Wingates Pele Cottage

Has been described as a Possible Bastle, and also as a Possible Pele Tower

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NameWingates Pele Cottage
Alternative Names
Historic CountryNorthumberland
Modern AuthorityNorthumberland
1974 AuthorityNorthumberland
Civil ParishNunnykirk

Pele Cottage, located on the north side of Wingates village, has been recorded to possess 1m thick walls. This may suggest that the building if of some antiquity and therefore be a bastle or pele. (Keys to the Past)

No tower or fortified dwelling – generally labelled pelehouses, stonehouses or bastles in contemporary sources – is listed at Wingates in any of the Border surveys of the 15th or 16th centuries. However Pele Cottage on the north side of the village has walls around 1m thick which would be characteristic of the type of fortified farmhouses known as pelehouses or bastles commonly found in the border districts of Northumberland, Cumbria and the Scottish Borders.

Pele Cottage would merit further study by a historic buildings specialist. It appears to be the oldest surviving building in the village, the thickness of its walls and its name suggesting that it may have originated as a defensible 'pele house'. Now more commonly labelled bastles, such pele houses represent the type of two-storey defensible farmhouse built in considerable numbers right across the border counties in the late 16th or early 17th centuries. (Carlton and Ruchworth)

Gatehouse Comments

Recorded in Keys to the Past as a pele tower or bastle but the description and location seems to be that of a pele-house (bastle).

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNZ098951
Latitude55.2504806518555
Longitude-1.84616994857788
Eastings409873
Northings595154
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Other

  • Carlton, R.J. and Rushworth, A., 2007, Wingates, Northumberland: An Archaeological and Historical Study of a Northumbrian Township and Estate (The Archaeological Practice Ltd for The Wingates Community History Group) p. 41, 72 online copy