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COCKLAW TOWER

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DESCRIPTION

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Late 14th/early 15th century tower house, surviving as a shell. The stone-built tower is three-storeyed, with traces of 16th century wall painting surviving in the first floor chamber. The former prison on the ground floor was originally only accessible via a trapdoor from the chamber above.

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(NY93927116) Cocklaw Tower (L.B) (1)

A well-preserved pele-tower, probably 15thc. (2). There are indications of a moat, and external buildings, possibly a barmkin. (2-3)

The shell of the tower is in good condition. See photographs. There are no remains of a moat, or of external buildings, apart from a fragment of masonry abutting the south face of the tower, which may indicate a former curtain-wall. (4)

Cocklaw Tower. Grade I. Towerhouse, late C14 or early C15. large squared stone, probably re-used Roman material. Rectangular plan; 3 floors, each with single large chamber, smaller chamber to south and newel stair at south-east corner. Chamfered set-back above basement and hollow-chamfered cornice (largely fallen) below parapet. South elevation shows central pointed chamfered doorway to basement and scattered chamfered lops; above cornice, remains of taller turret at south-west corner. East elevation shows similar doorway at 1st floor level with window of 2 trefoil-headed lights (mullion gone) to right, also various chamfered loops; west elevation shows similar 2-light 1st-floor window, north elevation only loops. Interior: vaulted lobby with doorway to stair on right and hole broken through wall on left into former prison originally accessible only via trapdoor from painted chamber above. Main basement barrel vault partly fallen at north end. Painted chamber, with remains of C16 mural decoration, on south at 1st floor level, and garderobe to north-west. Mezzanine chamber on south between 1st and 2nd floors, entered only from stair. The virtually-intact shell of a towerhouse. (5)

NY 939 712. Cocklaw Tower. Scheduled No ND/67. (6)

Description. (7)

Listed by King. (8)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

1:2500 1964

( 2) by Nikolaus Pevsner 1957 Northumberland

The Buildings of England Page(s)128

( 3) by John Crawford Hodgson 1897 A history of Northumberland, volume four : Hexhamshire, part two

A history of Northumberland15 vols (1893-1940) vol.4 Page(s)180-4

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 RWE 15-NOV-66

( 5) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

District of Tynedale, Northumberland: 24-May-1988 Page(s)186

( 6) English Heritage 1995 County list of Scheduled Monuments : March 1994

Northumbs Page(s)44

( 7) Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland

WH Knowles 'Cocklaw Tower' 4, 1895 Page(s)309-15

(8) David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume II : Norfolk-Yorkshire and the islands

Page(s)330

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