Fowberry Tower is a

Grade II* listed 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 ...

mansion house, situated on the banks of the River Till, near

Chatton Chatton is a village in Northumberland, in England. It is roughly to the east of Wooler. History Chatton has been occupied for many centuries. There has been a church on the site since the twelfth century. There is evidence of occupation in ...

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 ...

. Heritage Gateway: architectural description of listed building
/ref> The Manor of Fowberry was owned by the Fowberry family for over 400 years, and their 16th-century tower house incorporated the remains of an original

pele tower Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing ...

. In the late 16th century Roger Fowberry mortgaged the estate to his neighbour William Strother of Kirknewton, and despite later legal attempts to dispute the debt, his son was obliged in 1591 to transfer the property to Lancelot Strother. The Strothers built a new manor house on the site in about 1666. When William Strother died in 1708 without a male heir the estate passed to William Kerr who married Blake’s heiress daughter. In 1776 their son John Strother Kerr sold the estate and house to Sir Francis Blake. Blake remodelled and substantially enlarged the house including delightful

Strawberry Hill Gothic Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is a Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "#Strawb ...

interiors; some of the more important interiors following this style in the North of England. He included the Blake family crest – a martlet surmounting a

cap of maintenance Typical of British heraldry, a cap of maintenance, known in heraldic language as a ''chapeau gules turned up ermine'', is a ceremonial cap of crimson velvet lined with ermine, which is worn or carried by certain persons as a sign of nobility or ...

– on a frieze in 22-carat gold leaf in the dining room. A new frontage was designed by the architect James Nesbit of Kelso. A feature of the new mansion was the creation of six false windows on the south elevation, which substantially improved the external appearance of the new building but avoided the burden of

window tax Window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France, and Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries. To avoid the tax, some houses from the pe ...

. The Blakes sold the estate in 1807 to Matthew Culley (born 1778), son of the noted expert agriculturalist

George Culley George Culley (baptised 1735 – 1813) was an English agriculturist. Life The younger son of Matthew Culley, in early life he concentrated on agriculture, and in particular cattle breeding. He was the first pupil of Robert Bakewell, and with hi ...

(born 1735).''Matthew and George Culley. Travel Journals and Letters 1765–1798'' Edited by Anne Orde (2002) The design for the front of the house was continued and completed by Matthew Culley, who incorporated a dated medallion stone above the entrance, which reads 1809. A later George Culley of Fowberry was

High Sheriff of Northumberland This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Northumberland. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries ...

in 1867. The Culley family, later Leather Culley, remained at Fowberry until they sold the estate in 1920.

References

{{reflist, 30em Grade II* listed buildings in Northumberland Country houses in Northumberland History of Northumberland