Belford Westhall Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NU10293398
Latitude 55.59966° Longitude -1.83688°

Belford Westhall Motte has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

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

Description

Earthworks survive, C19 castellated farm on site of a possible C11 Motte and Bailey. Later received C15 tower. Recorded as moat to C15 Tower in SMR and PastScape. Although the presence of the later tower suggests this may have been a high status location the very nearby presence of a strong natural position and already existing Prehistoric camp at Chapel Crag, which has a Norman chapel on it, would suggest this may not be the sole or earliest manorial centre. What reason would there be to build a motte here when there is a more dramatic, better defended but still easily accessible site is so close by? If there was a C11 or C12 castle at Belford the remains of the the Chapel of St Mary at NU10463449 suggest where it was located.
The other aspect to this question is a consideration of the reasons for building a manor house on the level lands. The spring line runs about the 75m contour above the Tower but below the Chapel Crag camps so water supply may be one issue. Closeness to the fields and ease of access to the village and parish church may be other considerations.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1233779
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 7690.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N5114.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
  North of the Tyne
Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 62-3
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 23
  Jackson, M.J.,1992, Castles of Northumbria (Carlisle) p. 22, 25
  Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 23
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 327

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. 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		Listing	I. O. E.
Maps >	OS getamap	Streetmap	Old-Maps	Where's the path	NLS maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	Flashearth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio