Whitfield is a village in the county of Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Hexham

Hexham

Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was...

. It has a farming community and is set against beautiful scenic background; sometimes it has been called Little Switzerland

Little Switzerland (landscape)

A little Switzerland or Schweiz is a landscape, often of wooded hills. This Romantic aesthetic term is not a geographic category, but was widely used in the 19th century to connote dramatic natural scenic features that would be of interest to tourists...

.

The village lies on the River West Allen which joins with the River East Allen less than a mile away to form the River Allen

River Allen, Northumberland

The River Allen is a river in the English county of Northumberland.The Allen is a tributary of the River South Tyne. It gives its name to Allendale....

. The village is serviced with a village shop, pub, school and two churches.

Landmarks

Whitfield Hall is the home of the Blackett-Ord family. The Manor of Whitfield was granted, in the twelfth century, by William King of Scotland to the Whitfield family, who retained it until 1750 when it was sold to William Ord of Fenham

William Ord of Fenham

William Ord was an English land and mine owner.He was the second son of Thomas Ord of Fenham and Anne Bacon and inherited the family estates at Fenham and Newminster Abbey on the death of his elder brother John, in 1745....

. When a later William Ord

William Ord

William Henry Ord was an English Whig politician and landowner, the son of William Ord and Eleanor Brandling.He inherited estates and coal and lead mining interests at Whitfield, Northumberland on the death of his father. His residence was Whitfield Hall...

died in 1855, the estate fell to his son's widow and then to her heir, her niece, who married Rev John Blackett, a son of Christopher Blackett of Wylam. As a condition of the marriage and inheritance he changed his name to Blackett-Ord.

Religious sites

St John's Church is the site of an ancient church that was rebuilt by William Ord in 1785. Trinity Church (more usually known as Holy Trinity) was dedicated in 1860 and was the gift of the Rev'd and Mrs. J. A. Blackett-Ord in memory of William Ord Esq. from whom Mrs. Blackett-Ord had inherited the whole estate. It replaced St. John's church as the parish church. Many of the stones from St. John's were used in the building of Holy Trinity. The registers start in 1612 and the list of Rectors in 1180 with Robert de Quitfield which confirms the existence of a church at that time.

External links

• Some history and pictures
• GENUKI (Accessed: 12 November, 2008)