The Alnwick Castle Podcast

Marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and continuing our theme from the last podcast, this month we are looking at some of the connections Alnwick Castle has had with the United States across history. In this episode, you will hear the stories of George Percy, one of the first English settlers in Virginia; the illegitimate son of the 1st Duke of the Northumberland whose...

Marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence in 1776, this year Alnwick Castle features a brand new exhibition for visitors to see. "The Shot Heard Round The World: Earl Percy and the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783)" tells the story of the American war of independence from the perspective of Hugh Percy, known at the time as Earl Percy, who was there fighting on the Brit...

Work In A Castle is the brand new platform for heritage careers from Historic Houses, where you can go to find out about the amazing, and very varied, job roles that a place like Alnwick Castle can offer. As a member property of Historic Houses, we are excited to be part of the platform, and to find out more, we spoke to Sarah Roller, Director of Policy and Public Affairs for the association. Sara...

We are delighted to welcome historian, author and broadcaster Tracy Borman back to Alnwick Castle on 24th April to speak about her new novel The House of Boleyn. Tickets are available now at alnwickcastle.com - we hope to see you there. As a preview for the event, and in fact as a preview for the book, which is published just one day before Tracy returns to Alnwick, we spoke with her about The Hou...

Anne Boleyn may be one of the best-known figures in British history. But how much do you know about her connections to Alnwick Castle and the Percy family? In this episode of the Alnwick Castle Podcast, we explore the Boleyn-Percy connection in depth with two amazing experts: Natalie Grueninger, from the Talking Tudors podcast, and Owen Emmerson, from Hever Castle. Natalie and Owen explain the ori...

Welcome, and welcome back, to the first Alnwick Castle Podcast of 2026! Whether you are a brand new listener or you have been with us from the start, we hope you will enjoy what we have planned for the upcoming year, with new episodes arriving on the last Wednesday of every month. We start 2026 with an in-depth biography of one of the most famous former owners of Alnwick Castle. Henry Percy, the 9...

For our final episode of 2025, we recommend grabbing your best wooly jumper and getting cosy as we learn all about the history of ... wool! Company of Artisans, regular guests on the Alnwick Castle podcast, are experts on many different aspects of medieval craftsmanship, and on this episode, Karen and Charlie explain why wool was so important to the economy of medieval England - creating trade, fu...

Alnwick Castle would not look the way it does today without the work of Anthony Salvin, the principal architect for the restoration of the castle in the Victorian period. Salvin, one of the top architects of his day (especially when it came to castles), created a new entrance to the castle keep, added towers, and designed the Great Kitchen for the 4th Duke of Northumberland. To find out more about...

If you visited Alnwick Castle this season (or last), you may have met Tastes Through Time, a living history duo who demonstrate and explore the changes in British domestic and social history - from Tudor crafts and skills to female roles in the Second World War. As their name suggests, they also look at how food and recipes have developed over the centuries. This August, we spoke to Tastes Through...

On 23rd September, we are delighted to welcome historian and broadcaster Tracy Borman back to Alnwick Castle to speak about her latest book The Stolen Crown: Treachery, Deceit and the Death of the Tudor Dynasty. And to give you a taste of what to expect if you buy a ticket to the event, we spoke with Tracy here on the podcast to find out all about the book. Inspired by new discoveries made at the...

At Alnwick Castle, the 4th Duke of Northumberland is probably best known for his restoration of the castle in the 1850s and 1860s, transforming the State Rooms and creating the Great Kitchen. But before all that work began, he had encountered a man named George Shaw, who was able to convince him to buy a number of pieces of antique furniture from old Percy properties. The problem? George had faked...

250 years ago, the American Revolutionary War effectively began with fighting at Lexington and Concord. Among the British soldiers present was Hugh Percy, eldest son of the 1st Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, and future 2nd Duke. What was the heir to Alnwick Castle doing in America? What did he think of the country soon to be known as the United States? And what is his connection to Charles Le...

