HIS home has already doubled as Hogwarts school of witchcraft in the Harry Potter films. Now the Duke of Northumberland, owner of Alnwick Castle, is to open a school of his own after signing up as a sponsor of the government’s city academy programme.

Northumberland, 50, has put forward £1m for the project to build an academy in the former coalmining town of Ashington. He has submitted a formal expression of interest to the government in conjunction with the Church of England’s Newcastle diocese, which is putting forward another £1m.

Alnwick Castle featured as Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry in the first two Potter films. Instead of magic, however, the new school will have a strong emphasis on Christianity, rural crafts and respect for the environment.

Canon Margaret Nicholson, director of education at the Newcastle diocese, said the parallel with Hogwarts was only limited.

“We won’t have children flying around [on broomsticks] although we hope the triumph of good over evil and the common good will be very much at the centre of the life of the school,” she said.

The proposed academy in the Hirst district of Ashington, while open to pupils regardless of faith, will have a strong Christian ethos. Nicholson said she hoped it would “bring honour to God and to the whole community”.

Labour’s programme to build 200 city academies by 2010 is intended to draw private sector money and management into new state schools in deprived areas. Business tycoons, companies, charities and religious groups have become sponsors. But Northumberland, who has a £300m fortune and owns 120,000 acres, is believed to be the first aristocratic patron to come forward.

The strongly Christian tinge to some city academies in the northeast has already proved controversial. The Emmanuel Schools foundation, started by Sir Peter Vardy, the car sales tycoon, has been accused at its academy in Gateshead of teaching pupils creationism - a religious-based theory of how the world came into being - on an equal footing with Darwinism. Vardy denies this.

His foundation, which also has an academy in Middles-brough, is planning another one in Blyth, Northumberland. This has run into opposition from critics of Vardy’s strongly Christian stance.

The ducal academy which, if approved, will open in 2010 will cater for more than 1,000 pupils. It will specialise in design and construction in addition to the national curriculum. As well as professional skills such as architecture and bricklaying, there will be a strong emphasis on skills such as stonemasonry and the construction of traditional rural buildings.

The duke’s spokeswoman declined to comment about the project beyond saying that it was at an early stage, but Frank Jordan, director of strategy planning at Northumberland county council, said: “The duke’s interest is partly altruistic . . . and his estates are interested in growing local skills in Northumberland and particularly rural areas. Some of the housebuilding they want needs more of the traditional sort of skills like stonemasonry.”

The school is the latest high-profile project for the family, whose previous economic regeneration project for the northeast has proved controversial.

There was criticism when £16.6m of public money was granted to a project of the Duchess of Northumberland to build a 42-acre garden at Alnwick. It was justified on the grounds that it would become a popular attraction and bring much-needed tourist money to the area.

Given the project’s success, gardening is likely to be one of the skills taught by the academy.

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