Carham Pele Tower

Has been described as a Certain Pele Tower

There are no visible remains

NameCarham Pele Tower
Alternative NamesCarrame
Historic CountryNorthumberland
Modern AuthorityNorthumberland
1974 AuthorityNorthumberland
Civil ParishCarham

In the early 1500s, the Prior of Kirkham Priory provided the villagers of Carham with a 'little tower of defence against the Scots, of no real strength, without barmekyn or iron gate, intended for emergency refuge'. It lasted less than 50 years. The tower and its site are lost without trace. (PastScape ref. Dodds)

Gatehouse Comments

Sometimes suggested as being Shidlaw Tower and located at the site of Carham Hall. It is likely there was just one tower despite there being two PastScape records although Dodds implies two separate sites although he mentions a watch tower on Shildaw hill (at NT807380) rather than the Carham Hall site on the bank of the River Tweed. Arguably it might be more expected and useful to the villages as an emergency refuge if it was near to the church (at given map reference) rather than the site at Carham Hall half a mile from the village, especially since, at times of war, they were to resort to Wark Castle, just another mile away, as their place of refuge.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNT798384
Latitude55.6388816833496
Longitude-2.32394003868103
Eastings379800
Northings638400
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 35
  • Graham, Frank, 1993, Northumberian Castles Aln, Tweed and Till (Butler Publishing) p. 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. 97
  • Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 78
  • Vickers, Kenneth H. (ed), 1922, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 11 p. 23-4 online copy
  • Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 28-30 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  • Parson, Wm., 1828, History, Directory, and Gazetteer, of the Counties of Durham and Northumberland (W. White and co) p. 496 online copy

Antiquarian

  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 344
  • Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 67 online copy

Journals

  • Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 28-30 online copy

Primary Sources