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 9th Earl of Northumberland, lived through the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, and was connected to many of the key events and people of those times. He was also known as the Wizard Earl for his interest in science, alchemy, and magic.

On this podcast, hosts Daniel and Deborah take you through the life of the Wizard Earl, including:

His early years

His relationships with his mother Katherine and wife Dorothy

His library collection and other "bookish matters"

How he became known as the Wizard Earl, and his scientific (or magical) experiments

His famous friends, rivals and (nearly) opponents in duels

His trial following the Gunpowder Plot, and imprisonment in the Tower of London

His relationships with his children, Dorothy, Lucy and Algernon

His attitudes towards women

And what was happening at Alnwick Castle and in the north during his lifetime.

We reference several other episodes of the podcast during this biography. For more details, please go back into our catalohue and look for the following episodes:

10 - Syon House

22 - The Gunpowder Plot and Alnwick Castle

31 - Women of Alnwick Castle (Part 2)

36 - The Tudors, the Percys and Syon House

43 - The History of Tennis

45 - Strange and Mysterious Alnwick Castle Tales

72 - The Border Reivers

83 - The Stolen Crown

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, funding wars, and providing employment across the country and society. You will hear the exhaustive process of how wool clothing was made, and some of the reasons why wool is no longer England's top export. You will also hear some of the stories of the history of wool in Northumberland, and from Alnwick Castle itself.

This is a fascinating deep-dive into centuries of history, and we hope it gives you a new perspective on your clothes!

For more from Company of Artisans, head into our podcast back catalogue, and don't forget to check us out on YouTube as well as our usual platforms!

We will be back with more episodes in 2026. If there's a subject you would like us to cover on the podcast, let us know: podcast@alnwickcastle.com .

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 Salvin, his life and his work - especially at Alnwick - we spoke to architectural historian and Country Life editor John Goodall, who explained why Salvin's work has been so significant to the development of Alnwick Castle, adapting to modern needs while calling back to other periods of history, and connecting the domestic space of the Great Kitchen with the grandeur of the State Rooms.

If you enjoyed the episode, you can hear John talk about Alnwick and other castles in Episode 6 of the podcast - or if you visit the castle, you can listen to him talk about the Constable's Tower in our museum!