An Account of Lesbury Parish, by Geo. Tate, F.G.S. 247 



for the export of corn till the termination of the war with France, 

 before which as many as eighteen vessels were in the harbour at 

 the same time ; but after that the export trade declined and was 

 entirely extinguished by the formation of railways. Sixty years 

 ago numbers of huge store-houses for corn were in Alnmouth — 

 high, plain buildings, some five or six stories high, with small 

 latticed windows — all ugly enough — the town appearing more a 

 collection of granaries than of dwelling houses. Most of them 

 now are converted into dwelling-houses. [In 1746, there was 

 some trade in kelp.* At one time ten ships might be seen in 

 Alnmouth altogether, which were all loaded with oats for Scot- 

 land.-)-] 



Small ships lie safely enough in the harbour, which being 

 formed by a small tidal river is accessible even to small vessels 

 only at certain states of the tide. Clay forms the bottom of the 

 river, but it is covered over with shifting sands, the depth of which 

 varies according to the flow and force of the currents and tides. 

 The bar of sand at the junction of tide and current and the 

 mouth of the river are therefore constantly changing. High water 

 in neap-tides is usually from 8^- feet to 9 feet deep, but sometimes 

 only 8 feet ; spring tides range from t2 feet to 14 feet. Nothing 

 has been done for many years to improve the harbour. The tide 

 flows up the Aln about a mile, and in high spring tides extends 

 to Lesbury bridge. After leaving Lesbury the river flows nearly 

 parallel with the coast, seeking an outlet into the sea, from which 

 it is barred by a range of hills 100 feet in height, formed of clay, 

 gravel, and sand ; but which lessen in height southward of Aln- 

 mouth. Formerly the Aln found an outlet through a breach 

 southward of the Church hill, which was then united to the 

 Cheese hill and the town by a low ridge. Time after time the 

 currents and tides acted on this ridge, and in 1806 broke through 

 it, so that at high tides the Church hill was an island. When I 

 was a boy the river still ran round the south end of the hill, and 

 frequently have I passed dry-footed across from Alnmouth to the 

 Church hill when the tide was back ; ships lay at anchor, in a har- 

 bour, south westward of the hill, and were loaded with corn from 

 a granary on the south side of the river. A heavy sea in * * * 

 (J) deepened the breach, and since then the river has always run 

 [* Newcastle Journal, July 5, 1746.] [t Alnwick Mercury, Feb. 2, 1863.] 



% Mr Dickson gives 1806 as the date of final disruption, "Hist, of Aln- 

 mouth," p. 5. 



