About Brinkburn.
If ever you wanted to explore and absorb the essence of Brinkburn. Who and what we are. Why we do what we do. What we believe in and who we are for. It’s all here in this 30 second read.
Who is Brinkburn for? What kind of people love Brinkburn?
Brinkburn is for people who value, appreciate and indeed celebrate the currency of ‘time’ above all other currencies.
First, Brinkburn is for those who appreciate how investing the right quality and quantity of time, can make all things more potent, powerful, resonant, memorable, personal and special.
Whether it’s a Specialist, Limited Edition Wedding, a Wellness Retreat or a Business Wellness Retreat.
Second, Brinkburn is for those that also appreciate what time passed can teach us. Old, we believe, is the new new.
How is Brinkburn different to other venues?
Brinkburn is the venue that allows learnings from its one-thousand-year history to permeate through to, and percolate into, all that it does today.
Brinkburn reflects on, and learns from, those that have been here before. Those that have gathered at Brinkburn to connect, celebrate, reflect and renew – for centuries.
In parallel, Brinkburn rushes nothing. Brinkburn celebrates the curious, the careful and the considered. We are patient by nature.
That’s where the Brinkburn slogan comes from – Unhurried, Means Unmatched.
Why is Brinkburn right for me?
Plasterboard walls. Suspended ceilings. Fluorescent lighting. And the rattle of stainless steel in the mornings, as you search for the baked bean puddle and the sausages of dubious origin. It’s just not… Brinkburn.
Here in the heart of Northumberland, our unique and patient interpretation of our one-thousand-year history creates moments and memories (for you) that could only happen on this stage. In these weathered buildings. With these foraged ingredients. In these forests. By this river. And alongside each season’s wildlife, birds, fruits and flowers.
Brinkburn is… different. As different as you and yours.
The History of Brinkburn
5000 BC
It is fair to say that there have been people living at Brinkburn for a very long time. With the oldest habitation being a promontory Iron Age fort, a defensive structure located above a steep cliff. Anyone who has visited Brinkburn will be able to recognise this unique topography.
700 AD – 1100
Reference to Brinkburn can be found in lists compiled as early as 700AD. A
document from the mid 10th to late 1th century called it Brinewele. The well on the Brink. This makes more sense as a place name as there are plenty of sorines nereandnoourns.
1100 – 1500
It’s assumed that a religious house was founded at Brinkburn in the 8th Century,
however the current Augustinian priory was established no later than 135 in the reign of Henry
1600 – 1700
The Fenwick family has many links to Brinkburn with George Fenwick being born here in 1603. It was purchased by Sir John Fenwick whose main estate was Wallington Hall. John was a prominent Jacobite, plotting against the King and getting into numerous troubles, eventually selling the family estate in 1688.
1700-1800
After this period, the Fenwick’s connection with Brinkburn was broken.
The property went through several different hands before coming into the ownership of Joseph Hetherington in 1790. His niece’s great granddaughter, Eleanor Cadogan, married Hugh Fenwick and the connection with the Fenwick family was reinstated.
1800 – 1900
Eleanor Cadogan’s father, Cadogan Hodgson Cadogan, began the building of the Manor House in the 1830’s and the restoration of the priory in 1858. It is this period of building and restoration which leaves the Priory and Manor House as we see it today, and the wider extent of building across the Estate.
1900 – 2000
Eleanor’s grandson Hugh Anthony Cadogan Fenwick inherited the property in 1960 after his uncle Lancelot Fenwick. By this time, the Manor House was derelict. His solution was to donate the property to English Heritage who currently look after the buildings. The wider estate is still owned by Hugh Anthony.
2020 – Today
In 2007 Mark Fenwick and his wife Emma started to restore and repurpose the buildings around the Home Farm as a retreat, wedding, and holiday accommodation venue. This is the warm, welcoming and wonderful Brinkburn you can experience today.
Turning Times Treasures.
Into Treasured Times.
Brinkburn is for people who value, appreciate and indeed celebrate the currency of ‘time’ above all other currencies.