An Account of Lesbury Parish, by Geo. Tate, F.G.S. 239 



where the river disembogues into the bay. It is usually called 

 Alemouth, and sometimes Yellmouth ; but the spelling of the 

 name has been very varied. — We have Anyemouth in 1205 

 [Auneimuwe-Test. de Nevill], Alnemuth in 1251, Alemouth in 

 1454, Ailmouth in 1519, Aylemouth in 1534. But it had an 

 older name in the Saxon and early Norman period, as is evidenced 

 by the Alnwick Abbey charters. The foundation charter by 

 Eustace Fitz-John in 1147 gave to the Abbey the church of Les- 

 bury, with the chapels of Houghton, Alnwick, and St. Waleric, 

 and also one measure of land in his burgh of St. Waleric ; and 

 that St. Waleric is the same as Alnmouth is proved by subse- 

 quent charters which substitute Alnmouth for St. Waleric as one 

 of the chapels under Lesbury. This obscure Saint had been held 

 in esteem in this district ; for Newbiggin, in this county, was 

 also anciently called St. Waleric ; and in one of the charters of 

 Newminster Abbey, German Tysun gave 10s yearly to be paid at 

 the feast when the fair was held at Alnwick. This Saint, who 

 died on December 12th, 622, was the first Abbot of the Monastery 

 of St. Waleric in Picardy, to which, William the Conqueror gave 

 lands in the vill of Takelerye* (Cal. Gen. i., p. 49). 



At an early period Alnmouth had been a place of no small im- 

 portance, doubtless on account of its convenient situation at the 

 mouth of a tidal river, accessible by the small vessels which then 

 navigated our seas ; and here stood in Saxon times a church in 

 which the inhabitants worshipped. In Norman times the burgh 

 and manor were parcel of the barony of Alnwick ; and the suc- 

 cessive barons, the Vescys and the Percys, were the feudal lords 

 of Alnmouth ; their history need not here be entered into, as it is 

 fully given in the " History of Alnwick." To Eustace de Vescy 

 King John, in 1207, granted a port at Alnmouth, and a market 



[ * St. Waleric more probably owes bis celebrity to Norman rulers tban to 

 Saxon zeal. It was William the Conqueror's devotion at the shrine of this 

 local Saint, when several of his ships had been wrecked and their crews 

 drowned, and a panic had spread through the whole fleet and army ; and his 

 subsequent success in invading England, that induced his grateful followers 

 to commemorate their adopted patron. "He ordered the body of St. Valery 

 to be brought out, and to be exposed to the open air, imploring a wind." 

 (William of Malmesbury, under date 1066). See also St John's Four Con- 

 quests of England, vol. ii., pp. 245-246. There were two Saints Walaric or 

 Walerie, — Hampson's Kalendars of the Middle Ages, vol. ii., p. 390; their 

 respective holidays were April 1 and Dec. 12.] 



