Kirkley Tower

Has been described as a Certain Pele Tower

There are no visible remains

NameKirkley Tower
Alternative NamesTurris de Kirklawe
Historic CountryNorthumberland
Modern AuthorityNorthumberland
1974 AuthorityNorthumberland
Civil ParishPonteland

(Marginal) A list of 1415 refers to a tower at Kirkley in the possession of Sir William Eure (Bates 1891).

Mr. E. J. Hetterington, Principal of the Farm Institute, now housed in Kirkley Hall, has no knowledge of the tower, or of its site. There are no traces of one in the vicinity of Kirkley Hall (F1 ASP 02-MAR-56).

The tower was built shortly before 1415 by Sir William Eure, and a manor house was added to it later. These were demolished by Cuthbert Ogle who replaced them with Kirkley Hall in 1764 (Dodds 1999). (PastScape)

Gatehouse Comments

Called a Turris in the 1415 list but high up on the list which is roughly ordered by the size and importance of the buildings and/or important of owners. The Eure's were a major knightly family with holdings in Yorkshire and Northumberland but didn't become baronial until the C16. Kirkley was not the main holding of the family. The form of the tower is not known but the vague description of a manor house being added to it made, without citation, by Dodds, might suggest this manor house was a replacement for an earlier unfortified hall and the tower was a solar tower attached to that hall. The fact that nothing now remains of the tower may also suggest a smaller tower. It may have originally been to the south of the present hall.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNZ150772
Latitude55.089111328125
Longitude-1.76598000526428
Eastings415010
Northings577200
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 258
  • Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 71
  • Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 75
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 350
  • Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 222
  • Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle) p. 130
  • Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1926, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 12 p. 495 (not much use)
  • Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 16 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  • Hodgson, J., 1820, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Part 3 Vol. 1 p. 28 online copy

Journals

  • Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 16 online copy

Primary Sources