Middleton Hall near Wooler (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Mydleton Hall

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NT989253
Latitude 55.52265° Longitude -2.01882°

Middleton Hall near Wooler has been described as a certain Bastle.

There are no visible remains.

Description

A survey of 1541 mentions that in the township of Middleton Hall are two stone houses or Bastles, one of the inheritance of Robert Rutherford and the other of John Rutherford. A description of 1883 states that the present mansion house is modern. The old hall stood at the bottom of the present pleasure ground and may have represented one of the bastles mentioned in 1541. The foundations of the other are in the adjacent field (Dodds 1935).
About midway between Castle Hill and the present house and adjoining the farm buildings on the west (Area NT 989254), are faint traces of the old tower, the walls of which were taken away in 1806 when building the offices. The walls were about 7 feet thick and 7 feet high and among the ruins was found an iron spearhead now in the possession of the proprietor (MacLauchlan 1867)
Old foundations were encountered when the tennis court was being constructed at NT 98902543. This is south of the Hall and west of the farm buildings and agrees with the site of the tower as described by MacLauchlan. The situation is also at the bottom of a slope and is presumably the 'bottom of the pleasure ground' referred to by NCH. The area is now occupied by flower beds, lawn and tennis court, with no traces of antiquity. The 'adjoining field' is apparently that to the immediate south where a slight sub-rectangular enclosure 17m x 10m littered with stones, at NT 98962535, may represent the site of the second Castle (F1 EG 29-SEP-1955).
An estate map of 1802 held by the present owner of Middleton Hall shows a small isolated building in area NT 9890 2543.
Nothing is shown in area NT 98962535 and no suggestive names appear. The insubstantial nature of the sub-rectangular enclosure is no evidence for the siting of the second Bastle, and there is no indication of antiquity in its form (F3 JRL 10-SEP-1976). (Northumberland HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 2452.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N1499.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 108
  Graham, Frank, 1993, Northumberian Castles Aln, Tweed and Till (Butler Publishing) p. 35
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 351
  Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 11, 32
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 134
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 233
  Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1935, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 14 p. 291-94
  MacLauchlan, H. 1867, Notes not included in the memoirs already published on Roman roads in Northumberland (London) p. 42 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Harby, J., 1882-84, History of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club Vol. 10 p. 282 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) p. 64 online copy

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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.

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.

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