Carraw Tower

Has been described as a Certain Pele Tower

There are no visible remains

NameCarraw Tower
Alternative NamesCaraw; Carrow
Historic CountryNorthumberland
Modern AuthorityNorthumberland
1974 AuthorityNorthumberland
Civil ParishNewbrough

The vill of Carrawer was a member of the liberty of Tynedale. Medieval documents state that the settlement had been granted to Hexham Priory in C12 and other documents record leases and changes in ownership. In C14 the township was held in five farms but by 1536 the 'pasture was waste and valueless'. A tower also stood here in C15 but had fallen into ruins by the mid C15. By the late C18 there was only one farmstead. (Keys to the Past)

The vill of Carrawer was a member of the liberty of Tynedale. The 1298 'inspeximus' of Hexham Priory lands stated that the hamlet of Carrawer had been granted to the Priory in the 12th century. In 1379 in the Black Book of Hexham the vill of Carraw was recorded as on lease by Robert Ogle; the whole township was held in five farms.

Survey of 1536 said Carrawe pasture was waste and valueless; in 1542 the tower of Carraw and stone house were uninhabited and decayed, and the whole township waste. Six buildings shown on Military Road map of 1749. Twenty years later it comprised a single farmstead. No earthworks seen around present farmstead (Wrathmell 1975).

Caraw Tower. Part of the grange of Hexham. A stone house added to the tower in 1406. Listed in 1541 - house and tower in decay (Long 1967).

To the west of existing farm buildings, on both sides of the B6318 road, are faint traces of platforms or enclosures, at NY 84897109 and NY 84907105, which may indicate the site of now vanished buildings. Likewise, vague earthworks which overlie the Vallum at about NY 84757100, could possibly indicate that the settlement formerly extended into this area. Alternatively, they could be accounted for as erosion channels or hollow ways (Gates 2004). (Northumberland HER)

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNY849711
Latitude55.0341911315918
Longitude-2.23778009414673
Eastings384900
Northings571100
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 379
  • Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 114 (slight)
  • Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 46
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 346
  • Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 97
  • Northern Archaeological Survey, 1975, Archaeology in the North: gazetteer (Durham) p. 112
  • Long, B, 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 78
  • Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 47 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  • Hodgson, J., 1840, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Part 2 Vol. 3 p. 397 online copy

Journals

  • Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 47 online copy

Primary Sources

Other

  • Gates, T., 2004, The Hadrian's Wall Landscape from Chesters to Greenhead: an air photographic survey
  • Wrathmell, S., 1975, Deserted and Shrunken Villages in Southern Northumberland from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Centuries (PhD Thesis Cardiff) p. 332