Old Bewick Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Old Berwick; Bewyk; Beawick; Bewike; Bewicke; New Bewick

In the civil parish of Bewick.
In the historic county of Northumberland.
Modern Authority of Northumberland.
1974 county of Northumberland.
Medieval County of Northumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NU06692147
Latitude 55.48699° Longitude -1.89567°

Old Bewick Tower has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are no visible remains.

Description

The tower at Old Bewick is first mentioned in 1509 when it belonged to the Prior of Tynemouth. In 1542 part was covered with lead but the rest was out of repair, while in 1548 it was entirely a ruin although recommended by the Border Commissioners for repair. It is mentioned in 1608 and 1614, but in 1676 and 1678 is referred to as being ruinous. A survey of c.1715 mentions a large ruinous tower in the village (Bates 1891; Hodgson 1928; Hodgson 1916).
In 1866 some old people could remember the ruins of the tower but the Eglingham to Chillingham road has been constructed over its foundations (Dodds 1935).
The foundations are situated about 60 yards north of the entrance to Mr Langland's house and in the centre of the public road (MacLauchlan 1864)
Mr Langland lived at the farmhouse of Old Bewick, (farmhouse at NU 06852137. Entrance at NU 0674-2143). There is a slight 'bump' in the modern road at NU 06692147 which is 60m north-west of the entrance to the farmhouse. There are no visible indications in the field to the south-west but the siting agrees with the textual description (F1 EG 10-MAR-1955). (Northumberland HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 5781.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N3613.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 105-7
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 90
  Graham, Frank, 1993, Northumberian Castles Aln, Tweed and Till (Butler Publishing) p. 41
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 328
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 290
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 144
  Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1935, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 14 p. 425-6
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 403 online copy
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 23, 42, 310 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  MacLauchlan, H. 1864, The Memoir to the Survey of the Eastern Branch of the Watling Street (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 28n2 online copy
  Hodgson, J., 1828, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Part 3 Vol. 2 p. 209 online copy
Periodical 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) Vol. 13 p. 7 abridged transcription
  Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 23, 42, 310 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.)
- 1584, Report of the Commissioners on the Borders (1584) under Lord Hunsdon; largely the work of Christopher Dacre. Online transcription
  1541, View of the Castles, Towers, Barmekyns and Fortresses of the Frontier of the East and Middle Marches Survey of the East and Middle Marches
  1509, Holdis and Towneshyppes too lay in Garnysons of horsmen Survey of Tevedale

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.
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.

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.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio