Abberwick Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NU12551324
Latitude 55.41209° Longitude -1.80323°

Abberwick Tower has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are masonry footings remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The monument includes the deserted remains of the medieval village of Abberwick, the foundations of a tower house and a section of the surviving open field system. The earliest documentary reference to the village at Abberwick is contained in a document of 13th-century date where it was recorded as a member of the barony of Wark on Tweed. In common with other Northumberland villages, the population of the village fell between the end of the 13th century and 1336, when there were only six individuals eligible to pay taxes. The fall in population is usually attributed to devastation of villages by the wars with Scotland, a series of failed harvests and the effects of the Black Death. By the 17th century, the population had recovered and 17 households are recorded, but by the early 18th century the village had been depopulated and all but one of the farms were dispersed to other parts of the township. The remains of the village, the tower and its field system are visible as a series of earthworks in the fields to the north, north east and west of the modern farm of Abberwick. The most prominent feature is a raised rectangular mound 12m by 7m standing to a height of 1.5m. Situated upon this mound there are the foundations of a rectangular enclosure divided into two compartments and visible as low earthen banks. This building is thought to be the remains of a tower which was recorded at Abberwick in a document of 1572. Surrounding the site of the tower are the foundations of other rectangular buildings visible as low platforms, mounds and small enclosures. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1016350, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 28555
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 7218.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N4458.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry (slight)
Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 150-1
  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. 11
  Beresford, M. and Hurst, J.G., 1971, Deserted Medieval Villages (Gloucester), 198
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 51
  Hodgson, John Crawford (ed), 1904, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 7 p. 134, 198, 200 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dixon, P.J., 1984, The Deserted Medieval Villages of North Northumberland Vol. 2 (PhD Thesis: University of Wales) p. 8-13

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.

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