Settlingstones Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Settlingstone; Satylyngestones; Satlingstones; Satlyngestones

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: NY845682
Latitude 55.00838° Longitude -2.24251°

Settlingstones Tower has been described as a probable Pele Tower, and also as a probable Bastle.

There are no visible remains.

Description

At Satlyngestones (name Settlingstones NY 84696826 - O.S.6" 1920) is a tower of the inheritance of William Carnabye, esquire, in measurable good repair (Hodgson 1828).
The farmhouse and outbuildings are all of a late period of construction. No traces of antiquity can be found in or around the farmstead.
The tenant, Mr Cookson, can offer no historical information.
The site is level ground against a very gentle east slope, which overlooks the Settlingstones Burn Valley to the north and east. The ground rises south-wards to a pasture ridge beyond a small vale (F1 ASP 26-OCT-1956). (Northumberland HER)

Site of a Medieval tower house recorded in 1541 “At Satlyngestones ys a toure of thinherytaunce of Will'm Carnabye esquier in measurable good rep'aco'ns” No visible remains. (Derived from PastScape)

Comments

The form of this 'tower' is not known but the status of the owner suggests a small tower or, possibly, a superior bastle. Most authors seem to assume a tower house and this is not an unreasonable assumption.
PastScape locate this quite precisely to NY84696826, but that is only the location where the written name Settlingstone was placed on the that 1920 map. The visible rig and furrow does limit where the C16 house could have stood and it's most likely situation is the site occupied by the modern house or associated farm buildings.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 16339.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N7569.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 379-80
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 115 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 353
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 313
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 154
  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. 398 (quoting survey) online copy
  Hodgson, J., 1828, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Part 3 Vol. 2 p. 217 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hadcock, R.N., 1939, 'A map of mediaeval Northumberland and Durham' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser4) Vol. 16 p. 148-218 esp 186
  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

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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.

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