Comcrook (The Gatehouse Record of the Aglionby Platt)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Comcriok; Gomcrook

In the civil parish of Stapleton.
In the historic county of Cumberland, England.
Modern Authority of Cumbria, England.
1974 county of Cumbria, England.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY504749
Latitude 55.06681° Longitude -2.77978°

The given map reference is suggested as the probable location of Comcrook shown on the Aglionby Platt.

There are no visible remains.

The likely form(s) of this building in 1590 are;

Pele House ('bastle')
Tower House (gentry).

Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

Comments

The tower is marked 'Gomcrook' and is shown as on the south bank of the River Black Lyne below the Bailie, but this is a crude map and it it reasonable to suppose a location close to Cumcrook farmhouse.
The Routledge family of Cumcrook were a significant local family of near gentry status, who seem to have had several houses in this area marked on the 1590 platt, but the form of those houses is not clear. A bastle of some from (a large pele-house type or a small superior bastle type) is possibly more likely than a three storey tower attached to an unfortified hall.

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape (The online National Monument Record for England) Number 13088.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 114.

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. 97 (slight)
  Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 50
  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.)
- Britsh Museum. Royal Mss Tract addressed to Lord Burghley AD 1590.
Maps (Early maps)
- 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

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, RCAHMS (or its successor Historic Environment Scotland), County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. 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.
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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.

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.

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The Gatehouse website record of

Comcrook (Cumcrook Tower, Stapleton)

a location shown on a 1590 map of the West Marches of Scotland (The Aglionby Platt)