High Lovelady Shield

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

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NameHigh Lovelady Shield
Alternative Names
Historic CountryCumberland
Modern AuthorityCumbria
1974 AuthorityCumbria
Civil ParishAlston Moor

Semi-fortified house, probably dating from the late medieval period with mid seventeenth century alterations and additions. Altered again in 1720. A ruin in the late twentieth century. It contains the ruin of a pele tower at its core. (PastScape)

Complex including a possible tower with later bastle.

P. Ryder writes, 'Ruinous house incorporating a small almost square tower...with splayed slit windows. possibly the best example of a "poor man's tower" in the Alston and Allendale areas, but at the time of writing (August 1995) on the point of collapse.' Later extensions on three sides, including a 17th century block on the south which in its initial phase had an extremely steeply-pitched roof (for heather thatch). Inserted mullioned window in the tower has '1691' inscription on the lintel; doorhead in rear outshut dated 1720 (Peter Ryder). (Perriam and Robinson 1998)

Gatehouse Comments

Despite having a medieval building at its core and standing to the roofline this ruin does not seem to be either listed or scheduled. It had deteriorated between it first archaeological survey in 1978 and Ryder's survey of 1995 (small of the interior walls had collapsed) and must be continuing to deteriorate. Gatehouse is uncertain as to what Ryder meant by 'poor man's tower'. This could have been what is known in Scotland as a 'peel' which is a two storey (and attic), clay bonded, house of lower social status that a peel-house, it is unlikely it was a small three storey tower house. It is not clear that the ground floor of either the peel or the C17 extension, which turned the building into a form of peel-house, were used as byres in their original form (the certainly were made residential by 1691).

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNY758461
Latitude54.8093681335449
Longitude-2.37720990180969
Eastings375800
Northings546100
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink
Copyright Michael Preston and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons license.View full Sized Image
Photograph by Steve Jackson. All rights reservedView full Sized Image

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Books

  • Jessop, Lucy and Whitfield, Matthew, 2013, Alston Moor, Cumbria: Buildings in a North Pennines landscape (English Heritage) p. 29, 33
  • Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 102 (slight)
  • Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 37 plan
  • Ryder, Peter, 1996, Bastle Houses in the Northern Pennines (Alston: The North Pennines Heritage Trust) p. 21, 22