Howick, Northumberland

Description
Howick, a parish, with a village, in Northumberland, on the coast, 1 1/2 mile from Little Mill station on the N.E.R, and 5 1/2 miles NE by E of Alnwick. Post town and money order office, Lesbury; telegraph office, Alnwick. Acreage, 1698, of which 66 are water and foreshore; population, 266. The manor belonged to the Muschamps, passed to the Vescies, afterwards to the Greys, who became Earls Grey, and gives to the latter the title of Visconnfc Howtek House, the seat of Earl Grey, occupies the site of an ancient tower destroyed in 1780, is a fine Grecian edifice built in 1782, and much enlarged and improved in 1812, and contains some valuable statues, paintings, and other works of art. A trout stream, called Howtek Burn, crossed by a stone bridge, winds through the park and along a beautifully-wooded dene to the sea, and the shore adjacent to its month is broken into picturesque masses of jagged freestone rock. Traces exist of a camp variously regarded as British, Roman, and Danish; and ancient spears, swords, coins, and several gold rings, linked together in the form of a gorget, have been found. Coal was at one time worked, but proved unremunerative. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Newcastle; net value, £185 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Newcastle. The church was rebuilt in 1746 by Sir Henry Grey, Bart, was remodelled with insertion of Norman windows and floriated capitals in 1849 by the third Earl Grey, and contains, under a rich Gothic canopy of Caen stone, the monument of the second Earl Grey, the distinguished prime minister.