Rock is a village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

, now in the parish of

Rennington Rennington is a village in Northumberland, England about north of Alnwick. Governance Rennington is in the parliamentary constituency of Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, ...

, 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 about north 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 1951 the parish had a population of 162.

Buildings

The single street has on one side cottages and gardens; on the other, an ornamental lake. At the end is a little Norman church; and beyond that, the battlements and towers of Rock Hall. The sundial and the inscribed stone in the end wall of the schoolroom were originally part of a residence of the Salkelds which stood on the site. The Hall was then their seat – their coat of arms still remains above an old, blocked doorway to the right of the modern entrance. Later a branch of the Fenwicks lived here. It was a John Fenwick of Rock that was hanged for the murder of Mr. Ferdinando Forster at the White Cross, Newgate Street, Newcastle, in 1701. Rock Hall School - geograph

The Hall dates to the 12th or 13th century. The south wing was converted into a defensible tower house in the late 14th or early 15th century, the whole was remodelled in the 17th century, but the house was left ruinous by a fire in 1752, before being restored and extended by

Charles Bosanquet Charles Bosanquet (23 July 1769 – 20 June 1850) was an English colonial official and writer. Life He was born at Forest House, Essex, the second son of Samuel Bosanquet and Eleanor Hunter. He was educated at Newcome's School and then in Switz ...

in the 19th century. The same Charles Bosanquet also restored the church. The west door of this splendid little edifice is a rich piece of original Norman work. The gargoyles are noteworthy. The memorial brass within to Colonel John Salkeld does not mention that the worthy colonel killed a Swinburne of Capheaton near the gates of Meldon and only just escaped hanging.

Governance

Rock 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 ...

. Rock was formerly a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

and

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the communi ...

in Embleton parish, from 1866 Rock was a civil parish in its own right until it was abolished on 1 April 1955 and merged with Rennington.

Religious sites

The church is dedicated to

St Philip Philip the Apostle ( el, Φίλιππος; Aramaic: ܦܝܠܝܦܘܣ; cop, ⲫⲓⲗⲓⲡⲡⲟⲥ, ''Philippos'') was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Later Christian traditions describe Philip as the apostle ...

and

St James Saint James or St. James may refer to: People Saints *James, brother of Jesus (died 62 or 69), also known as James the Just *James the Great (died 44), Apostle, also known as James, son of Zebedee, or Saint James the Greater **Saint James Matamoro ...

References

External links

GENUKI
(Accessed: 27 November 2008) {{authority control Villages in Northumberland Former civil parishes in Northumberland