Pawston Tower

Has been described as a Certain Pele Tower

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NamePawston Tower
Alternative NamesPaston
Historic CountryNorthumberland
Modern AuthorityNorthumberland
1974 AuthorityNorthumberland
Civil ParishKilham

Pre 1541 Pele Tower built up into house. A stone vault covers the basement. (Keys to the Past)

Embedded in modern house at Paston, a medieval tower with vaulted basement (Pevsner 1957).

Survey of 1541 refers to a small, unfinished tower without a barmkin (Bates 1891).

Remains of the tower are incorporated into the interior of the house (F1 RWE 22-DEC-66). (PastScape)

Jerard Selbye, of Pawston, two miles from Scotland, may dispend 10l. by year. He may serve the king with 8 horsemen. He hath builded a stone house, now lately on the Borders, and plenished the ground, which hath laid waste sith the Scottish field, and is a sharp borderer. (L&P Hen VIII 1535)

From the 1541 list "... one Garrarde Selbye gent. of late purchased this towne and in yt hath buylded a lytle tower wthout a barmekyn not fully fynyshed"

Gatehouse Comments

Gentry status 'tower'. The actual form of this building is unclear beyond it apparently having a vaulted basement. It seems unlikely this was the all the accommodation for the reasonably well off Selby so, presumably, a chamber block attached to other, unfortified, buildings.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNT855327
Latitude55.588508605957
Longitude-2.23118996620178
Eastings385530
Northings632780
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 79
  • Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 115 (slight)
  • Graham, Frank, 1993, Northumberian Castles Aln, Tweed and Till (Butler Publishing) p. 41
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 340
  • Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 294
  • Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 145
  • Pevsner, N., 1957, Buildings of England: Northumberland (London) p. 275
  • Vickers, Kenneth H. (ed), 1922, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 11 p. 171, 176 online copy
  • Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 31 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)

Journals

  • Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 31 online copy

Primary Sources

  • Gairdner, J. (ed), 1886, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII Vol. 9 p. 372 No. 1078 online copy
  • 1541, View of the Castles, Towers, Barmekyns and Fortresses of the Frontier of the East and Middle Marches Survey of the East and Middle Marches