Almost a Well

Alnwick Castle (this is not it!) dominates Alnwick, both by its size and location and by the way it attracts so many visitors (Harry Potter/Tree House). There are big blue signs all over the place, encouraging people to pay lots of money to visit the Castle and the Gardens. We have never been and don’t intend ever going.

However, today we followed a route that allowed us to walk all around the Castle and see it from a distance, the best way to see castles I always think anyway. We walked through the extensive parkland surrounding the castle, crossed the River Aln several times, over some old bridges, passed the Gatehouse which is all that remains of Alnwick Abbey and returned eventually through the town.

On the way we made a slight detour to find the remains of St Leonard’s Hospital, pictured here. This is a Listed building, because it is one of the few medieval hospitals, of which there were very many all over the country, that can be exactly located. Most have been totally lost.

The hospital was founded around 1200 by Eustace de Vescey on the site of a spring named Malcolm’s Well, where Malcolm III was believed to have been slain in 1093. It was an independent religious establishment, for the poor, sick and aged, until 1376 when it was annexed to Alnwick Abbey. It later fell into disuse and subsequently all traces of the building disappeared.

Until . . . in 1845 ploughing uncovered remains of the hospital. In 1848 the chapel and some of the domestic buildings were reconstructed on the footings of the original building, and using the original masonry. It is the remains of this reconstruction that can be seen today. In 1975, excavation confirmed the extent of the archaeological remains – a chapel, hospital buildings, a burial ground and a well. The well had been filled in and supposedly all that remains is a rough circle of stones . . . which we failed to find.