Whitley Tower

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Whitleye

In the civil parish of Whitley Bay.
In the historic county of Northumberland (Modern Authority of North Tyneside, 1974 county of Tyne and Wear).

Gilbert de Whitley applied to King Edward III to fortify his manor house. He received his licence, and built a tower, probably demolishing the manor house, and building on the same site. It is listed in the 1415 survey, but not in 1541. A couple of very old maps have a tower marked on them, but not with any great precision. It appears to have been a little inland from the Table Rocks, perhaps just south of the roundabout where the A191 meets the A193 road, close to the old North Shields Waterworks.

This site has been described as a;
Tower House.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Possible.
Nothing visible remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NZ357714

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 1388390

Books

Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Keepdate Publishing) p483
Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern) p109
Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses Vol1 (Cambridge)
Jackson, M.J.,1992, Castles of Northumbria (Carlise) p155
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p355
Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p351
Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p172
Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1930, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol13 p395
Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p10, 16
Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol3 pt2 p414

Journal Articles

Hodgson, J.C., 1916, 'List of Ruined Towers, Chapels, etc., in Northumberland; compiled about 1715 by John Warburton, Somerset Herald, aided by John Horsley' Archaeologia Aeliana [ser3] Vol13 p10
1891, The Monthly Chronicle; North Country Lore and Legend p22

Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)

1415 list of Northumberland Castles [Click here]
Calendar of Patent Rolls (1343-45) p446

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