| Summary : An early 16th century tower house, situated on the right bank of the River West Allen. The tower is all that remains above ground level of a once much larger house, as it was originally attached to the eastern gable of an earlier building. The tower is thought to have functioned as a lookout tower as its slight dimensions mean it is unlikely to have served as a defensible structure. It is rectangular in shape and measures 3.6 metres by 4 metres externally, with walls of rubble and dressed stone on average 0.5 metres thick. The tower, now roofless, stands four storeys high; it is thought that the topmost floor was added in the later 16th century. |
More information : [NY 78205320] Old Tower [G.T.] (1)
Now part of a house. A blocked two-light window on the E.face looks early Tudor, but the newel stair on the West face, with large windows, partly blocked and ruinous, must be Jacobean. (2)
The tower, now a roofless shell, is not out-standing. See G.P.
AO/56/412/1 and annotated sketch plan. (3)
14/242 NINEBANKS (West side) Ninebanks Tower, adjacent to the south end of Ninebanks Post Office II*. Tower, built onto east gable of earlier manor house in early C16, heightened and stair turret added later C16. Rubble with stone dressings, later C16 work more massive rubble. Roughly square in plan. 4 storeys; rectangular stair turret at west end of north face. Elevation to street (east): blocked rectangular chamfered loop just above ground level with small inserted window over, 1st floor window formerly of 2 lights, monolithic head with 2-centred arches, 2nd-floor rectangular chamfered window with a pair of raised inverted shields on the lintel. Weathering of a pitched roof or gablet above. Hollow-chamfered course carries oversailing 3rd floor with a pair of rectangular windows one above the other, and a corbelled cornice which formerly supported a parapet. Stair turret has 3 chamfered loops. Right return has blocked Tudor-arched door partly concealed by the stair turret, and a rectangular chamfered 1st-floor loop. Left return has chamfered loops to the 1st and 3rd floors and a small slit to the 2nd. 2 stone spouts project from the moulded parapet. To the left a buttress-like projection is part of the earlier house. Rear elevation shows inserted door and much patching; several doorways with chamfered surrounds, some blocked, in stair turret. To left of turret one jamb of a ground-floor window of the former north range.
Interior; at 1st and 2nd floor levels doorways with monlithic Tudor-arched heads, now blocked; to right of the 2nd-floor door is a
blocked chamfered window, looking into the tower, i.e. part of the gable of the earlier manor house. At 3rd floor level the remains of a fireplace. Lower section of stair turret now infilled; upper part
retains its stone newel stair, with near the top a circular gunloop
on the north.
The heraldry on the tower, now defaced, is thought to relate to Sir Thomas Dacre, ruler of Hexhamshire 1515-1526.
Dickinson G., 'Historical Notices of the 2 Parishes of Allendale and Whitfield' (1903) p 28 et seq. (4)
NY 782 533. Ninebanks Tower, West Allen (Plenmeller with Whitfield PH) Scheduled No ND/288. (5,6)
Listed by Cathcart King and Dodds. (7,8)
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