Alwinton : The 19th And 20th Centuries
The appearance of and structural changes to Alwinton in the 19th and early 20th centuries are illuminated by a series of vivid descriptions. These may be combined with the historic map evidence – the tithe map and successive editions – to chart the development of the village during this period.
On a meeting of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club at Alwinton in 1887, James Hardy wrote (1887, 39):
Alwinton lies in an angle among the green meadows and cultivated enclosures at the foot of Paspeth. Instead of the picturesque village with the houses disposed in all sorts of positions - it did not matter whether the front, the back, or the corners faced the road - the Club saw in their first visit in 1868, the houses, much lessened in numbers, are now in regular ranks, and mostly newly erected, except two thatched, ruinous cottages….. The malt-barn, whose gousty chambers, and lofts old people still describe with a lingering fear, is also sweeped away. The mill buildings still farther up, are now rendered subservient to pastoral exigencies. The inns have been renovated. The old dwellings had oak frames which were fastened to the ground and upheld the wattled and thatched roofs.
The 'malt-barn still figures on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey at the west end of the east west row and the two inns are also evident on both the tithe map and the 1st OS edition, though they are not named on the tithe map.
A large integrated farm complex was established by the mid 19th century at the north end of the village, beside Clennell Street, a spot known as Pratt's Yett (Dixon 1903, 217; Prat's Gate on the tithe map). This farm does not figure on the tithe map, but is shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey. However the farmhouse is evidently an 18th century cross-passage house with service accommodation to the right subsequently extended to the rear to form an L plan house in the early 19th century. The earliest L plan ranges of farm buildings immediately to the north - comprising a single-storey cartshed with 5 segmental arches and byres with a granary over - also appear to be of early 19th century date.
It may be, therefore, that the tithe map is incomplete with respect to this area (it is probably significant in this regard that the malt barn is not shown either). As completed the full complex comprised the original farmhouse to the south, the earliest farmbuildings linking to further ranges of agricultural buildings arranged around a square yard to the north. The addition of yet more ranges to the north of this is shown on the 2nd and 3rd Ordnance Survey editions in 1898 and 1921.
A mill also formed part of the farm by the 1860s and was fed from a small dam shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey. Creel Cottage was constructed to the east of the farm at some stage during the middle decades of the 19th century, to judge from its form, and figures on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey but not the 1st edition.
At the beginning of the 20th century, David Dippie Dixon was rather more complementary than Hardy. Initially describing it as a 'little village consisting only of a few scattered houses on the level haugh lands that lie between the Coquet and the Alwin', and a church and vicarage 'pleasantly situated on the north bank of the Coquet' (1903, 213), he then elaborated further (op. cit., 216):
A large farm-house, two excellent inns, the post office and a few cottages now constitute the ancient village of Alwinton. The 'Red Lion' which was for many years kept by Hannah Jordan - a well-known hostess - has been rebuilt in modern style. The old 'Rose and Thistle' on the opposite side of the road is a favourite haunt for anglers . . .
The little post office and telephone office, which in a manner is the centre of the district and forms an important factor in the amenities of a wide and thinly populated hill country, has been for upwards of forty years in the hands of one family, a member of which - Mrs Nichol - is the present postmistress.
Forty years later the County History considered Alwinton to be 'an unspoilt country village' and sought to qualify Hardy's comments regarding the straight rows of houses, which it noted were in fact very short (NCH XV (1940), 419). By this stage the Red Lion, rebuilt in 1903 and designated a 'Temperance Hotel' on the 3rd edition Ordnance Survey in 1921, had ceased to be used as an inn and had become the post office and village shop, but the Rose and Thistle, still plied its trade, as it does today. Around the same time, it was described in the Newcastle Journal (29th October 1937), considered it to be:
typical of the Old North country inns before they sprouted lounges, cocktail bars and bathing pools – (it has) old beams, old settle, thick old walls and stone floor.
As previously described, the parish church was substantially rebuilt in the lancet style by the architect George Pickering of Durham, in 1851, losing much of its character in the process. The present vicarage was built at the same time, also by Pickering. The fine lime kilns just inside Peels township, near Low Alwinton, which figure on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey, were out of use by the time of the 3rd edition when they are labelled 'Old Limekiln'.
Apart from the addition of council houses along the north row of the east-west aligned street, which Hardy would doubtless have deplored, the appearance of the village today remains largely unchanged from that described by the 19th and early-mid 20th century commentators.
This apparent stability in the village's built fabric, however, masks the profound social, economic and demographic changes experienced by the people of Alwinton and the other communities of upper Coquetdale, which were described in the previous section. As Alwinton faces a new century the village will doubtless face new challenges and, hopefully, new opportunities.