The following is a description of Whalton written by Tomlinson in his 'Comprehensive guide to Northumberland' first published in 1888. 
"The road leading from Morpeth to Belsay runs through a rich agricultural district, and commands picturesque views of the country north of the Wansbeck. It branches off to the right from the Newcastle road, just past the Parish Church.
Six miles distant, on the edge of a southern slope, is WHALTON, a good-sized village, consisting of well built houses, having pretty little garden plots in front, and may yet, as in Mackenzie's time, be considered 'one of the cleanest, neatest, and most pleasant villages in the county.' The old Castle-houses, of which the village was formerly composed, have all disappeared since the border reivers ceased to trouble the land, and there is little now to suggest the antiquity of the place except the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. The oldest part of this sacred edifice is the tall, narrow, round-headed tower arch, which is said to be of Saxon workmanship. The rest of the building is early English in style, and dates back to the thirteenth century. At the east end of the south aisle, by the side of the rich decorated window, is a piscina, marking the site of a chantry. Incorporated with the rectory is part of an old pele tower, consisting of two vaulted apartments with strong arched roofs. In the inner one are the remains of a spiral staircase, which had formerly led to the upper rooms and battlements. In the grounds behind the house opposite is an interesting memorial of the times when the early Nonconformists were refused burial in the churchyards of the Establishment. It is a grave-stone bearing the following inscription: 'To the memory of Mr. John Moore, of Whalton, who died in the year 1684, and, owing to the dissention of those times, was here interred. This stone, at the desire of the late Mr. John Moore, of Whalton, his grandson, was erected by his widow, Elizabeth Moore, December 7th, 1772.' On the ridge of the high ground over which the road runs from Whalton to Morpeth, about three-quarters of a mile from the village are two ancient British Camps, supposed to have afterwards been occupied by Romans. One of them, immediately behind the farm-house, called the Camp House, covers about two acres of ground; the other, a little to the east and south-east on the opposite slope of the ridge is much smaller, and goes by the name of 'Dead Men's Graves.' Till recent years the villagers observed the custom, on the 4th. July (old Midsummer-eve) of kindling on the green a large bonfire, and then dancing around it and leaping through it - a relic of solar worship which has come down uninterrupted from Pagan times.
The principal inn is the Beresford Arms. The nearest railway station is Meldon, a mile and a half to the north. From Whalton there is a very pleasant walk of three miles, partly by road and partly by the fields, to Belsay. The same distance from Whalton to the north-west, past Riplington and Gallowhill, where, no doubt, many a bold moss-trouper received his 'hempen caudle,' is.