Carraw Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Caraw; Carrow

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY849711
Latitude 55.03419° Longitude -2.23778°

Carraw Tower has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are no visible remains.

Description

The vill of Carrawer was a member of the liberty of Tynedale. Medieval documents state that the settlement had been granted to Hexham Priory in C12 and other documents record leases and changes in ownership. In C14 the township was held in five farms but by 1536 the 'pasture was waste and valueless'. A tower also stood here in C15 but had fallen into ruins by the mid C15. By the late C18 there was only one farmstead. (Keys to the Past)

The vill of Carrawer was a member of the liberty of Tynedale. The 1298 'inspeximus' of Hexham Priory lands stated that the hamlet of Carrawer had been granted to the Priory in the 12th century. In 1379 in the Black Book of Hexham the vill of Carraw was recorded as on lease by Robert Ogle; the whole township was held in five farms.
Survey of 1536 said Carrawe pasture was waste and valueless; in 1542 the tower of Carraw and stone house were uninhabited and decayed, and the whole township waste. Six buildings shown on Military Road map of 1749. Twenty years later it comprised a single farmstead. No earthworks seen around present farmstead (Wrathmell 1975).
Caraw Tower. Part of the grange of Hexham. A stone house added to the tower in 1406. Listed in 1541 - house and tower in decay (Long 1967).
To the west of existing farm buildings, on both sides of the B6318 road, are faint traces of platforms or enclosures, at NY 84897109 and NY 84907105, which may indicate the site of now vanished buildings. Likewise, vague earthworks which overlie the Vallum at about NY 84757100, could possibly indicate that the settlement formerly extended into this area. Alternatively, they could be accounted for as erosion channels or hollow ways (Gates 2004). (Northumberland HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1387795.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N7849.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 379
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 114 (slight)
  Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 46
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 346
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 97
  Northern Archaeological Survey, 1975, Archaeology in the North: gazetteer (Durham) p. 112
  Long, B, 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 78
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 47 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  Hodgson, J., 1840, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Part 2 Vol. 3 p. 397 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 47 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.
- Gates, T., 2004, The Hadrian's Wall Landscape from Chesters to Greenhead: an air photographic survey
  Wrathmell, S., 1975, Deserted and Shrunken Villages in Southern Northumberland from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Centuries (PhD Thesis Cardiff) p. 332

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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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