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West Lilburn Tower (Proctor's Tower)
Also known as, or recorded in historical
documents as; West Lilbourne; Lylborn; West Lylburne; West Lilburne
In the civil parish of Lilburn.
In the historic county of Northumberland (Modern Authority of Northumberland, 1974 county of Northumberland).
The remains of West Lilburn tower, a late medieval tower house of C15 date situated on a spur of land above the valley of the Lilburn Burn. Dressed stone and rubble 40ft by 33ft but only north wall standing, about 30ft high with 2 small square windows with chamfered surrounds, probably C16. Springing of former basement vault visible inside; also 2 arched openings. The tower was extant by 1415, probably after 1403, and a second tower was extant in Lilburn in 1514. In 1541 one tower belonged to Cuthbert Proctor; this had fallen into decay and only the walls were standing. The other tower belonged to Sir Cuthbert Ogle and had suffered from a fire. The Ogle tower is recorded as being the eastern tower. This suggests that, despite its poorer condition in 1541, the surviving tower is actually Proctor's Tower and that Ogle's Tower was at the site now occupied by the early C19 country house called Lilburn Tower.
This site has been described as a;
Pele Tower.
The confidence
that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Masonry ruins/remnants remains.
This site is a scheduled
monument protected by law.
This site is a
Grade 2 listed
building protected by law*. (Images
of England number 237555)
The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NU02182414
PastScape number;
5857
County Sites and Monuments Record number; N3480
- Web site links
- Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Keepdate Publishing) p109-10
Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern) p74
Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p200 [slight]
Pevsner, N., 1992 (revised by Grundy, John et al), The Buildings of England: Northumberland (London, Penguin) p377
Rowland, T.H., 1987 [reprint1994], Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p32-33
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2
Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p349
Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p170-1
Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1935, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol14 p433-4
Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p19, 24, 41
Hodgson, J.C., 1828, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) pt3 Vol2 p208-9
- Journal Articles
- Bates, C.J., 1887-8, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle [ser2] Vol3 p331-2
- Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents
- This section is far from complete and the secondary
sources should be consulted for full references.)
Most of the sites or buildings
recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission
to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant |
The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English
Heritage and other individuals and organisations. |
It is an offence to disturb a
Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of
everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from any site
without proper recording and reporting. Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation. |
Please help me to make this as
useful a resource as possible by contacting
me if you see errors
or if you can add information.
I do acknowledge the help I get with
this site. |
*The listed building
may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site
of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.
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