Monkridge Old Hall, Heatherwick (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY90159226
Latitude 55.22460° Longitude -2.15612°

Monkridge Old Hall, Heatherwick has been described as a probable Pele Tower, and also as a probable Bastle.

There are masonry footings remains.

Description

The ruins of the former Monkridge Hall stand near the ruins and earthworks of a village called Heatherwick. The building was built about the end of the 17th century by the Hall family and may have been a pele tower. It was replaced in the later 18th century by a new Monkridge Hall to the north-east. (Keys to the Past N9750)
The remains of a medieval or early post-medieval village lie near Monkridge Hall. The remains of earth and stone banks and vague building platforms are all that survive of most of the buildings. The foundations of Monkridge Old Hall show it was a cross passage house built on the side of an earlier bastle with a central byre doorway. Another bastle stands to the north, with walls about one metre thick. (Keys to the Past N9749)

'NY 901924' To the south of the road after leaving Overacres are the remains of Monkridge, an old residence of the Halls, erected about the end of the 17th century. The west gable of a pele with partially blocked doorway forms part of the east end of the more recent building (PSANT 1899; McDowall).
Ruinous building foundations at NY 90159226 are the probable remains of Monkridge. The walls are constructed of large blocks of stone to max height of 1.7m. Partial remains of a doorway with a bar-hole in the west end of the building probably constitutes part of the pele (F1 BHP 14-DEC-70).
Dodds calls this site a bastle and notes a second bastle a few yards to the east (Dodds 1999). (PastScape)

Comments

Dodds account is unreferenced and contains some clear errors (e.g. He states the site is scheduled - it is not). Monkridge Hall is illustrated in the PSANT of 1899 and was not a bastle (It was a two storey hall house of late C17 with living accommodation on the ground floor.). However the west gable of this house was, reportedly, the east gable of an earlier structure of which a door with massive stone quoins and lintels is illustrated. This is called a 'pele' and could have been either a pele tower (with the Hall then probably being a replacement for an earlier unfortified hall) or a pele-house type bastle. It appears Peter Ryder has identified this earlier building as a bastle and the door illustrated does seem more consistent with that identification although it seems to be a gable end door rather than 'a central byre doorway' as reported in Keys to the Past.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 19740.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N9750.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 325
Periodical Articles
- 1899, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (ser2) Vol. 8 p. 79 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Ryder, P.F., 1994-5, Towers and Bastles of Northumberland_ Part 4 Tynedale District Vol. 2 p. 127-8
  McDowall, R.W., Peles & Bastles of Northumb typescript (RCHME) 4

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