Today's Object of the Week is an 83ft high column erected to honour a generous landlord. But was he grateful?

ONE of the most imposing reminders of the Percy family in Alnwick is the 83 ft high ‘Percy Tenantry Column’ – known locally as the Farmers’ Folly.

The column, designed by the Newcastle architect David Stephenson, was constructed in 1816 and lies close to the southern end of a street named Bondgate Without. It is one of the first sights to greet the visitor to Alnwick from the south.

Legend has it that the 2nd Duke of Northumberland – a Percy – lowered the rents of his agricultural tenants by 25 per cent to help them through the period of agricultural depression which followed the Napoleonic Wars.

It is said that the tenants were so grateful to the Duke that they erected the great column in his honour – topped by a stone statue of the famous Percy Lion, the emblem of the Percy family for centuries.

But the story is that the Duke, far from showing gratitude for the monument to his honour, was more interested in the fact that his tenants had been able to raise the money for it. His reaction was to raise their rents once again – the story is, however, only a legend.

The column stands outside the former Alnwick railway station of 1887, home to the popular Barter Books book store since 1991.

Barter Books is an attraction in its own right. The store, founded by Stuart and Mary Manley, includes open fires where you can curl up and begin reading a book before you purchase while a model train runs around on the bookshelves overhead.

In 2005 the bookstore launched a print run of the famous ‘Keep Calm’ posters based on the wartime poster of which the store had an original in their possession. It became one of the most popular sales items ever and resulted in countless imitations. The logo is now one of the most widely recognised product slogans, featured on everything from mugs to mouse mats.

Northumberland’s association with the Percies began in 1309 when Henry De Percy bought the castle and barony of Alnwick from Anthony Bek, the Bishop of Durham, who had acquired the land from the De Vescis.

In 1377 Henry, the fourth Lord Percy, became the first post-Norman ‘Earl of Northumberland’, a title that was held by the Percys until the seventeenth century. The present Duke of Northumberland still bears the Percy name.

The first gardens at Alnwick were laid down in 1750 by the 1st Duke of Northumberland – a duke rather than an earl – but over the years they had fallen into disrepair.

The spectacular redevelopment of the Alnwick Garden was instigated by the Duchess of Northumberland in 1997 and is now one of Alnwick’s most beautiful attractions with a water cascade forming the centrepiece.

Other big draws in the garden are the enormous treehouse and the ‘Poison Garden’ which contains some of the most deadly species of plants. They are locked away behind an ominous gateway that warns ‘These Plants Can Kill’.

* Thanks to David Simpson of the England's North East website – englandsnortheast.co.uk/ – for his help in compiling this article.