Church of St Michael, Alnham

St Michael’s Church, Alnham
St Michael’s Church, Alnham
Coordinates: 55°23′33.99″N 2°00′57.3″W / 55.3927750°N 2.015917°W / 55.3927750; -2.015917
Location	Alnham
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade I listed
Administration
Parish	Upper Coquetdale
Deanery	Alnwick
Archdeaconry	Lindisfarne
Diocese	Diocese of Newcastle

The Church of St Michael in Alnham, in the English county of Northumberland, is a medieval structure dating from circa 1200. Built on a Roman camp site, it is mentioned in records dating to 1291; it is a Grade I listed building.

The Parish of Alnham is situated in the northwest of Northumberland, and the small village lies within 8 miles (13 km) of the Scottish border. The Oliverian Survey of Church Livings, 1650, says:— "That the Parish of Alneham was formerly a Viccaridge, the Earle of Northumberland Patron thereof, Mr. Thompson Viccar, and the value of the said Viccaridge worth twenty pounds p'annu," while the Rentals and Rates of 1663 show that the neighbouring landowners then held the rectorial tithes. Amongst the papers belonging to the parish now in the possession of the Vicar is:—"A Terrier of the Gleeb Land belonging to the Vicaridg of Alneham in the County of Northumberland and Diocese of Durham. Imp".—There is a vicarage house which is an old ruined tower. The parish register begins in 1688.

The church stands on the site of a small Roman camp, "which most probably has been for a Centurion's guard to protect the herds of cattle when grazing during summer, in the rich pastures on the banks of the river Aln, above Whittingham." The Transitional-style church is situated in a pastoral district near the source of the Aln. Nearby are the remains of a castle, and a pele tower that was later used as the vicarage house. The church is sited on a slope.

While the walls are indicative of the period in which it was erected, very few records are available regarding the church's early history and its pre-Reformation rectors. Like most of the ancient parish churches, it would have been built and endowed by the early owners of the manor, but towards the end of the 12th century, William de Vesci granted Alnham Church to the monks of Alnwick Abbey. Its style of architecture corresponds with that period. It would appear that the monastic brethren rebuilt the church, as it was their usual custom either to rebuild or beautify churches that were given to them. In the Taxatio Ecclesiastica—a tax made on all church property about 129—Alnham Rectory was valued at £31. The Nonarum inquisitiones of 1340 states its value was £37 13s. 4d.