Alwinton : Parish and Township
The 19th century ecclesiastical parish of Alwinton forms the basic framework for the most authoritative historical account of the area, namely that set out in volume XV of the Northumberland County History edited by Madeleine Hope Dodds (NCH XV (1940), 405-53), as well as the earlier description by Mackenzie (1825, II, 38-44).
The parish embraced a total of 11 townships in upper Coquetdale, comprising Fairhaugh, Linbriggs, Peels (medieval 'Chirmundesden'), Biddlestone, Clennell, Netherton (divided into Netherton North Side and South Side by the 19th century), Burradon, Sharperton and Farnham (medieval 'Thirnam'), as well that of Alwinton itself.
All were situated on the north side of the River Coquet. The corresponding part of the dale to the south of the river was incorporated within the Chapelry of Holystone which was attached to Alwinton Parish by the 19th century. It is often shown as forming part of Alwinton Parish during the medieval period as well (e.g. Dixon 1985, I, plan 3; Lomas 1996, 108), but Alwinton and 'Halystan' were clearly listed as a separate rectories in the various ecclesiastical taxation rolls of the 13th and 14th centuries (Hodgson 1820, 353, 357; NCH XV (1940), 406, 455, 462-3). In 1729-30, the Archdeacon Sharp responded to an inquiry by the Rev. John Horsley regarding the respective status of Alwinton and Holystone thus (cited by Dixon 1903, 227):
Query, Allenton and Holystone, if properly united?: No, otherwise than as served by the same curate by custom immemorial. For though Mr Willis makes St Mary's, Holystone, to be a chapel to St Michael's, Allenton, yet they are commonly reputed different parishes.
The proper patron, anciently the Prioress of the Nunnery at Holystone, after the dissolution, the impropriators - but they being Roman Catholics, and the stipend worth no more than £8, the University of Cambridge never thought worth their while to look after it, so they were served by any curate the people approved of, the Bishop not interposing.
These curates were stipendiary priests and are recorded from the Reformation onwards. Separate curates for Alwinton (George Levinstone) and Holystone (John Turner) are mentioned in 1578, but the County History notes that this is the only recorded instance when this applied (NCH XV (1940), 455-6). Around the same time (1577), the two livings are described as 'the parish church of Holystone and chapel of Allenton' and reported to have no endowment, but otherwise Alwinton was always termed the parish church and Holystone the chapel (op. cit. 406), and the former generally seems to have functioned as the mother church of what was in effect, if not in theory, a combined parish.
Certainly, the parliamentary survey of church livings in 1650 treated the 'Parish of Allenton and Halliston' as a single rectory (Hodgson 1835, lxxvi). This arrangement may have originated in the later medieval period, after the rectory of Alwinton was granted by Gilbert de Umfraville III to the Priory of Holystone in 1375. The nuns already held the rectory of Holystone church, as well as Corsenside church and Harbottle chapel, plus a portion of the revenue from Alwinton (valued at £20 in 1292, as opposed to £66 13s. 4d for the main part of Alwinton Rectory).
When they were given control of Corsenside and Harbottle in 1312 - adding the two churches to Holystone which the nunnery had probably held since the late 12th or early 13th century - the nuns were instructed by the Bishop of Durham to appoint a proper rector or master who was to receive nothing beyond his maintenance and who would serve Corsenside and Harbottle as well as Holystone (NCH XV (1940), 455).
It is quite possible that once the priory acquired Alwinton church, the functions of the master of Holystone etc. and those of the vicar of Alwinton - who is still mentioned in various sources during the 14th, 15th and 16th century sources (see op. cit., 406, 411-2; Dixon 1903, 230) - were normally combined in one person. Prior to monastic takeover Alwinton parish certainly had its own rector. Indeed the Inquisition Post Mortem for Gilbert de Umfraville in 1245 reveals that there was both a rector and a vicar of Alwinton at that date (Cal IPM I, no. 49; CalDocScot I, no.1667), i.e. a proprietor of the church and a deputy who actually ministered to the parish.