Gate Castle, Stanhope (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Gaitte; Gates

In the civil parish of Stanhope.
In the historic county of Durham.
Modern Authority of Durham.
1974 county of County Durham.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY94103791
Latitude 54.73626° Longitude -2.09297°

Gate Castle, Stanhope has been described as a probable Pele Tower.

There are masonry footings remains.

Description

Said by Egglestone to be the southern gate of the deer park of the Bishops of Durham and to have been once owned by Emerson the mathematician. It is, however, a mile inside the south wall of the Deer Park with which it probably has some connection. It is quite unrelated to existing field walls. No sign of the east and west walls in 1945 (Hildyard). The remains of the Gate Castle form a rectangle measuring 17m E to W by 7m N to S. The N, E and W walls of coursed rubble masonry stand to a maximum height of 1.4m and are spread to a width of 2.0m. The S wall is visible as a grass covered bank 1.0m wide by 0.2m high. No entrance is visible (F1 DS 01-JUL-57). Abutting the remains above described, are the foundations of a possible wing projecting to the south. This area measures 9 x 5 metres, and makes the building L-shaped on plan (F2 JLD 02-JUL-57). The remains of this probable gate tower have been completely removed. All that remains are a few flat stones protruding through the now level turf (F3 ISS 09-SEP-74). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 18008.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D2301.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles and Tower Houses of County Durham (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 33
  Jackson, M.J., 1996, Castles of Durham and Cleveland (Carlisle) p. 64
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 139 (possible)
  Hildyard, E.J.W., 1957, Archaeology of Weardale: summaries of research 1945-47 (revised and amplified 1957) and summary of research 1953-54
  Lee, J., 1950, Weardale Memories and Traditions p. 93
  Gould, Chalkley, 1905, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Durham Vol. 1 (London) p. 362 online copy
  Boyle, J.R., 1892, Comprehensive Guide to the County of Durham: its Castles, Churches, and Manor-Houses p. 521
Periodical Articles
- Egglestone, W.M., 1900-4, 'Westgate castle in Weardale' Transactions of the Weardale Naturalists' Field Club Vol. 1 p. 102
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Welford, R. (ed), 1905, Records of the Committees for Compounding, etc., with delinquent royalists in Durham and Northumberland, 1643-60 (Surtees Society 111) p. 186 online copy

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.

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