page_title: Morpeth, Northumberland
section_title: Landmarks
hierarchical_section_title: Morpeth, Northumberland / Landmarks
caption_attribution_description: English: Town centre of Morpeth, Northumberland
context_page_description: Morpeth is a historic market town in Northumberland, North East England, lying on the River Wansbeck. Nearby towns include Ashington and Bedlington. In the 2011 census, the population of Morpeth was given as 14,017, up from 13,833 in the 2001 census. The earliest record of the town is believed to be from the Neolithic period. The meaning of the town's name is uncertain, but it may refer to its position on the road to Scotland and a murder which occurred on that road. An alternative origin is a derivation of 'murderers' path' from the time when the gallows were on the Common. The de Marley family was granted the Barony of Morpeth in c. 1080 and built two castles in the town in the late 11th century and the 13th century. The town was granted its coat of arms in 1552. By the mid 1700s it had become one of the main markets in England, having been granted a market charter in 1199, but the opening of the railways in the 1800s led the market to decline. The town's history is celebrated in the annual Northumbrian Gathering.
  Morpeth is governed by Northumberland County Council and Morpeth Town Council.
context_section_description: The historical layout of central Morpeth consisted of Bridge Street, Oldgate Street and Newgate Street, with burgage plots leading off them. Traces of this layout remain: Old Bakehouse Yard off Newgate Street is a former burgage plot, as is Pretoria Avenue, off Oldgate. The town stands directly on what used to be the Great North Road, the old coaching route between London and Edinburgh.
  Carlisle Park is located on the southern bank of the River Wansbeck in Morpeth. The park has the William Turner Garden, one of the only four floral clocks in England, a statue of Emily Wilding Davison, as well as other facilities and attractions. Morpeth's Mafeking Park, at the bottom of Station Bank, was unsuccessfully put forward by locals to be listed as the smallest park in the world in the Guinness Book of Records.
  Other landmarks are:
  Morpeth Clock Tower, a free-standing 17th century clock tower
  A grand town hall, originally designed by Sir John Vanbrugh (rebuilt 1869)
  Collingwood House, the Georgian home of Admiral Lord Collingwood
  Morpeth Chantry, a 13th-century chapel that now houses the town's tourist information centre and the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum
  Morpeth Castle, which stands on a hill to the south, is now operated by the Landmark Trust as holiday accommodation
  A nuclear bunker located underneath Morpeth County Hall
  A gateway on High Stanners framed by a whale's jawbone
  Ruins of Newminster Abbey, a former Cistercian abbey about one mile to the west of Morpeth
caption: Town centre of Morpeth
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