Fenwick Tower was a 12th-century
tower house
A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...
at
Fenwick,
Matfen
Matfen is a village and a civil parish in Northumberland, England, near the town of Hexham and the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is an example of a 19th-century planned estate village. It was the birthplace of the 7th Premier of British Colum ...
,
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
, England.
The house was the home of the Fenwick family from the 12th century until they moved to
Wallington in the 16th century.
[''Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland'' (1844) pp. 194-6 Google Books]
In 1378 John Fenwick was granted a licence to
crenelate the house. The tower was largely demolished in about 1775 at which time a hoard of medieval gold coins was discovered.
[ Keys to the Past]
/ref>
The sparse remains of the tower are now incorporated into a 17th-century farmhouse and are protected by Grade II listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
status[
On 15 February 2010 human remains were found buried next to a cottage in the hamlet of Fenwick Towers.]
References
{{reflist
Grade II listed buildings in Northumberland
Matfen