From my travels near and far – although mostly pretty near – this summer, I came across three very different pele towers.
The first was in Belsay Hall, in a lovely lowland area near Morpeth. The hall was the home of the Middleton family – no relation to our next queen, I think. The Middleton’s owned a large tract of land and when an old building fell out of fashion, they built a new one and left the older one empty.
The tower is the oldest surviving building there. It seems to have survived longer than buildings contemporary to it because it was so sturdy in the first place. It is very almost a castle, but I think technically counts as a pele tower – it’s a fortified residence house, and Belsay was within the area that the reivers harried, though it would have taken a hardy troupe of reivers to attempt to take on people as powerful as the Middletons.
The building on the side was a later residence, built in the 17th century – though by 1800 the Middletons has moved to a larger building – Belsay Hall – in the Greek Revival style on the other side of the estate. I think I prefer this residence, though – one detail caught my eye in particular:
Thomas Middleton and Dorathy his wife built this house Anno 1614. Nice.
You will notice the glorious sunshine in the pictures. That was July, when we were reportedly enjoying a record-breaking summer. Someone forgot to tell August, which was – at least up in Northumberland – distinctly autumnal.
Which was fine with me. the second pele tower is a vicar’s pele in Embleton, further north on the Northumbrian coast near Dunstanburgh Castle. By the side of the village church, and not signposted at all, let alone open to visitors, it caught this wandering pilgrim’s eye.
It is not the only unheralded castle or pele tower in this part of Northumberland. Perhaps this near the border the need of wealthier residents to build defensive homes to protect themselves against the Scots (or just their neighbours) was so taken for granted as to be barely worth commenting on.
It does have a Wikipedia page mind.
Finally, further north still – and some miles out to sea – an island pele tower:
That’s a pele tower by the 14th century Saint Cuthbert’s Chapel on Inner Farne. I must stop there one day and dedicate a post to the saint…We didn’t stop this time, but we had a grand boat trip around the islands just as a very murky looking fret moved across the isles, turning a bright day a murky North Sea grey. Delightful. (We saw a load of seals, too – and even a malingering puffin).
The reivers were no seafarers, as far as I know, so maybe the tower was built in memory of the Vikings who sacked the monastery at Lindisfarne six centuries earlier. Or maybe it was just the best kind of structure to withstand the weather.
The Pele Tower 