History of Blanchland

1165     Walter de Bolbec gifts land for a monastery

1327     Edward III stays at Blanchland

1536-9  Dissolution of the Monasteries

1620s   Ownership by the Forsters of Bamburgh

1700     Marriage of Nathaniel Lord Crewe and Dorothy Forster

1704     Sale of Forster estates to Nathaniel Lord Crewe

1715     Jacobite Rising

1721     Death of Lord Crewe; Charity is endowed with the Forster estates

1730s   Repair of the village, including building a parsonage and a bridge over the river and establishing a school

1747     John Wesley preaches in the village and describes it and the Abbey as “little more than a heap of ruins”

1752     The Trustees repair Blanchland Abbey

1815     Further church repairs by the Trustees

1800s   Lead mining and agricultural activity

1855     Trustees build Blanchland School (it closes in 1981)

1930     WH Auden stays at the Lord Crewe Arms

1990s   Village is used for filming of Jude the Obscure and Catherine Cookson’s Gambling Man and A Dinner of Herbs

2004     White Monk Tearooms open in the old school building

2012     The Lord Crewe Arms closes for refurbishment

2014    The Lord Crewe Arms reopens under new management