Rutherford Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Rutherforde; Morthwate; Old Hall; Rotherforde; Ruthord

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY45117905
Latitude 55.10283° Longitude -2.86164°

Rutherford Tower 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.

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

Description

Tower symbol is marked on the 1590 map of Cumbria at Rutherforde, and is marked as a house called 'Morthwate' on the 1607 plot. Probably a stonehouse or bastle. The English Place Name Society equated Rutherford with Old Hall, and the present farmhouse may have remains of the stonehouse. (PastScape)

(Area centred NY 45227889) A map in the British Museum, dated December 1590, has marked 'Rutherforde' with a tower symbol.
The approximate location falls in an area of rough pasture fields showing no trace of a structure or earthworks. Old Hall, at NY 451790, is externally C18/C19 farmhouse with walling of only average thickness. There is no knowledge of an earlier house here. (PastScape–ref. Field Investigators Comments–F1 JRL 23-AUG-79)

Comments

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

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1087509
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 11668; 503284.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 37.

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. 240
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 94
  Armstrong, A.M., 1950, The Place-Names of Cumberland, part 1 The City of Carlisle, and Eskdale, Cumberland, and Leath Wards (English Place-Name Society 20) p. 105
  Jeffrey, A., 1864, History and Antiquities of Roxburghshire Vol. 4 p. 232 (facsimile of map) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Collingwood, W.G., 1923, 'An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Cumberland' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 23 p. 247 online copy
  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')
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Cole, J.R., 1982, A survey of the Debatable Land and Glen Tarras c. 1449-1620 (Thesis for Manchester University) p. 45

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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.
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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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