Cote Walls Tower, Biddlestone (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Coat Walls; Coteswall; Cotte walles

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NT97380747
Latitude 55.36123° Longitude -2.04286°

Cote Walls Tower, Biddlestone has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Described in the Survey of 1541 as a little tower in good repair, belonging to Percival Selby. (Not listed in the Survey of 1415 pp 12 - 20) (Bates 1891).
Coteswall .... a vill of five house and in it the ruins of an old tower (Hodgson 1916)
The remains described by Hadcock (1939) as those of a mediaeval tower consist of three walls - evidently those of an old cottage. The walls are 0.6 metres thick and contain no architectural features that would associate them with a tower.
NT 97360747: The most likely site for a tower at Cotewalls would appear to be a grassy platform in pasture a little south of the present farm buildings, and on slightly higher ground. Visible among the roots of a tree in the south east corner of this platform are some large square stones: these appear to have formed the corner of a building, and at one point a rough plinth course is visible. In this vicinity too is a scatter of large stones, some of which are dressed. The field walls to the west of the farm buildings contain many large stones including some roughly dressed stones. These may have come from the tower. No significant field names appear to have survived (F1 DAD 02-MAY-57)
As described in report of 2 5 75 though the area NT 97380747 has been planted with conifers. Though it is a possibility that the tower was sited here, there is insufficient evidence to identify it (F2 ISS 01-FEB-77)
The tower was built by the Priory of Brinkburn at some time between 1415 and 1500. The 1541 survey of towers noted it to be in good repair. The tower was ruinous by 1715 (Dodds). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1489.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N1125.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 173
  Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 36
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 345
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 111
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 88
  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)
Periodical Articles
- Hadcock, R.N., 1939, 'A map of mediaeval Northumberland and Durham' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser4) Vol. 16 p. 148-218 esp 192
  Hodgson, J.C., 1916, 'List of Ruined Towers, Chapels, etc., in Northumberland; compiled about 1715 by John Warburton, Somerset Herald, aided by John Horsley' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser3) Vol. 13 p. 4 abridged transcription
  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 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.

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