Sweethope Castle, Bavington

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Swetehope

In the civil parish of Bavington.
In the historic county of Northumberland (Modern Authority of Northumberland, 1974 county of Northumberland).

Medieval manor is documented at Sweethope in C13 and in the 1296 Lay Subsidy it provided four taxpayers. A survey of 1541 refers to a bastle house and in the 1666 Hearth Tax six houses are listed. There are few clear traces on the ground of the former settlement, except for a small series of cultivation terraces, croft boundary banks and ridge and furrow cultivation. In about 1970 some pieces of masonry were found at Sweethope Farm, which it is thought may have belonged to former manor house or chapel associated with the medieval village.

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

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NY956819

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 19401

County Sites and Monuments Record number; N9549

• Web site links
  • http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N9549
• Books
  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Keepdate Publishing) p246
    Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern) p115 [slight]
    Rowland, T.H., 1987 [reprint1994], Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p57
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2
    Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p321
    Northern Archaeological Survey, 1975. Archaeology in the North: gazetteer (Durham) p118
    Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p160
    Hodgson, John Crawford (ed), 1897, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol4 p410
    Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p46
• Journal Articles
  • 1963, Medieval Village Research Group annual report Vol11
• Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
  • 1541 Survey of the East and Middle Marches [Click here]
• Other sources and unpublished works (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Prothero, D.H., 1994. A Survey of Kirkwhelpington and Ridsdale Areas, Northumberland, W5
    Wrathmell, S., 1975. Deserted and Shrunken Villages in Southern Northumberland from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Centuries (PhD Thesis University of Cardiff) p502