Weetwood Hall, Chatton (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Wetewood

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NU01662973
Latitude 55.56126° Longitude -1.97525°

Weetwood Hall, Chatton has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Weetwood Hall was originally a fortified tower house, built as a defence against the Scots. It was first mentioned in 1541, though its earliest parts may date as early as C13 or C14. It was then extensively altered in C18. The earliest part of the building is L-shaped in plan and has thick walls. When the house was altered a second wing was added. (Keys to the Past)

(NU 01662973) In 1541 there was a small tower at Weetwood in good repair. It is mentioned in 1587, and is now part of Weetwood Hall (Dodds 1940; Bates 1891; Hodgson 1828).
Weetwood Hall, incorporating remains of a tower house or pele, stands upon a gentle SE slope, overlooking the River Till, 300m to the SE, and overlooked by high ground to the NW. The modern building, about mid 18th century, is built of well shaped, sandstone blocks, coursed, bonded and cemented and consists of a centre section, oblong, flanked by two gabled extensions of the same width. The centre part of the building is flat-roofed on the W side, but gabled longwise on the E face. The tower was incorporated into the modern building, except probably on the E side, where in the centre of the facade are two buttresses, in appearance of considerable age, reaching in three stages to the eaves, and built of coarsely shaped sandstone stones, with no bonding or coursing. Most of this side of the building has been covered with pebble dash and then whitewashed, so the structure of the stone work is obscured, but the presence of the buttresses suggest this section of the wall to be a part of the old tower. Mr Curry, owner, indicated to the Investigator, within the tower, the thickness (approx 1.5m) of two of the interior walls which are now E-W party walls and which are approximately on line with the exterior sides of the buttresses, on the E face. There is no other visible evidence of the remains of the tower, and Mr Curry has no further information to offer (F1 ASP 07-DEC-55). (PastScape)

House, late C18 and C19 but with medieval core, Ashlar with local slate roof. Two storeys, 7 bays 1 : 3 : 1 : 2. The right 2 bays are an early C19 addition. Bays one and 5 are projecting cross-gables; parapet in centre with roof set back behind. Centre section has door in plain later C19 porch; and sash windows in raised surrounds. Stilted-arched Venetian windows in cross-gabled bays. Chimneys crown gable ends. Heavily butressed, irregular rear elevation has sash windows and a single gable.
Interior shows thick walls of former tower house; early C19 staircase and woodwork. (Listed Building Report)

Comments

Detailed architectural survey done by Peter Ryder in 1993. Presumably this is the "handsome house ... Bellonging to Lanc. Ord, esq." noted in 1715.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1042384
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 5623.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N3298.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 96
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 115 (slight)
  Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 32
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 344
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 347
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 169
  Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1935, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 14 p. 250
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 39 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  Hodgson, J., 1828, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Part 3 Vol. 2 p. 192 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. 6 abridged transcription
  Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 39 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.)
- 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
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Kent, C.L., 2016, Beyond the defensible threshold: the house-building culture of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the East March, 1550-1603 (PhD Thesis, Durham University) passim online copy

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Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
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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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