Arms Hotel'' has a fireplace where 'General' Tom Forster hid during the 1715 Jacobite rising. The hotel is reputedly haunted by the ghost of his sister, Dorothy Foster.

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

stayed at the Lord Crewe Arms with

Gabriel Carritt In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ� ...

at Easter 1930 and later remarked that no place held sweeter memories. Blanchland may have been the model for the village in which was set the opening and closing scenes of Auden and Isherwood's play ''

The Dog Beneath the Skin ''The Dog Beneath the Skin, or Where is Francis? A Play in Three Acts'', by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, was the first Auden-Isherwood collaboration and an important contribution to English poetic drama in the 1930s. It was published ...

'' (1935). The poet

Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, '' The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, '' Jill'' (1946) and '' A Girl in Winter'' (1 ...

used to dine at the hotel when staying with Monica Jones in

Haydon Bridge Haydon Bridge is a village in Northumberland, England, with a population of about 2000, the civil parish Haydon being measured at 2,184 in the Census 2011. Its most distinctive features are the two bridges crossing the River Tyne, River South T ...

. In October 1961, and again in July 1969,

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

and Sir

Peter Pears Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears ( ; 22 June 19103 April 1986) was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years. Pears' musical career started ...

stayed at the Inn.

References

External links

Official site
Buildings and structures completed in 1165 Hotels in Northumberland {{Northumberland-struct-stub