Cowpen Bewley Low Grange Farm (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Newton Bewley.
In the historic county of Durham.
Modern Authority of Hartlepool.
1974 county of Cleveland.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ46922536
Latitude 54.62122° Longitude -1.27488°

Cowpen Bewley Low Grange Farm has been described as a probable Pele Tower.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Site of manor house, built between 1258 and 1273. A watermill, dovecote and park were associated with the manor, the mill and dovecote recorded in the 14th century and the park documented in the 15th and 17th centuries. The site was excavated in 1961 and traces of a supposed moat reinterpreted as a drain or a fishpond. The valley to the east of the site had been dammed to create a shallow lake which may also have been used as a fishpond. The easternmost of the farm buildings now occupying the site was also investigated and found to incorporate medieval remains. (PastScape)

A manor house was built at Bewley by Prior Hugh de Darlington between 1258 and 1273. A water mill, a dovehouse and a park were attached to the manor. The watermill and dove-house are mentioned in the C14 and the park in the C15 and C17. The manor house seems to have fallen into decay during the C17. The site of the Manor house of Bewley from which the village is named is not certainly known, but there are traces of a moat at Low Grange. (PastScape ref VCH)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 26990.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 6857.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles and Tower Houses of County Durham (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 24
  Page, Wm (ed), 1928, VCH Durham Vol. 3 p. 196 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- 1958-65, Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland Vol. 11 p. 391-403

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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
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