Chipchase Castle is a 17th-century Jacobean mansion incorporating a substantial 14th-century

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 ...

, which stands north of Hadrian's Wall, near

Wark on Tyne Wark on Tyne is a small village and civil parish in Northumberland, England, north of Hexham. History The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for earthworks, and refers to the mound at the south of the village. Wark was once the capital ...

, between Bellingham and Hexham 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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

and a

Grade I 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 ...

History

The Heron family acquired the Manor of Chipchase by the marriage of Walter Heron to the Chipchase heiress. He built a massive four-storey battlemented

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 ...

on the site of an earlier house in the mid-14th century.Keys to the Past
Structures of the North East
A survey in 1541 described a "fare tower" with a "manor of stone joined thereto" owned by John Heron. In 1621, Cuthbert Heron (

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 1625) demolished the house and built a fine Jacobean mansion, leaving the tower standing and attached to the new house. His first son George was killed at the

Battle of Marston Moor The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1639 – 1653. The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester and the Scottish Covenanters und ...

in 1644 in the service of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. His second son Cuthbert was created a Baronet by Charles II (see Heron Baronets), but he experienced financial problems which eventually led to the sale of the estate by the Herons to George Allgood, a Newcastle merchant, in 1727. John Reed, a Newcastle upon Tyne banker, acquired the estate in 1734. Reed carried out major alterations to the castle, including a classical façade to the old tower. The failure of Reed's family bank caused his descendants to sell the estate to the Greys of

Backworth Backworth is a village in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England, about west of Whitley Bay on the north east coast. It lies northeast of Newcastle. Other nearby towns include North Shields to the so ...

in 1821 to defray debts. The Greys then sold the estate to Hugh Taylor in 1861.

Today

The castle is privately owned. It is associated with

Paul Torday Paul Torday (; 1 August 1946 – 18 December 2013) was a British writer and the author of the comic novel ''Salmon Fishing in the Yemen''. The book was the winner of the 2007 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing and was seria ...

, the author of the novel ''Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'', which was made into a popular film. He lived there with his second wife Penelope (née Taylor), who inherited the estate, and reportedly did much to help manage it. The grounds are open to the public but the Castle is open to the public only in June.

References

External links

Images of Chipchase Castle
*Fry, Plantagenet Somerset, ''The David & Charles Book of Castles'', David & Charles, 1980. Castles in Northumberland Grade I listed buildings in Northumberland Scheduled monuments in Northumberland {{Northumberland-struct-stub