Alnham Vicars Pele
Has been described as a Certain Pele Tower
There are masonry ruins/remnants remains
| Name | Alnham Vicars Pele |
| Alternative Names | Alnham Vicarage; Aylnane; Alname |
| Historic Country | Northumberland |
| Modern Authority | Northumberland |
| 1974 Authority | Northumberland |
| Civil Parish | Alnham |
This stone tower lies just to he west of the church. It is 11.7m by 8.8m and is built of good quality stone. It has thick walls (1.7 to 2.1m) clearly designed for defence. Like most similar houses the ground floor has a barrel shaped stone vault, and may have been used as a storage area. There is no obvious access between the ground floor and the first floor. Access to the upper storey may have been through an external ladder or staircase. The structure was probably built in the late C14, as it is first mentioned in documents of 1415. It was called a little tower in 1541, but was noted as being ruined by C17. It was believed to belong to the church and was called the Vicar's Pele. Sometime between 1821 and 1844 the building was restored, and a house attached to its east side. At this point, the battlements on the top of the structure were built and replacement windows added. It is now a private house. (Keys to the Past)
The second tower, which still stands today, served from the start as the vicarage. It is first mentioned as a 'lytle toure' in Bowes and Ellerker's survey of 1541. The lack of any reference to it in the 1415 list of Northumbrian strongholds would suggest that it was built at some time after that date, in the 15th or early 16th century. Like the earl's tower, the vicar's pele was in need of maintenance by the time of the 1541 survey.
There is no evidence that it received the necessary repairs and probably suffered steady deterioration instead. A terrier of the glebe land (the land endowment of the parish church), cited by Dixon (1895, 43), indicates the 'vicaridge-house which is an old tower' was in a ruinous state by 1663, having collapsed c. 1651, while the Rev. Robert Thomson was vicar
Warburton's description in 1715 shows its condition had not improved by that date (Hodgson 1916, 3) and no significant repair seems to have been attempted during the 18th century:
Near to the church is the ruins of an ancient well-built pile seemingly to have been a building of note, but, at present, claim'd by the parson of the vicaridge.
In 1758 the vicar was recorded as residing at Ilderton (NCH XIV (1935), 572) and this was still the case in 1828 when Archdeacon Singleton described the 'old tower' as 'long uninhabited and uninhabitable' (cf. NCH XIV (1935), 561).
However it was in use once more by 1844, when the vicarage house and glebe were valued together at £33 (NCH XIV (1935), 561), having been rebuilt in the intervening period with the addition of the current battlements, corner turrets, window openings and a completely new L-plan residential wing in the Tudor style (Grundy 1988, 54: ALN 3). The tower's appearance prior to the rebuilding is shown in a sketch by John Hodgson in 1821, who described it as 'rather low and squat'. (Northumberland National Park)
Not scheduled
This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law
Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | NT990109 |
| Latitude | 55.3927307128906 |
| Longitude | -2.01697993278503 |
| Eastings | 399032 |
| Northings | 610986 |
