A view looking towards Hotspur Tower from Bondgate Without
20 minute neighbourhoods............2
Tennis in Alnwick............................4
Bondgate Tower: Risk reduction....6
News in brief....................................7
Civic Society Awards.......................7
Annual General Meeting................8
Our voice in planning.....................9
Planning Matters............................10
Quiz: X18 Bus Stops.......................11
About Alnwick Civic Society.......12
Who's Who?....................................12
Diary dates......................................12
Local Area Committees.........................................2
Estate Agent Boards...............................................4
Planning matters....................................................5
21st Century Heritage...........................................6
Retail to residential conversions..........................7
Residential conversions: basic principles...........8
Northumberland Local Plan.................................8
John Wood's map of 1827.....................................8
News in brief..........................................................9
David Lovie............................................................9
Heritage at risk.....................................................10
Quiz: things are looking up...............................11
About Alnwick Civic Society.............................12
Who's Who?..........................................................12
Diary dates............................................................12
Thoughts on the name "Green Batt"....................2
Planning matters....................................................4
Historic Town Map.................................................5
Bondgate Tower......................................................6
Executive committee..............................................7
Philip Deakin..........................................................7
Trees in and around Alnwick...............................7
Discussion with Historic England.......................8
News in brief...........................................................9
Buildings of note..................................................10
Quiz: Are you stumped?.....................................11
About Alnwick Civic Society..............................12
Who's Who?..........................................................12
Diary dates............................................................12
With two Fleece Pants
Coach stuck in Bondgate Tower.
Traffic Management Study: requirements
Assess the current warning signage and recommend any appropriate changes.
Set out what further measures could be installed to prevent further vehicle strikes.
Assess the impact of closing the tower to all vehicles on traffic flows within and around the town.
Assess the impact of closing the tower to all vehicles on the alternative routes.
Consider whether any wider traffic management measures could be placed on the wider highway network to divert through traffic away from the tower, the town centre or the town as a whole.
Bondgate Tower (also known as Hotspur Tower) is a 15th Century stone gatehouse, founded by the Earl of Northumberland, and now privately owned by the Northumberland Estates, which spans the public highway in Alnwick. This tower is of significant historical interest and is a nationally important heritage asset but is now listed on Historic England’s ‘Heritage at Risk Register’, as a result of being classified as being in “very bad condition”. The main cause of this condition is damage to the archway of the tower from being struck by large/high vehicles attempting to pass through the tower and striking the stonework in the process. Further impacts from vehicles on the tower could cause a serious collapse to occur, which would threaten the future of the structure. They could also result in serious injury and/or death, as well as significant disruption to the highway network, and therefore economy, of Alnwick.
Bondgate Tower from old engraving by Barbara Woodhouse
Photograph of the interior of Bondgate Tower
Photograph of the interior of Bondgate Tower
Photograph of the interior of Bondgate Tower.
Photograph of the interior of Bondgate Tower.
Photograph of the interior of Bondgate Tower.
Photograph of the interior of Bondgate Tower.
Around tower
Historic England listing: Bondgate Tower
Historic England listing: The Hotspur Gateway or Bondgate Tower
Including Bondgate Tower
Keys to the past: Bondgate Tower
From J Wightman Douglas
-------- BONDGATE TOWER, ALNWICK. TO THE EDITOR.
Sir,
The South entrance to Alnwick is guarded by Bondgate Tower, belonging to the Duke of Northumberland and erected about 1450, in memory of Hotspur who was slain a few years previously. In design it is similar to parts of Warkworth Castle. Unable to appreciate its beauty, the Alnwick Urban Council have resolved to offer the G.P.O. a site for a vari-coloured telephone kiosk in front of this old gateway. May I, therefore, ask every Society and person interested in ancient buildings to beg the postmaster-general to decline the offer and to ask the Northumberland County Council, who have an interest in the highway, to oppose the. Better sites, are available. J. WIGHTMAN DOUGLAS. Spring Gardens, Alnwick, Nov. 13.
--------
Bondgate Tower ,Alnwick.
TO THE EDITOR.
Sir.
Your Correspondent, Mr Wightman Douglas, is evidently purturbed that a telephone kiosk should be erected in proximity to the ancient tower at Alnwick. His pathetic appeal to antiquaries to help stay the verdict of the Urban Council is, to my mind, pushing the antiquarian spirit too far. It is absurd expecting modern needs to be sacrificed in the interests of a mere whim. The old tower is a landmark, cerainly, but the erection of the kiosk will not in any way disfigure its "beauty". I do not remeber any protest from mt Douglas or any antiqquaries against the unsightly row of petrol pumps which formerly disfiggured the northern approach of the tower. I think the Council are doing right in considering the public wants.
"Hotspur" Alnwick, November 15.