Pawston Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Paston

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NT85533278
Latitude 55.58851° Longitude -2.23119°

Pawston Tower has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

Description

Pre 1541 Pele Tower built up into house. A stone vault covers the basement. (Keys to the Past)

Embedded in modern house at Paston, a medieval tower with vaulted basement (Pevsner 1957).
Survey of 1541 refers to a small, unfinished tower without a barmkin (Bates 1891).
Remains of the tower are incorporated into the interior of the house (F1 RWE 22-DEC-66). (PastScape)

Jerard Selbye, of Pawston, two miles from Scotland, may dispend 10l. by year. He may serve the king with 8 horsemen. He hath builded a stone house, now lately on the Borders, and plenished the ground, which hath laid waste sith the Scottish field, and is a sharp borderer. (L&P Hen VIII 1535)

From the 1541 list "... one Garrarde Selbye gent. of late purchased this towne and in yt hath buylded a lytle tower wthout a barmekyn not fully fynyshed"

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1255.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N873.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 79
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 115 (slight)
  Graham, Frank, 1993, Northumberian Castles Aln, Tweed and Till (Butler Publishing) p. 41
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 340
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 294
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 145
  Pevsner, N., 1957, Buildings of England: Northumberland (London) p. 275
  Vickers, Kenneth H. (ed), 1922, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 11 p. 171, 176 online copy
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 31 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
Periodical Articles
- Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 31 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.)
- Gairdner, J. (ed), 1886, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII Vol. 9 p. 372 No. 1078 online copy
  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.

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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