Houghton le Spring Rectory (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Houghton Le Spring.
In the historic county of Durham.
Modern Authority of Sunderland.
1974 county of Tyne and Wear.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ34094983
Latitude 54.84216° Longitude -1.47086°

Houghton le Spring Rectory has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.

Description

Former rectory now council offices, incorporating the remains of a 15th century tower house. Altered in 1560-70, considerably rebuilt circa 1664 and further altered in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The east elevation was rebuilt circa 1950. The medieval tower was built without licence in or before 1483. (PastScape)

This building is first mentioned in 1483 when John Kelinge began to enclose, fortify and embattle a house within his rectory with a wall of lime and stone, and to make a fortress of it without licence. Bishop Dudley pardoned the offence and granted a licence. In the second half of the 17th century the building was demolished, except for its tower and flanking rectory which were finally lost in the early 19th century. It is possible, however, that some parts of the medieval structure survived these bouts of demolition and rebuilding. (Tyne and Wear HER)

A Durham Palatinate pardon and licence to crenellate was granted in 1483 Oct 6 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1184817
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 26073.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 264.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- British Library online gallery
  Houghton Heritage
  Abaroth's World
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles and Tower Houses of County Durham (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 35
  Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 139n3, 159 (slight)
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 33 (slight)
  Jackson, M.J.,1992, Castles of Northumbria (Carlisle) p. 143
  Corfe, Tom (ed), 1992, 'The Visible Middle Ages' in An Historical Atlas of County Durham p. 28-9
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 138
  Pevsner, N., 1983 (Revised by Williamson, Elizabeth), Buildings of England: Durham (London, Penguin) p. 332
  Pevsner, N., 1953, Buildings of England: Durham (London, Penguin) p. 172
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England Vol. 2 p. 343 online copy
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. xv (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 206 online copy
  Gibson, W., 1848, Northumbrian Castles, Churches and Antiquities part 1 p. 111-2 online copy
  Surtees, R., 1816 (1910 Reprint), The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham Vol. 1 p. 160
  Brayley, E. and Britton, J., 1803, Beauties of England and Wales; Durham Vol. 5 p. 133-4
  Hutchinson, Wm, 1785-94, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham Vol. 2 p. 691 online copy
Periodical Articles
- 1911-12, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (ser3) Vol. 5 p. 45-62 online copy
  1897-8, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (ser2) Vol. 8 p. 203 online copy
  Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. xv 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.)
- 1874 The Thirty-fifth Annual Report of Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Ap. 140 (membrane 20 of Calendar of Rolls of Bishop Dudley)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- A view in ink of an old house at Houghton-le-Spring in Durham, drawn by S.H. Grimm. (British Library MS 15539) View online

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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