Horton Castle, Chatton

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Horton in Glendale; West Horton

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

Horton Castle was first mentioned in a list of castles from 1415. In 1542 it was described as a 'great tower'. By 1715 it was in a ruined state, though it was repaired and from 1740 to 1808 it was used as a house. It was finally demolished in the early C19. Nothing can be seen at the site today except for a few fragments of worked stone. PastScape record reads ”Site of a tower house and barmkin, recorded in a survey of 1415. A further survey, dating from 1542, refers to a great tower with a barmkin. It was rebuilt between 1568 and 1674, a drawing of 1728 depicting a a high wall with corner turrets enclosing a garden with a roofless ruin, that is a fortified manor house. The buildings were demolished in 1808, and the stone used to build West Horton Farm now stands at the foot of the knoll on which the tower house once stood.”

This site has been described as a;
Tower House.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Uncertain remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NU02733087

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; 6361

County Sites and Monuments Record number; N3810

• Web site links
  • http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N3810
• Books
  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Keepdate Publishing)
    Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern) p70
    Jackson, M.J.,1992, Castles of Northumbria (Carlise) p132
    Rowland, T.H., 1987 [reprint1994], Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p30
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2
    Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p214-5
    Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p124
    Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1935, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol14 p236-8
    Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p15, 23, 39
    Hodgson, J.C., 1828, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) pt3 Vol2 p192
    Hodgson, J. and Laird, F., 1813, Beauties of England and Wales; Northumberland Vol12 p217
    Buck, Samuel and Nathenial, 1774, Buck’s Antiquities (London) Vol1 p220
• 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 p6
• 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]
    1415 list of Northumberland Castles [Click here]
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/nhumbeng.html#nhumb24]