Longhorsley - Landmarks

Landmarks

The Devil's Causeway passes the village less than 2 miles (3 km) to the west. The causeway is a Roman road which starts at Port Gate on Hadrian's Wall, north of Corbridge, and extends 55 miles (89 km) northwards across Northumberland to the mouth of the River Tweed at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

A hoard of Roman coins discovered by metal-detecting enthusiasts on a farm near Longhorsley, Northumberland, could be evidence that entrepreneurial native Northumbrian settlers were recycling old bronze coins and making trinkets to sell back to soldiers in the Roman army, according to experts.

The hoard of 70 Roman coins – 61 sestercii and 9 dupondii — dates from the reign of Emperor Vespasian to the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD69–180) — a period when the Antonine Wall, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and not Hadrian's Wall, marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain, and for a short period, Northumberland, which had until then been barbarian territory, became part of the Roman Empire.

The hoard was found close to the route of the Devil's Causeway, the main Roman road which ran north through Northumberland.

Roman expert Lindsay Allason-Jones, Director of Archaeological Museums at Newcastle University, where the coins are shortly to go on display, says: 'What makes this find unusual is that it dates from a period when there was no Roman fort close to Longhorsley, although there were a number of native settlement sites in the area'.

An ancient battlemented Peel tower lies on the western edge of Longhorsley, dating from the early 16th century and formerly belonging to the Horsley family of Brinkburn. Sir Thomas Horsley entertained General Monck here on his way south to effect the Restoration of Charles II. For a time the tower was used as a Roman Catholic chapel. It is now a private residence.

Linden Hall was built in 1812 for Charles William Bigge, a member of one of Northumberland's most notable merchant and banking families. He had acquired the estate from the Earl of Carlisle, whose family had held it since the time of Henry I. His close friend, Sir Charles Monck, designed the mansion, which consisted of six large rooms on each floor, a sweeping staircase with a domed lantern above, and a basement in the main hall. In addition there were kitchens, servants' quarters, a schoolroom, a brew house, a slaughterhouse and stables. In 1861 it passed from the Bigge family into the hands of the Ames, who held it until 1904, when they moved to Ghyllheugh, their Victorian baronial-style house nearby. Linden Hall then passed to the Adamson family, until 1963. The Hall was purchased in 1978 from John Liddell and opened as a first class hotel three years later.