Low Todholes

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

There are no visible remains

NameLow Todholes
Alternative NamesTodholles; Todgill Hole; Todhoillis; Toddholls; Low Toddhills; Miry Todholes
Historic CountryCumberland
Modern AuthorityCumbria
1974 AuthorityCumbria
Civil ParishBewcastle

Possible tower remains.

'Remains of pele tower. No details.' (SMR 6262).

Mentioned in 1510 list and in 1553 Papcastle Exchange. (Perriam and Robinson 1998)

Gatehouse Comments

Mentioned as a tenement and home of the Routledge family, usually with the Routledges named as reivers, several times in the C16 and early C17. What are the 1510 list and the 1553 Papcastle Exchange? Do these mention Todholes as a tower or is this just a placename mention? This was not a gentry status building. Certainly a likely place for a pelehouse type bastle although 1510 would be very early for such a building can probably be dismissed as the site of a pele tower, certainly in the sense of a gentry status chamber block attached to a hall.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNY519776
Latitude55.0913200378418
Longitude-2.75512003898621
Eastings351900
Northings577690
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 98
  • Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 54

Journals

  • Harrison, J.V., 1967, 'Five Bewcastle wills' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 67 p. 104-5, 109-10 online copy

Primary Sources

  • Bain, J., 1894, Calendar of Letters and Papers relating to the Borders of England and Scotland (Edinburgh: HMSO) Vol. 1 1560-1594 p. 111 no. 176; p. 225 no. 425 online copy