Middleton Hall near Wooler

Has been described as a Certain Bastle

There are no visible remains

NameMiddleton Hall near Wooler
Alternative NamesMydleton Hall
Historic CountryNorthumberland
Modern AuthorityNorthumberland
1974 AuthorityNorthumberland
Civil ParishEarle

A survey of 1541 mentions that in the township of Middleton Hall are two stone houses or Bastles, one of the inheritance of Robert Rutherford and the other of John Rutherford. A description of 1883 states that the present mansion house is modern. The old hall stood at the bottom of the present pleasure ground and may have represented one of the bastles mentioned in 1541. The foundations of the other are in the adjacent field (Dodds 1935).

About midway between Castle Hill and the present house and adjoining the farm buildings on the west (Area NT 989254), are faint traces of the old tower, the walls of which were taken away in 1806 when building the offices. The walls were about 7 feet thick and 7 feet high and among the ruins was found an iron spearhead now in the possession of the proprietor (MacLauchlan 1867)

Old foundations were encountered when the tennis court was being constructed at NT 98902543. This is south of the Hall and west of the farm buildings and agrees with the site of the tower as described by MacLauchlan. The situation is also at the bottom of a slope and is presumably the 'bottom of the pleasure ground' referred to by NCH. The area is now occupied by flower beds, lawn and tennis court, with no traces of antiquity. The 'adjoining field' is apparently that to the immediate south where a slight sub-rectangular enclosure 17m x 10m littered with stones, at NT 98962535, may represent the site of the second Castle (F1 EG 29-SEP-1955).

An estate map of 1802 held by the present owner of Middleton Hall shows a small isolated building in area NT 9890 2543.

Nothing is shown in area NT 98962535 and no suggestive names appear. The insubstantial nature of the sub-rectangular enclosure is no evidence for the siting of the second Bastle, and there is no indication of antiquity in its form (F3 JRL 10-SEP-1976). (Northumberland HER)

Gatehouse Comments

The bastles mentioned in the 1541 survey tend to large and significant buildings with vaulted basements and two and a half or three storeys (c.f. Hepburn Bastle) although, in this case, where two buildings are close together one or both may have been somewhat smaller.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNT989253
Latitude55.5226516723633
Longitude-2.01882004737854
Eastings398960
Northings625300
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 108
  • Graham, Frank, 1993, Northumberian Castles Aln, Tweed and Till (Butler Publishing) p. 35
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 351
  • Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 11, 32
  • Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 134
  • Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 233
  • Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1935, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 14 p. 291-94
  • MacLauchlan, H. 1867, Notes not included in the memoirs already published on Roman roads in Northumberland (London) p. 42 online copy

Journals

  • Harby, J., 1882-84, History of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club Vol. 10 p. 282 online copy

Primary Sources