As well as the Great Kitchen of Alnwick Castle being opened to visitors for the first time in 2025, the suite of larder rooms connected to it are also available to see. One of these was the Game Larder - a very important space in the Victorian period for the types of meat that were stored in there ready to be cooked. And one of the ways that game was procured was the traditional pursuit of falconr...

Elizabeth Percy, 1st Duchess of Northumberland, who lived at Alnwick Castle in the middle decades of the 18th century, was a collector, courtier and artistic patron. But did you know she was also a regular theatregoer? Her many diaries include various mentions of plays she saw, some of which were by William Shakespeare, and her collections include miniature portraits of famous actors and actresses...

In the last episode of the podcast, you will have heard the history of the Alnwick Castle Kitchens, created by architect Anthony Salvin in the late 1850s for the 4th Duke of Northumberland. In this follow-up episode, you will find out about what has been happening in the past year to open these amazing spaces to the public for the first time ever. The Great Kitchen and its larder rooms will be ope...

Question: which part of Alnwick Castle was once considered the finest of its kind in the world? Answer: it was the Victorian Kitchens, which were created in the 1850s to be an architectural, culinary and technological marvel! In this episode of the Alnwick Castle Podcast, we explore some of the history of the castle kitchens - from the original medieval kitchen area to the developments of the Vict...

The Alnwick Castle Podcast returns for 2025! Before we get into the description of this episode, a quick programming note. New episodes of the podcast will now arrive on the last Wednesday of each month, or every four weeks. Please make sure to stay subscribed so you do not miss any. On this episode, we travel to Rome during the Italian Renaissance to explore one of the most impressive parts of th...

In our final episode of 2024, the Alnwick Castle Podcast presents a timeline of the entire history of the castle ... or, at least, the most significant moments in the history of the castle. Join our hosts Daniel and Deborah as they run through the story of Alnwick Castle in chronological order, from the arrival of the Percy family in England in 1067 to the use of the castle as a filming location i...

You may have visited Alnwick Castle this year, or last year, or before that, but did you know there is a beautiful park just west of the castle with a history almost as long? In this episode of the Alnwick Castle Podcast, join hosts Daniel and Deborah for a brief history of Hulne Park - from the two groups of monks that lived there in the medieval period, to its restoration in the Georgian period,...

During summer time at Alnwick Castle, we love to invite historical musicians to play music of the past for our visitors in the castle grounds. New to Alnwick this year were the duo Pearl in the Egg (a.k.a Karen and Liz), who play melodies from the 11th century Saxon period to the 16th century Elizabethan. We joined them at the end of their final day of performances at the Castle to find out more a...

Alnwick Castle, for hundreds of years, was a border fortress, part of the defensive line protecting England from Scottish attacks. But throughout the medieval period and into the Tudor and Elizabethan periods, families on both sides of the border were known as reivers - thieves, raiders and criminals who took every opportunity to attack their rivals. We spoke to our resident master longbowman, And...

If you are a subscriber to the Alnwick Castle Podcast (thank you!) or you follow us on social media, you will be aware of the Library Project that has been taking place throughout 2024, restoring and reimagining this vital part of the State Rooms. As part of our podcast mini-series following the progress of the project, we were joined for a third and final time by Project Conservator Ellin Belton...

What can 500-year-old tiles tell us about the rise and fall of a noble family in the Tudor period? Quite a lot, as it turns out! Join us for this historical detective story, as we look into the mystery of why the survival of Percy family tiles is such a rare occurrence, and what the building of a Victorian chocolate factory has to do with their rediscovery... To explain this intriguing history, we...

Did you know there was a Duke of Northumberland two centuries before the Percy family of Alnwick Castle were given the title? And that the person who held the dukedom also spent time here at Alnwick? He was John Dudley, part of one of the most important families of the Tudor period and one of the people who features in The House of Dudley, a fascinating book by Dr Joanne Paul that explores this fa...

The Burnings is the debut novel from author Naomi Kelsey, and tells the story of some of the women accused of witchcraft during a period of intense persecution in 16th century Scotland.  We were lucky enough to be joined at the castle by Naomi, who told us all about the history behind the book from early modern medicine to Stuart court intrigue, her process of researching characters and other hist...