Alnwick Abbey

Eustace fitz John became lord of the barony of Alnwick by his marriage with Beatrix, the daughter of Ivo de Vesci.

[1] During the abbacy of Walter de Hepescotes, this house was afflicted with a great scarcity, together with a pestilence, whereby all the cattle belonging to the monastery were destroyed.

King Edward VI in the fourth year of his reign, granted the site to Ralph Sadler and Laurence Winnington.

[4] There are no remains of the Abbey except for the gatehouse and tower, which by the architecture and arms sculptured upon the building, show it is of much more modern date than the foundation of the house.

The north side is ornamented with a niche, canopied, capable of receiving a statue five feet high: most probably it contained the effigies of the dedicatory Virgin.

On the south side, in a niche, is the figure of one of the Religious, of the order of White Friars of Premonstratenses, in his proper habilament, in fairly good preservation.

A gate opens to the east, on each side of which are the figures of cherubs supporting armorial shields: on this front is also a canopy and niche for a statue.

Above the gate going into the court of the house is an escutcheon of white marble, much injured by the weather, but retaining some marks of the sculptor, to distinguish that it once contained the crest of the Doubledays, an arm in armour suspending a mullet.

1869 line drawing of the Alnwick Abbey gatehouse