Evenwood; The Barony (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Evenwood And Barony.
In the historic county of Durham.
Modern Authority of Durham.
1974 county of County Durham.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ15372512
Latitude 54.62118° Longitude -1.76332°

Evenwood; The Barony has been described as a probable Palace, and also as a probable Tower House.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

An old castle or tower, the manor house of the Bishops of Durham, called the Barony, formerly stood at Evenwood but after a long period of decay was demolished in 1826. Its site is now occupied by a farmhouse, where traces of the moat are still visible. (Fordyce: Camden). There is no trace of the tower to be seen in the modern farm buildings. Of the moat the whole of the northeast arm and small portions of the northwest and southeast arms remain. The northeast arm is 11.0m wide and from 1.0m to 1.3m deep and dry, the northwest arm has been filled in but part of the inner bank remains and the portion of the southeast arm is situated at the top of a natural slope. The rest of the moat is not traceable (F1 JHO 23-JUL-54). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 21952.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D1670.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles and Tower Houses of County Durham (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 63 (slight)
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 175
  Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 51-4
  Corfe, Tom (ed), 1992, 'The Visible Middle Ages' in An Historical Atlas of County Durham p. 28-9
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 136
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Gould, Chalkley, 1905, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Durham Vol. 1 (London) p. 356 online copy
  Fordyce, W., 1857, History and antiquities of the county palatine of Durham (Durham) Vol. 1 p. 607 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, (ed. Richard Gough), 1806 (2edn), Britannia Vol. 3 p. 364
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales (available via EThOS)

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
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