Carraw Tower

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Caraw; Carrow

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

The vill of Carrawer was a member of the liberty of Tynedale. Medieval documents state that the settlement had been granted to Hexham Priory in C12 and other documents record leases and changes in ownership. In C14 the township was held in five farms but by 1536 the 'pasture was waste and valueless'. A tower also stood here in C15 but had fallen into ruins by the mid C15. By the late C18 there was only one farmstead.

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

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NY849711

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; 1387795

County Sites and Monuments Record number; N7849

• Web site links
  • http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N7849
• Books
  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Keepdate Publishing) p379
    Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern) p114 [slight]
    Rowland, T.H., 1987 [reprint1994], Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p46
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p346
    Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p97
    Northern Archaeological Survey, 1975. Archaeology in the North: gazetteer (Durham) p112
    Long, B, 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p78
    Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p47
    Hodgson, J.C., 1840, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) pt2 Vol3 p397
• 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• Other sources and unpublished works (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Wrathmell, S., 1975, Deserted and Shrunken Villages in Southern Northumberland from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Centuries (PhD Thesis Cardiff) p332