Longhoughton is a small rural village in

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, 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 south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish border, inland from the North Sea ...

, 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 (geology), rock. Examples include the igneous rocks, basalt and dolerite, as well as the sedimentary rock chert. Etymology The Northern English/Scots term ...

outcrop, Ratcheugh Crag, near which local point-to-point racing is often conducted. The parish church does double duty since it is also the church of the nearby

RAF Boulmer Royal Air Force Boulmer or more simply 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 ...

History

The village has a turbulent history and was often sacked in

mediaeval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...

times. From the 12th century to 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 (architect), William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and train ...

-designed

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

, built by

Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, (6 June 1786) was an English peer, politician, and landowner. Origins Hugh Smithson was born , the son of Langdale Smithson (b. 1682) of Langdale, and Philadelphia Reveley. He was a grandson of Sir Hu ...

Governance

Longhoughton is in the

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

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 David Smith, the Labour candidate who was elected in 2024. 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 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'' (195 ...

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