Birdoswald Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
campis Borddoswald; Burdeswald

In the civil parish of Waterhead.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY61486625
Latitude 54.98948° Longitude -2.60337°

Birdoswald Tower has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are masonry footings remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Birdoswald first appears in the written record in 1211 when a certain Walter de Beivin was farming the property, then part of the Barony of Gilsland. He gave land in the area to Lanercost Priory and his nephew was known as Ralph de Birdoswald indicating he had a house there. It was a convenient location, for the thick stone walls of the old Roman fort subsequently provided protection for generations of farmers in a Scottish border area that remained marginal and dangerous territory. By 1425, the farm was in the hands of the Vaux family who were probably the builders of a large pele tower found during excavation. The old Roman west gate was also still in use at this time, but it had collapsed by the end of the century. (Wikipedia ref. Wilmott 1995)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1010994, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 26073
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 13993.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 6304.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
  CastleUK.net
  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
  CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
Books
- The bibliography for this site is large and extensive but mostly, usually exclusively, deals with the Roman fort and occupation and is beyond the scope of this record.
  
  Wilmott, T., 1999, Birdoswald: Excavations of a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall and its successor settlements, 1987-1992 (London: English Heritage) p. 387-91, 394-99 Download via ADS
  Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 20
  Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 134-5
  Wilmott, Tony, 1997, Birdoswald: excavations of a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall and its successor settlements, 1987-92 (London: English Heritage Archaeological reports (new ser) Vol. 14)
Guidebooks
- Wilmott, Tony, 2005, Birdoswald Roman Fort (London: English Heritage)
  Wilmott, Tony, 1995, Birdoswald - A History and Souvenir Guide (Cumbria County Council) p. 49-53
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Prescott, J.E. (ed), 1897, The Register of the Priory of Wetheral (Kendal: CWAAS Record Series 1) p. 233-5 no. 127 (grant of land in Campis de Borddoswald to Wetheral Priory c. 1200) online copy
  Feodar of Gillesland and Feodar of Thomas Lord Dacre of Gillesland, Cumbria Archive Service.
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Barker, Louise and Rushworth, Alan (compilers), 1998, Hadrian's Wall at Birdoswald: a survey of the extent and state of preservation of Archaeological remains in the guardianship of English Heritage

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. 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.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely 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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

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