Scrainwood Tower

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Screnwood; Scenwood; Screenwood; Skrynwood; Scranwood; Screynwood; Scrynwood

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

Medieval village of Scrainwood. In 1377 tax returns show that at least 33 adults lived there. The remains of the houses can still be seen as earthworks. At least three rectangular buildings could be recognised, though the earthworks are only slight. A fortified tower was recorded at the village in 1509 and 1541. Ruins of this building could still be seen C19, but now all trace of the tower has gone. The village appears to have begun declining in the C15 or C16, and by 1769 only a farm was recorded at the site. It is not known what caused this village to decline and eventually disappear.

This site has been described as a;
Pele Tower.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Cropmarks/slight earthworks remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NT99180944

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

County Sites and Monuments Record number; N1112

• Web site links
  • http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N1112
• Books
  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Keepdate Publishing)
    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) p34
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p352
    Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p312
    Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p153
    Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1935, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol14 p579-80
    Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p22, 24, 43
• 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 p3
• 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]
    1509 Survey of Tevedale [Click here]
• Other sources and unpublished works (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Dixon, P.J., 1984. The Deserted Medieval Villages of North Northumberland Vol2 (PhD Thesis, University of Wales) p519-20