Thornlaw, Thornley (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Thornton, castellum de Thornauum

In the civil parish of Thornley.
In the historic county of Durham.
Modern Authority of Durham.
1974 county of County Durham.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ360383
Latitude 54.73916° Longitude -1.44062°

Thornlaw, Thornley has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are no visible remains.

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

Description

A castle was documented at Thornley in 1143, (castellum de Thornauum) when it was built or rebuilt by the lawful Bishop against the usurper Cumin. It was surrendered and retaken soon after. Last documented in 1152. (PastScape ref. King)

THORNLAW, during the time of Cummin's usurpation of the See, was a place of strength, and received bishop William de Sancta Barbara and his adherents for some short time during those contentions, as noted in the annals of that prelate. There are no remains of fortification which can lead the traveller to conjecture what was then the strength of the place: The present mansion-house stands upon an eminence, with deep gulleys or dells towards the east and south, but has no remarkable situation for defence. (Hutchinson Vol. 3)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1158975
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1390467.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D3265.

Books
- Goodall, John, 2011, The English Castle 1066-1650 (Yale University Press) p. 122-3
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles and Tower Houses of County Durham (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 58
  Jackson, M.J., 1996, Castles of Durham and Cleveland (Carlisle) p. 61-2
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 139
  Page, Wm (ed), 1907, VCH Durham Vol. 2 p. 141-2 online copy
  Whellan, F., 1894 (2edn), History, Topography and Directory of the County of Durham p. 786-7
  Surtees, R., 1816-40 (1972 Reprint), The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham (London) Vol. 1 p. 83
  Surtees, R., 1816 (1910 Reprint), The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham Vol. 3 p. 178- online copy
  Hutchinson, Wm, 1785-94, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham Vol. 1 p. 196-7 online copy; Vol. 3 p. 13 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.)
- Arnold, T. (ed), 1882-5, Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia (London: Rolls Series 75)

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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.
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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.

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.

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