West Harle Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Great Harle; Turris de West herle

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY99048203
Latitude 55.13264° Longitude -2.01658°

West Harle Tower has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are no visible remains.

Description

A list dated 1415 mentions a tower at West Harle (Bates 1891).
The old mansion house at West Harle has windows with mullions and weather mouldings of stone. One room, now a kitchen, is vaulted and was probably the vault of the tower. The additions to this part were probably made in 1629, the date appearing over the front door (Hodgson 1827).
NY 99048203. The present farmhouse at West Harle is a small plain building, which appears quite modern. It occupies a good position and so is probably built on the site of the mediaeval tower and later mansion (F1 EG 17-APR-56).
Incorporated in the stone walls around the farm are portions of the original house walls and stone roofing slabs. An earth and stone bank at NY 99048199 probably represents the remains of two houses, all that survives apart from the present farm of the village which traditionally comprised of 16 houses (F2 BHP 06-MAR-68 ).
The tower at West Harle had been built by the early 15th century. In 1722 the tower at West Harle was described as a 'stone vaulted room used as a kitchen', that is completely enveloped by the later farmhouse (Dodds 1999). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 19421.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N9555.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 243-4
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 349
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 16 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  Hodgson, J., 1827, History of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Part 2 Vol. 1 p. 189 and 201n online copy
Periodical Articles
- 1963, Medieval Village Research Group annual report Vol. 11 App A No 39
  Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 16 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.)
- 1415, Nomina Castrorum et Fortaliciorum infra Comitatum Northumbrie online transcription
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Wrathmell, S., 1975, Deserted and Shrunken Villages in Southern Northumberland from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Centuries (PhD Thesis Cardiff) p. 396

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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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