ANOTHER step in uniting a medieval Northumberland castle hotel with its past has been taken by its owner.

Dr Stuart Madnick, who has owned Langley Castle Hotel in Langley-on-Tyne since 1986, has purchased an item described by an expert as “a fantastic item of national importance” and reunited it with Langley’s story. 

The item is a copper alloy oval-shaped seal matrix from the medieval period, discovered in a field in South Tyneside by metal detecting enthusiast, Warrick Rochester. It would have hung from the neck of its owner on a strap and was used when sealing documents by wax. 

The special find was personalised, with the matrix carrying the name of Adam de Tindal - also known in history as Adam de Tindale and Adam de Tynedale - in the inscription, SIGILLVm ADE DE TInDAL. This translates as seal [of] Adam of Tindal/Tynedale.

Hexham Courant:

Adam was the name of the first two Barons of Langley, back in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Both were Barons by Tenure, with the older Adam holding the Barony of Langley under King Henry II (1154-89) and his son then holding it during King Richard I’s reign (1189-1199).   

The seal is dated to between 1175 and 1250, so could have belonged to either father or son. 

At that time, the Langley Castle building did not exist, with the foundations not laid until 1350. Then, Thomas de Lucy was Baron of Langley and needed a new fortified home, following the destruction of a less robust dwelling by the troops of Scottish leader, David Bruce.  

At the time the seal was created, the Langley Estate may have boasted a less grand baronial residence but it comprised a huge swathe of land extending 13,000 acres. It was bound by the River Allen and the Black Dyke earthwork to the west; the southern edge of Muckle Moss to the north and by Nether Warden and the South Tyne at Kingshaw Plain to the east. In the south, it was centred mainly on the area on which Langley Castle now stands, just outside of Haydon Bridge. 

Although the exact location of the seal’s discovery is not being publicised, the Adam de Tindal who lost this seal was some way off his ‘patch’ and it is unknown as to how the seal ended up where it did, in South Tyneside. 

When Dr Madnick, who lives in the USA, learned this item was available for purchase, he stepped in to secure the seal.

"The object is fascinating and tells us a little more about one of the Barons of Langley who has proceeded me," said Dr Madnick. "It shows two people, one of whom is most likely to be Adam, depicted as a moustached man wearing a hooded garment. The other is a veiled female, probably his wife. 

"Having such a seal was commonplace in this period of medieval history, but we have nothing of its kind, relating to one of our earliest barons, at Langley Castle before. I felt it only right to reunite it with Langley and put it on display."

The seal will soon be on display in the castle's drawing room.