Tweedmouth Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Tweedmouth Tower; Tiefort

In the civil parish of Berwick upon Tweed.
In the historic county of Northumberland.
Modern Authority of Northumberland.
1974 county of Northumberland.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NT99685211
Latitude 55.76234° Longitude -2.00665°

Tweedmouth Castle has been described as a probable Masonry Castle, and also as a probable Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

A small castle or fort built before 1202, probably in connection with the bridge, was last mentioned in 1753 when it as referred to as the Old Tower of Tweedmouth. No vestige of the tower now remains. It stood on a rock close to the river, and its site is now covered by dwelling houses and a stable. (Long) A group of buildings at NT 99685211 answers the description above, but they are entirely modern. It seems unlikely that the tower had any connection with the bridge, as the distance between them is approx 600.0m. (F1 DS 02-JUN-67). The castle was built by Philip of Poitou, Bishop of Durham (d.1208) and demolished by the terms of King John's treaty with the King of Scotland in 1209. John himself had spent considerable sums on the castle (Brown). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 4172.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N2430; N2717.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- North of the Tyne
Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 51
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 175
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 99
  Graham, Frank, 1993, Northumberian Castles Aln, Tweed and Till (Butler Publishing) p. 43
  Jackson, M.J.,1992, Castles of Northumbria (Carlisle) p. 118
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 355
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 329
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 335-6
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 164
  Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol. 2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p. 849
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 6 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  Hodgson Hinde, J., 1858, A History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Part 1 p. 237 online copy
  Raine, J., 1852, History and Antiquities of North Durham (London) p. 244-5
  Ridpath, G., 1848, Border History of England and Scotland p. 79-80 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Brown, R. Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' The English Historical Review Vol. 74 p. 249-280 (Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 90-121) view online copy (subscription required)
  Brown, R. Allen, 1955, 'Royal Castle-building in England 1154-1216' The English Historical Review Vol. 70 (Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press)) p. 19-64
  Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 6 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Stenton, D.M. (ed.), 1953, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the thirteenth year of the reign of King John, Michaelmas 1211 (Pipe Roll 57) (Pipe Roll Society Publications 66) p. 38-9
  Stevenson, J. (ed), 1839, Chronicon de Lanercost 1201-1346 (Edinburgh: The Maitland Club) p. 4-7 online copy
  Hay, J. and Pringle, A. (eds), 1835, Chronica de Mailros (Edinburgh) p. 108 online copy
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)
  Constable, Christopher, 2003, Aspects of the archaeology of the castle in the north of England C 1066-1216 (Doctoral thesis, Durham University) Available at Durham E-Theses Online

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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.

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