BELFORD HALL ESTATE SALE

REALISES BETWEEN £70,00 AND £80,000

Belford has never in all its long history had such exciting days as last Thursday and Friday, when the Belford Hall Estate, divided into 177 lots, was put up for auction by Messrs John D. Wood & Co., London, and practically the whole of the village changed hands. The sale was the one absorbing topic of conversation. The Memorial Hall, west Street, where the sale took place, was crowded both days, even standing room being occupied on the Thursday afternoon. Some were in their seats long before the sale opened and, bringing lunch with them, sat the whole day through, intensely interested in the bidding and the fate of the various lots put up. The auctioneer’s remark that he knew of no district in the whole of England where land had been more tightly tied for generations than in Northumberland was certainly applicable to Belford, where for generations the Squire has held sway and freehold was unknown. For over 200 years the estate has been in the hands of the Atkinson-Clark family, and it is only within the last ten years that any portion of it has been parted with. Some months ago the estate changed hands, being bought by Mr Place, timber merchant, Northallerton, from the Atkinson-Clark family. Almost immediately tenants were acquainted with the change and given an opportunity to purchase their houses, shops, farms, etc. Many did so, and in the weeks prior to the sale negotiations for various parts of the estate were completed, tenants generally being satisfied with the new owner’s reasonable demands. Others preferred to await the sale and did so with no little anxiety as to what the future held in store. There is no doubt Belford was anxious. Shopkeepers and businessmen realised that their living was in the village. If they did not buy, other people would, and they might be turned out. Elderly people living in houses were afraid they would have to turn out and leave the village where they wished to end their days. This anxiety was common to the whole village, and one of the most human touched at the sale was the sympathetic applause from the audience when the fall of the auctioneer’s hammer decided the bidding in favour of a tenant.

Mr Place accompanied by his agent, Mr J. Cleghorn, Wooler, was present throughout the sale on the platform with the auctioneer and took a keen interest in the business. An army of solicitors and clerks from Berwick, Newcastle and Alnwick were present ready to tackle the initial stages in the enormous amount of conveyancing work the sale of so many lots involved. There was a great run on the handsomely got up particulars of the sale, the whole of the 650 copies printed being distributed, and will no doubt be treasured as a reminder of the memorable sale.

The sale included nine farms, varying in size from 50 to 845 acres. Chesters farm, 217 acres, was purchased prior to the sale by Mr G. Scott, whose family have held it for over sixty years. Sionside farm, 333 acres, was also purchased privately by the tenants, Messrs Bowmer, Westhall, 175 acres, and Craggyhall farm, 196 acres, and Belford Moor farm, 845 acres-the largest on the estate-and Westroad farm, 50 acres, and Bricksheds farm, 70 acres, went to buyers from further south in the county. In addition to the farms, the lots included some 112 houses or cottages of varying sizes, 22 shops, two licensed premises, the post Office, Belford Quarry and Maltings, and numerous gardens and acres of accommodation land- in all about 3100 acres, producing an income of about £5000 per annum.

Among premises not offered for sale, having been purchased at various times during the past ten years, were:- The Blue Bell Inn, the Salmon Inn, the Bank, Mr Pringle’s shop in market Place, Mr Tully house in West Street, which he recently enlarged and improved; Mr Bolton the watchmaker’s shop, High Street, which he has occupied for over 30 years, and which, along with house next door and his own shop

premises, has been bought by Mr Young, baker, High Street; the Police Station, the Primitive Methodist Church in West Street, bought by Mr Young, baker, whose family for generations has been prominently identified with Primitive Methodism in the district. The gas and water supplies, which belonged the estate, were originally included in Belford Hall lot, but were taken out of this, having been purchased by the District Council. The auctioneer said he knew of no better way to protect the interests of the users of water and gas than for the Local Authority to purchase them.

This is only a snippet of the full article in the Berwick Advertiser.

BELFORD IN THE OLDEN DAYS

In the old days Belford was often mentioned in history as a stage in the journey between England and Scotland. Queen Margaret stopped there. Raids from the Borders often reached the village and houses were destroyed. In the reign of Charles I. it is described as “the most miserable beggarly town of sods that ever was made in an afternoon of loam and sticks. In all the town not a loaf of bread, nor a quart of beer, nor a lock of hay, nor a peck of oats and little shelter for horse or man.” In the 18^th century Belford, like many another village, was visited by the plague, the dead being shovelled hastily out of sight in their clothes on Belford Moor. Before the union of 1603, Belford was still a collection of clay-daubed hovels.

The earl of Hertford, in one of his retaliatory expeditions against the Scottish Borders – the one in which he burned the nunnery at Coldstream- was nearly captured at he lay at Belford, but the Scots managed to carry off his chaplain. Whether he was ransomed or died on the spears of jeering Scots is not recorded. At Cockenheugh Crag, about two miles west of Belford is Cuddie’s Cove, a traditional resting place of St. Cuthbert. Along the High Street of Belford, in more recent years, stone residences and shops were built; and a fine old cross, largely, is not wholly, post-mediaeval, stands in the Market Place. The Church of St. Mary, which stands behind the Market Place, dominates High Street. The sacred edifice was rebuilt in 1827. This church was an ancient chapelry in the parish of Bamburgh. The chancel arch (though not its jambs) is original 12^th century work, with zig-zag ornament; and there is said to be some old masonry in the chancel. An old Gazetter of 1823 printed in Berwick states that the church is a neat edifice, near which are vestiges of a chapel and of a Danish camp. The population of Belford in 1823-100 years ago-was 931.