Eglingham

The earliest records of human occupation in the parish are finds of Neolithic or Bronze Age flint tools, a spearhead, and many burial sites, variously cairns, barrows and cists. A number of Iron Age settlements are evident, including a promontory fort east of Shipley moor. Settlements dating to Roman times are found on Beanley moor. It may be surmised that the parish was well populated and involved in extensive farming, from the ability to support multiple communities, a number of which – such as at South Charlton, North Charlton, and possibly in Eglingham village – had early medieval churches. A leper hospital was established at Harehope. Eglingham village was situated on the historic route from Alnwick to Wooler.

In addition to agriculture, the parish's population was also engaged in mining coal and quarrying limestone and freestone, all of which are described as being available in abundance.[http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/NBL/Eglingham/Gaz1868.html National Gazetteer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070304011647/http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/NBL/Eglingham/Gaz1868.html |date=4 March 2007 }}, 1868, from the Genuki website A nineteenth-century travellers' guide describes a stream of water which "is turned black as common ink by an infusion of galls".[https://books.google.com/books?id=MHUCAAAAMAAJ&dq=eglingham&pg=RA3-PR25 The Traveller's Guide], 1805, by Walley Chamberlain Oulton, p. xxv Eglingham colliery closed in November 1897, after becoming unprofitable owing to the costs of removing water from the main coal seams at Black Hill.[http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/e041.htm Eglingham colliery], from the Durham Mining Museum, accessed 7 December 2006

In more recent times, in 1972, the village and a considerable amount of surrounding land were declared a Conservation Area.

According to the History, Topography, and Directory of Northumberland,[http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/NBL/Eglingham/ Excerpt from the History, Topography, and Directory of Northumberland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214072030/http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/NBL/Eglingham/ |date=14 December 2006 }} 1855, Whellan, on the Genuki website its population in 1801, was 1,536; in 1811, 1,538; in 1821, 1,666; in 1831, 1,805; in 1841, 1,832; and in 1851, 2,000.

The parish offered a relatively prosperous living in the form of a vicarage in the diocese of Durham, valued in 1868 at £835. The church of St Maurice is a stone structure, rebuilt after the English Restoration, having been destroyed, together with neighbouring chapels, by the Scots during the Rebellion, and was enlarged by the addition of a transept in 1836.

Some time between 1217 and 1226, Richard Marsh, the Bishop of Durham, gave the tithes of Eglingham to the Abbey of St Albans to help the monks make a better ale, "taking compassion on the weakness of the convent's drink", according to an eighteenth-century historian.[http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&scope=books#q=eglingham&bookid=3bbac4f80dbac477&p=348 History of the Christian Church], 1907, C. Scribner, p 328.

Eglingham Hall, dating to the 16th or 17th century, built originally as the home of the Ogle family. Harehope Hall was built in 1848 as a sporting lodge for the Baker-Cresswell family.{{cite news|title=Hall could be all yours ... for a cool £2.1million|url=http://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/local-news/hall-could-be-all-yours-for-a-cool-2-1million-1-5013177|newspaper=Northumberland Gazette|date=16 October 2012}}

Village facilities include a village hall, and a pub-restaurant, the highly regarded Tankerville Arms.

The 13th-century parish church is dedicated to St Maurice and may originally have served as a fortified pele tower where the villagers could take refuge from marauding bands of cattle thieves, or Border Reivers. The church bell, cast in the Low Countries, is one of the only two foreign bells in the Diocese of Newcastle; the other is at Lambley.{{cite book|last = Purves|first = Geoffrey|authorlink = Geoffrey Purves|title = Churches of Newcastle and Northumberland|publisher = Tempus Publishing Limited|year = 2006|location = Stroud, Gloucestershire, England|pages = 67|url = http://www.tempus-publishing.com|isbn = 0-7524-4071-3|url-status = dead|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20160113050749/http://tempus-publishing.com/|archivedate = 13 January 2016|df = dmy-all}}

• Henry Baker Tristram (1822–1906), English clergyman, Biblical scholar, traveller and ornithologist born at Eglingham vicarage
• Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984), portrait painter, born at Eglingham

• Bewick and Beanley Moors SSSI
• Cateran Hole
• Hunterheugh Crags
• Jenny's Lantern

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{{Commons category|Eglingham}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927005645/http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N13744 Eglingham] on the Keys to the Past website
• [http://www.alnwick.gov.uk/supporting/released/2006-11/7928/Eglingham%20Conservation%20Area%20Appraisal1.pdf Eglingham Conservation Area Character Appraisal]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} circa 2005 from Alnwick District Council
• [http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/e041.htm Eglingham colliery], from the Durham Mining Museum
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070206003701/http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/schools/beacon/Eglingham/Index.htm Eglingham School]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090108175742/http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/NBL/Eglingham/index.html GENUKI]
• [http://www.eglingham.info Eglingham Parish News]

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Category:Villages in Northumberland

Category:Civil parishes in Northumberland