Cocklaw Tower, Wall (The Gatehouse Record)

Description

Towerhouse, late C14 or early C15. Large squared stone, probably re-used Roman material. Rectangular plan; 3 floors,each with single large chamber,smaller chamber to south and newel stair at south-east corner. Chamfered set-back above basement and hollow-chamfered cornice (largely fallen) below parapet. South elevation shows central pointed chamfered doorway to basement and scattered chamfered loops; above cornice, remains of taller turret at south-west corner. East elevation shows similar doorway at 1st floor level with window of 2 trefoil-headed lights (mullion gone) to right, also various chamfered loops; west elevation shows similar 2-light 1st-floor window, north elevation only loops.
Interior: vaulted lobby with doorway to stair on right and hole broken through wall on left into former prison originally accessible only via trapdoor from painted chamber above. Main basement barrel vault partly fallen at north end. Painted chamber, with remains of C16 mural decoration, on south at 1st floor level, and garderobe to north-west. Mezzanine chamber on south between 1st and 2nd floors, entered only from stair.
The virtually-intact shell of a towerhouse. (Listed Building Report)

A well-preserved pele-tower, probably 15thc. (Pevsner). There are indications of a moat, and external buildings, possibly a barmkin (Pevsner; Hodgson 1897).
The shell of the tower is in good condition. There are no remains of a moat, or of external buildings, apart from a fragment of masonry abutting the south face of the tower, which may indicate a former curtain-wall (F1 RWE 15-NOV-66). (PastScape)

Cocklaw Tower is one of the better-preserved fortified medieval towers in Northumberland. Although, there is now no visible evidence of other medieval buildings around the tower, there are records of a chapel nearby. This suggests that the tower was just one building of a group of structures associated with the manor. The tower itself probably dates to the late 14th or 15th century. The main accommodation would have been on the second floor. This room contains painted decorations of the 16th century date. (Keys to the Past)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1006602, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number nd67
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1156641
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 19198.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N9298.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Abaroth's World
Books
- Purton, P.F., 2010, A History of the Late Medieval Siege: 1200-1500 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press) p. 211
  Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 352, 406
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 37
  Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 70-1
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 180
  Dixon, P.W., 1993, 'Mota, Aula et Turris: the manor-houses of the Anglo-Scottish border ' in G.E. Meirion-Jones and Michael Jones (eds), Manorial Domestic Buildings in England and Northern France (Society of Antiquaries) p. 22-48 (reprinted in Liddiard, Robert (ed), 2016, Late Medieval Castles (Boydell Press) p. 127-156)
  Pevsner, N., 1992 (revised by Grundy, John et al), Buildings of England: Northumberland (London, Penguin) p. 234
  Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 44-6
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 330
  Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p. 211
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 111-2
  Long, B., 1967, Castles in Northumberland (Newcastle) p. 85
  Pevsner, N., 1957, Buildings of England: Northumberland (London) p. 128
  Hugill, R.,1939, Borderland Castles and Peles (1970 Reprint by Frank Graham) p. 73-4
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Gotch, J. Alfred, 1909, The Growth of the English House (London: Batsford) p. 21-2
  Hodgson, John Crawford (ed), 1897, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 4 p. 180-4 online copy
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 374 online copy
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 370-1 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
Periodical Articles
- Simpson, W.D., 1940, 'Belsay castle and the Scottish tower-houses' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser4) Vol. 17 p. 77
  Knowles, W.H., 1895, 'Cocklaw Tower' Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland Vol. 4 p. 309-15
  Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 370-1 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk North East Register 2016 (London: Historic England) p. 15 online copy
  Historic England, 2015, Heritage at Risk North East Register 2015 (London: Historic England) p. 17 online copy
  English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 North East (London: English Heritage) p. 17 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 North East (London: English Heritage) p. 19 online copy
  English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 North East (London: English Heritage) p. 33 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 North East (London: English Heritage) p. 32 online copy
  English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 North East (London: English Heritage) p. 31 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 North East (London: English Heritage) p. 40 online copy
  Ryder, P.F., 1994-5, Towers and Bastles in Northumberland part 4 Tynedale District, vol 2. Unpublished p. 146-9

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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

Data >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling	Listing	I. O. E.
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