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Located at the mouth of the River Aln, the village has been an important trading port in Northumberland's past, mainly involved in the export of grain, and smuggling. Due to the trade in grain, the village contained a number of granaries. The port declined after the river changed course during a violent storm in 1806. This incident also resulted in the original church which stood on Church Hill being destroyed. The church had already suffered much erosion by the river and was in a state of collapse. After the loss of the grain exports, the old granaries were converted to houses.
Today, Alnmouth is a popular tourist resort. It is within the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village boasts the fourth oldest golf course in the country.
Here, according to Bede's account in Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Book IV, ch. 28, Archbishop Theodore presided over a synod in 684 (in the presence of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria), at which bishop Tunberht of Hexham was deposed and St Cuthbert elected Bishop of Lindisfarne.
According to the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, Alnmouth was taken and fortified by the French during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
During the American War of Independence, Alnmouth was attacked by the American privateer John Paul Jones. On September 23rd 1779, Jones fired a canon ball at the town; fortunately it missed the church tower and landed in a field before striking a farmhouse roof.
An exhaustive history of the village was written in 1851 by one William Dickson, entitled Four Chapters from the History of Alnmouth.
Alnmouth - Literally, "the mouth of the (River) Alne". Alne was the Old English word for "white" (as in albino). One supposes that the river ran fast and frothy, appearing white.
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