Howick, Northumberland
Historical Description
Howick, a parish, with a village, in Northumberland, on the coast, 1½ mile from Little Mill station on the N.E.R, and 5½ miles NE by E of Alnwick. Post town and money order office, Lesbury; telegraph office, Alnwick. Acreage, 1698, of which 66 are water and foreshore; population, 266. The manor belonged to the Muschamps, passed to the Vescies, afterwards to the Greys, who became Earls Grey, and gives to the latter the title of Visconnfc Howtek House, the seat of Earl Grey, occupies the site of an ancient tower destroyed in 1780, is a fine Grecian edifice built in 1782, and much enlarged and improved in 1812, and contains some valuable statues, paintings, and other works of art. A trout stream, called Howtek Burn, crossed by a stone bridge, winds through the park and along a beautifully-wooded dene to the sea, and the shore adjacent to its month is broken into picturesque masses of jagged freestone rock. Traces exist of a camp variously regarded as British, Roman, and Danish; and ancient spears, swords, coins, and several gold rings, linked together in the form of a gorget, have been found. Coal was at one time worked, but proved unremunerative. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Newcastle; net value, £185 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Newcastle. The church was rebuilt in 1746 by Sir Henry Grey, Bart, was remodelled with insertion of Norman windows and floriated capitals in 1849 by the third Earl Grey, and contains, under a rich Gothic canopy of Caen stone, the monument of the second Earl Grey, the distinguished prime minister.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Northumberland | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Howick St. Mary | |
Poor Law union | Alnwick | |
Ward | Bambrough |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Howick from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Howick (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Northumberland is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Howick are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers related to Northumberland online: