Blanchland Abbey

The abbey was dissolved in 1539 and granted to the Bellow and Broxholm families. It was later acquired by the Radclyffe family from whom it passed by marriage to Nicholas Forster. Part of the abbey church was altered and retained for use as the parish church, and the abbots' former residence became the manor house. In 1612, it was the residence of Sir Claudius Forster, High Sheriff of Northumberland.

When in 1701 Fernando Forster was murdered, the estate passed through to co-heirs: Dorothy (sister of Fernando) who had married Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron Crew, Bishop of Durham, and Thomas Forster of Adderstone, the son of her deceased sister Frances. The estate was however encumbered with debt. Lord Crew purchased all the Forster estates including Blanchland in 1704 for £20,697, sufficient to pay off the creditors. The Forster connection with Blanchland came to an end as a result of Thomas Forster's involvement in the Jacobite rising of 1715. On his death in 1721, Lord Crew left all his properties to be administered in trust for charitable purposes (Lord Crewe's Charity).

The abbey gatehouse survives and the stone houses surrounding the village square were partly constructed using stone from the monastery. The manor house became an inn, the Lord Crewe Arms, in the 1720s.

• Catholic Church in England

• Anthony New. A Guide to the Abbeys of England and Wales, pp, 69–71. Constable.
• Rev. James Raine. The History and Antiquities of North Durham, pp. 306–310. Forster history and Pedigree (1840)