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Witton Shields Tower
Also known as, or recorded in historical
documents as; Witton Shield
In the civil parish of Netherwitton.
In the historic county of Northumberland (Modern Authority of Northumberland, 1974 county of Northumberland).
King writes this is a C17 domestic building, not a fortified tower. Dodds writes it is a late strong house. PastScape report it as "A bastle or fortified house, probably built in the early C17. A stone inscribed with the date 1608 and the initials N T (Nigel Thornton) is set above the door. The rear extensions were added in 1680 and the building was reduced in height by a storey circa 1914. One of the upper rooms of the house was used as a Roman Catholic chapel in the early C17. The house stands in pastureland, overlooking the dene of the Cowclose Burn on the north side, and the valley of the River Font to the south. It is a strongly constructed building of two storeys with a central stair turret and walls 1 metre thick. The rectangular building is built of stone rubble, with a slate roof." Recorded in survey of 1715 as "a large old building bellonging to Jon. Thornton, esq." SMR report that it is possible there was once a small watchtower on the western side of the roof.
This site has been described as a;
Bastle.
The confidence
that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Possible.
Major remains.
This site is a
Grade 2 listed
building protected by law*. (Images
of England number 238387)
The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NZ12359043
PastScape number;
23521
County Sites and Monuments Record number; N11382
- Web site links
- Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Keepdate Publishing)
Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern) p113
Rowland, T.H., 1987 [reprint1994], Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p22, 69-70
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p362 [reject]
Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p358
Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p174
Tomlinson, W.W. 1902. Guide to Northumberland (Newcastle) p275
Hodgson, J.C., 1827, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) pt2 Vol1 p321
- 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 p12
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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
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*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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