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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of

Rennington Rennington is a village and civil parish in Northumberland, England about north of Alnwick. The parish includes the village of Rock and the hamlets of Broxfield and Stamford. In 2011 the parish had a population of 366. Governance Rennin ...

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

. 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, and 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 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 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. Rock was formerly a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

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 A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

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 and St James.

References

External links

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