Branton Tower

Has been described as a Possible Pele Tower

There are no visible remains

NameBranton Tower
Alternative Names
Historic CountryNorthumberland
Modern AuthorityNorthumberland
1974 AuthorityNorthumberland
Civil ParishIngram

There was a tower here in Queen Elizabeth's day and it was marked on Christopher Dacre's plat of 1584 but nothing is known of its previous or later history. A mansion, no longer existing, was built in 1695 and the tower may have contributed to its building material, or it may have been destroyed in a fire which engulfed most of the village in 1680. The latter could give support to the story that its foundations were visible in 1864 opposite what was then a Presbyterian chapel. (Dodds 1999)

Tower, not mentioned 1541 (Well inside the area of the Survey; nothing is there said about it). Site in NU/sq. 0416. (N.C.H., xiv, 403-4). (King 1983)

Gatehouse Comments

Dacre's map is not easy to interpret and a site marked as a 'tower' may be something else (a settlement; ?a bastle). Regardless of Dacre's map the nature of the foundations seen in 1864 is also obscure.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNU046163
Latitude55.4407806396484
Longitude-1.92728996276855
Eastings404600
Northings616300
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

No photos available. If you can provide pictures please contact Castlefacts

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Books

  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 113-4
  • Graham, Frank, 1993, Northumberian Castles Aln, Tweed and Till (Butler Publishing) p. 5, 7
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 346
  • Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 82
  • Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1935, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 14 p. 403-4
  • Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. xvii, 78-9 online copy