Wooler Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NT99292809
Latitude 55.54661° Longitude -2.01286°

Wooler Castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The tumbled ruins of the 16th century Wooler Tower lie over what is commonly interpreted as a 12th century castle mound or motte, presumed to be the location of a seat of the Muschamp Barony. The mound, natural or otherwise, “eminently defensible but with no sure sign of earthworks” (Pevsner 1992, 634) forms a narrow promontory of land rising abruptly from the east side of Church Street and overlooking Wooler Water beyond. Part of the mound was dissected when Nos.10-12 Church Street were constructed. A document of 1255, describing a “waste mote of no value” at Wooler was taken by Vickers (1922, 329-30) to be referring to this mound. He thought that it had fallen into ruin because Wooler was not the place of residence of the owners of the barony. Alternatively the “waste mote” could refer to Green Castle a prominent mound topped with a ringwork which lies under a mile to the west. The relationship (both chronological and political) between the two sites is obviously of some interest. (Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey)

The mound on which these fragments lie is believed to be natural, rather than artificial, but is the probable site of a 12th century castle with timber defences which belonged to the Muschamps. Documentary evidence records that it was disused by 1255 and the site was not reoccupied until the tower was built in the early 16th century. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1018347, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 29337
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 2688.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N1549.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- North of the Tyne
Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 66-7
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 113
  Graham, Frank, 1993, Northumberian Castles Aln, Tweed and Till (Butler Publishing) p. 46
  Jackson, M.J.,1992, Castles of Northumbria (Carlisle)
  Pevsner, N., 1992 (revised by Grundy, John et al), Buildings of England: Northumberland (London, Penguin) p. 634
  Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 30-1
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 344
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 359
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 175-6
  Sanders, I.J., 1960, English Baronies. A study of their origin and descent 1086-1327 p. 100-1
  Vickers, Kenneth H. (ed), 1922, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 11 p. 329-30 online copy
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 433-4 online copy
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 4 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  Hutchinson, Wm, 1776, A View of Northumberland (Newcastle) Vol. 2 p. 335- online copy
  Hutchinson, Wm, 1776, A View of Northumberland (Newcastle) Vol. 1 p. 242-3 (slight) online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Hunter Blair, C.H., 1944, 'The Early Castles of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser4) Vol. 22 p. 116-70 esp 160-2
  Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 4 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Northumberland County Council, 2009, 'Wooler' Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey doi:10.5284/1000177 download copy
  Constable, Christopher, 2003, Aspects of the archaeology of the castle in the north of England C 1066-1216 (Doctoral thesis, Durham University) Available at Durham E-Theses 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.
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