Ninebanks

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ninebanks is a small village in the southwest of Northumberland, England, in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It sits about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Alston by road.

The village is known for Ninebanks Tower, a sandstone building from the early 16th century. It is often called a pele tower, but it may have been built as a watchtower. The tower has four floors, and the bottom floor is now below the road level.

There is an independently run Ninebanks Youth Hostel nearby in Mohope. St Mark’s Church on the Ninebanks site was first opened in 1764 and rebuilt in 1871; its windows were donated in 1880 by Mr. R. Lee.

Isaac Holden was born around 1804 at Redheugh, Mohope, and baptised at St Mark’s in 1805. He was a local philanthropist and Methodist who started in the lead mines and later sold tea around the North Pennines to support the community. He funded his work by selling poems, tracts, and even his own portrait. The old hearse house at Ninebanks once housed Holden’s hearse, gifted to the people of the West Allen valley in 1856; Holden died in 1857. The hearse house can still be seen near St Mark’s Church and the old school along the road to Carrshield. A memorial to Holden stands in St Cuthbert’s churchyard in Allendale. The 36-mile Isaac’s Tea Trail—a circular walk named after him—passes near Ninebanks.

Ninebanks is in the Hexham postal area (NE47).