Cliffe (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
The Cliff

In the civil parish of Kirklinton Middle.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY41266611
Latitude 54.98612° Longitude -2.91940°

Cliffe has been described as a Pele Tower although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Bastle.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

The Cumbria HER locates this at NY415661, a field between Clift House and East Cliff, although there doesn't seem to be any evidence of a structure in that field. Perriam and Robinson also use this map reference. The lack of evidence of remains may suggest a site under the farm house either at East Cliff (NY41706601) or Clift House (at given map reference), although neither house is said to contain evidence of a C16 building. The site is near to a crossing of the River Lynn.
It is difficult to really known what the symbols on the 1590 map actually meant. They mainly refer to sites that are now lost and which were never gentry status sites. This suggests these were not pele towers. It is more likely they were some form of bastle or stonehouse. The lack of survival of such houses in this area, as opposed to their fairly frequent survival in the higher Pennine lands, may reflect the good agricultural quality of this land producing wealth (once the area was politically stabilised and decriminalised) which allowed for the building of brand new farmhouses and farmbuildings in the C18/C19.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 11567.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 212.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 99 (slight)
  Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 81
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 92
  Jeffrey, A., 1864, History and Antiquities of Roxburghshire Vol. 4 p. 232 (facsimile of map) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Ellis, H., 1829, 'Copy of a manuscript tract addressed to Lord Burghley, illustrative of the Border topography of Scotland, AD 1590, with a platt or map of the Borders taken in the same year' Archaeologia Vol. 22 p. 161-71 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.)
- 1590, A Platt of the opposete Borders of Scotland to ye west marches of England (The Aglionby Platt) British Library online Gallery and Old Cumbria Gazetteer (see also Gatehouse Essay 'The Aglionby Platt')

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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.

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