John Comcrook (The Gatehouse Record of the Aglionby Platt)

In the civil parish of Solport.
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: NY4974
Latitude 55.05785° Longitude -2.79994°

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

There are no visible remains.

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

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

Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

Comments

Shown as west of river on the crude 1590 map. Not Cumcrook, which is shown separately. Given the tendency for such buildings to remain the site of later buildings Gatehouse suspects this tower or, more likely, bastle was located either at Troughfoot (NY490744) or The Roan (NY495748).
The Routledge family of Cumcrook were a significant local family of near gentry status, who seem to have had at least two 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 1390012.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 41.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 231
  Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 93
  Jeffrey, A., 1864, History and Antiquities of Roxburghshire Vol. 4 p. 232 (facsimile of map) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Graham, T.H.B., 1914, 'The Debatable Land Part II' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 14 facing p. 148 online copy online copy of 1607 platt online copy of 1552 map
  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
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
  1607, Platt of the Forrest of Nicholl and the Mannor of Liddale, Arthurett and Randelinton with the Debatable groundes online copy (Querlokens)

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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

John Comcrook (John Comcrooks 'Tower', Querlokens)

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