The Tenantry Column is a monument to the south of

Alnwick Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116. The town is on the south bank of the River Aln, south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish bo ...

town centre, in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a ceremonial counties of England, county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Ab ...

, England. It was erected in 1816 by the tenants of

Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland Lieutenant General Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland (14 August 174210 July 1817) was an officer in the British army and later a British peer. He participated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Long Island during ...

in thanks for his reduction of their rents during the post-Napoleonic depression. It is a Doric column standing tall and surmounted by a lion

en passant ''En passant'' (, "in passing") is a method of capturing in chess that occurs when a pawn captures a horizontally adjacent enemy pawn that has just made an initial two-square advance. The capturing pawn moves to the square that the enemy pa ...

, the symbol of the Percy family. Four more lions stand on a platform at the base of the column. A muster roll of the Percy Tenantry Volunteers was sealed into the foundation. The structure was granted protection as a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

in 1952 and since 1977 has been listed in the highest category, grade I.

Description

The Doric column is tall and topped by the Percy Lion, symbol of the historic

Percy family The English surname Percy is of Norman origin, coming from Normandy to England, United Kingdom. It was from the House of Percy, Norman lords of Northumberland, derives from the village of Percy-en-Auge in Normandy. From there, it came into us ...

. The lion sits on top of a drum decorated with foliage and surmounted with an iron balcony. The lion's tail, unusually, is horizontal and is said to point towards Scotland but the reason why is not known. The lion, depicted

, points south. The base of the column is surrounded by a circular granite platform of circumference, accessible by stairs. The platform is surrounded by four more lions, on black marble plinths, which look upon Alnwick. A panel on the west side of the base of the column is engraved "To Hugh, Duke of Northumberland K.G This column is Erected, Dedicated and Inscribed By a Grateful and United Tenantry Anno Domini MDCCCXVI". Panels on two other sides are marked with the Percy family motto "Esperance en dieu" (French: Hope is in God). The fourth side contains the entrance to the column's internal stair case. The platform was originally surrounded by railings, but these have been lost. Buried in a cavity in the foundations is the regimental roll of the late Percy Tenantry Volunteers, written on

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other ani ...

and sealed in a glass tube. In 1887 Alnwick's railway station was built near to the column. It is one of the first sights to greet visitors to Alnwick, arriving from the south.

History

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after 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.Local Records
volume II (1866) by John Sykes, pp.100–101 The foundation stone for the column was laid on 1 July 1816, an event witnessed by a large audience. The ceremony was led by a band and flag bearers and attended by Stephenson (bearing a ceremonial silver trowel), the principal tenants and two clergymen. The 21 oldest of Percy's tenants ceremoniously used the trowel to lay the stone. The foundation stone was afterwards blessed and ceremonially doused with corn, wine and oil. The column was not completed until after the Duke's 10 July 1817 death and was instead presented to his son

Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland (20 April 178511 February 1847), styled Earl Percy until 1817, was a British aristocrat and Tory politician who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under the Duke of Wellington from 1829 to 1830. Backg ...

. The stone for the column came from a nearby estate on Percy family land. The Duke had doubled or tripled rents during the agricultural boom that accompanied the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

but, in an unusual show of 19th-century aristocratic generosity, had agreed to reduce them during the post-Napoleonic depression. The reduction applied is said to have been 25%. Percy was one of the richest men in England at this time. 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. The Percy Tenantry Volunteers was a 1,500-strong unit of the

British Volunteer Corps The Volunteer Corps was a British voluntary part-time organization for the purpose of home defence in the event of invasion, during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. History Establishment At the start of the War of the First Coal ...

that the Duke had raised, at his own expense, during the war to defend the north-east from a potential French invasion. The column is also known as "The Farmer's Folly". It was granted protection as a

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

on 20 February 1952: the listing was upgraded to the highest category, grade I, on 25 August 1977.

References

External links

Percy Tenantry Column
at the Public Monument and Sculpture Association National Recording Project {{coord, 55.4109, N, 1.6989, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Alnwick Tourist attractions in Northumberland Monuments and memorials in Northumberland Monumental columns in England Buildings and structures completed in 1816 Observation towers in the United Kingdom 1816 establishments in England Grade I listed monuments and memorials Grade I listed buildings in Northumberland

Description

History

See also

References

External links