Tenantry Column

It is a Doric column standing 83 feet (25 m) tall and surmounted by a lion en passant, the symbol of the Percy family.

[4] Panels on two other sides are marked with the Percy family motto "Esperance en dieu" (French: Hope is in God).

[3] Buried in a cavity in the foundations is the regimental roll of the late Percy Tenantry Volunteers, written on vellum and sealed in a glass tube.

[5] Designed by the Newcastle architect David Stephenson, the column was erected by the tenants of the second Duke of Northumberland in 1816 in thanks for a reduction in rents.

[8] The Duke had doubled or tripled rents during the agricultural boom that accompanied the Napoleonic Wars but, in an unusual show of 19th-century aristocratic generosity, had agreed to reduce them during the post-Napoleonic depression.

[5] A local legend, proved to be false, is that upon seeing that his tenants had money to pay for the structure the Duke raised his rents once more.