More information : St Margaret's Grange and Chapel of Alnwick Abbey. (1)
St Margaret's, a manor or grange, adjoining Rugley and Alnwick moor, and containing 148 acres, belonged to Alnwick Abbey. It appears to have been given by Wm De Vescy who sometime between 1157 and 1185 granted to the Abbey land in the vill of Rugley. In 1540 a manor called "Seynt Margaretts" is mentioned as being in the tenure of Edmund Urpeth. The manor or grange passed through various hands until 1862 when by authority of the Inclosure Commissioners it was divided into two estates, one owner being allotted 89 acres, and the other, a Mrs Rand, 59 acres and the farm buildings. (2)
A survey of c.1715 refers to "St Maragret's" as being a small village with the ruins of an old chapel. (3)
The farmhouse of St Margaret's is modern but some of the farm buldings appear very old and at one time to have been cottages. They may represent the remains of the "small village" that existed in 1715 (Authority 3 refers). The buildings have no dateable features and no ecclesiastical characteristics to associate them with the grange or chapel referred to in Authority 1. There are no traces of building foundations in any of the adjoining fields. (4)
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