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Embleton Tower

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
The Old Vicarage; Turris de Emyldon; Emildon

In the civil parish of Embleton.
In the historic county of Northumberland.
Modern Authority of Northumberland.
1974 county of Northumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NU23052244
Latitude 55.4948° Longitude -1.6359°

Embleton Tower has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

The Old Vicarage at Embleton incorporates a medieval tower. The building was probably constructed in the early C14 as a house and was converted into a tower in the 1390s. The tower is unusual in two ways; firstly, it has two vaulted rooms in the basement where other examples usually have only one and, secondly, it is very long. The building stands three storeys high and is built in a mixture of rubble stonework and squared stone. The south end of the tower was refaced in C19 by John Dobson when major extensions were added to it. Merton College, who held the patronage of Embleton, agreed in 1332 to provide quarters where the vicar might "live suitably and entertain visitors decently"; reconstruction seems to have taken place after the parish was laid waste by the Scots in 1385. A licence to crenellate was allegedly given to the owner in 1385 but no offical record exists for this.

It has been incorrectly suggested that a Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1385 (Click on the date for details of this supposed licence.).

Links to mapping and other online resources
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Sources of information, references and further reading

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.
This record last updated on Friday, May 3, 2013
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