Belsay Castle (Copyright © Don Brownlow)

(NZ 08487855) Belsay Castle (NR). (1)

A three-storeyed tower with four rounded bartizans and machicolated battlements between. The date of erection is unknown but would appear to be of the early to middle 14th century. The two-storeyed house adjoining the tower on the west was built in 1614. (2)

As described by Pevsner, and in good condition. (3)

Grade I Belsay Castle (Included in Interim Statutory List as Old Castle Cottages)
First half of 14th century, with early 17th century addition. Rectangular stone tower with battlements, crenellations and corner turrets, in good repair. Ground floor has loop lights, main floor has larger cusped windows, and top floor again has loops. Interior of Hall has a fireplace and remains of painted murals. Low, two-storeyed house added on west side in 1614, stone, with two-storeyed porch with coupled columns, stone mullioned and transomed windows, and flat parapet hiding roof, and a tall chimney. Unoccupied, but habitable. (Old Tower is scheduled A.M.). (4)

Belsay Tower. Rectangular with short wings at south west and north west ends. Entrance in re-entrant angle of south west wing, as is staircase. Three rooms in tower, one above the other, lower one with pointed tunnel vault (kitchen). Great hall on first floor. Small wings have more floor in them - north west has four, south west has six. Measures c.56ft x 47ft - one of the largest in England. (5)

Belsay Castle. No documents exist. Possibly built by same builders as Chipchase and Cartington, as the same mason's mark (an arrow) appears on all three. c.1318-c.1348. Oblong-shaped with wings on north west and south west. Main building 55ft high to battlements and 70ft to highest tower. (6)

Son of Sir John de Middleton said to have lived in 'his tower of Belshowe' in the late 14th century. Castle first mentioned in 1415. Belsay Castle was one of the most elaborate and spacious of its type. Traces of painted wall decoration, possibly early 15th century, survive in the great hall. The tower-house may originally have been an extension to an earlier hall on the site now occupied by the manor house.
In 1614 the manor house was added. An engraving of 1728 shows the castle to the right, balanced to the left by a large projecting wing with Georgian windows - early 18th century. The 1614 manor house was one of the earliest undefended residences in Northumberland. Ha-ha in front of Castle was created in 19th century.
Today only a small stub of walling survives of the west wing, only the central portion attached to the castle survives - remodelled in 1862. (7)

Trenches dug in March 1984 round the yard of Belsay Castle inpreparation for the laying of electricity cables, measured 0.6m wide x 0.6m deep. They revealed two field drains, a field boundary, a cobbled road running north-south, and two superimposed roads running east-west. The latter overlay a provisionally 16th/17th century(?) wall and were associated with a series of yard surfaces and burning deposits. Evidence was found for a stratified series of deposits and surfaces continuing below the depth of the trench. (8)

The 'Castle' as it stands today is a substantial tower, one of the largest and the best preserved in the County. Attached to its west wall is the Manor House, now a roofless ruin. In plan, the castle consists of an almost square block with an embayment, containing the entrance doorway (at ground floor level) in the centre of the west front. On each floor level there is one principal north-south chamber with, on its west, smaller chambers (some at intermediate levels). At basement level the principal chamber appears to have been a kitchen (although the large fireplace in the north end seems to be an insertion) with two small vaulted chambers on the west, on either side of the entrance lobby. Between the south western chamber and the southern lobby is the newel stair, rising the full height of the tower. There are further chambers in the western part of the tower midway between basement and first floor levels. On the first floor is the hall, with a separate chamber to the north west and a smaller room (opening off the stair) to the south east; this was identified by Middleton as a chapel, although Simpson argues that it was intended as a kitchen, before this function was transferred to the basement. On the south wall of the hall are the remains of the 15th century wall paintings. There are similar chambers at second floor level, where the principal apartment (now lacking its floor) would have been the solar.
The roof level arrangements of the tower are complex, with small vaulted chambers in each turret. The south western turret is carried up a storey higher than the others.
The tower was restored and re-roofed in 1897 by Charles Ferguson of Carlisle.
The manor house on the west of the tower is a complex building. Its Renaissance south porch has a stone inscribed 'Thomas Middleton and Dorathy his wife builded this house 1614' above another stone with the arms of Middleton quartering Strively and the date 1629. Only a fragment (the south west) corner remains of a large west wing thought to have been built in 1711 (a dated sundial from here is now at West Bitchfield). The remains of the wing were demolished and the remainder of the house considerably altered in 1872 for Sir Arthur Monck by Ross and Lamb of Darlington, but fell into decay in the mid-20th century.
Belsay is usually seen as one of the best examples of a self-contained tower house in the north of England and this is how it is currently interpreted. However, in common with other similar towers in the southern part of the county, there seems good evidence for arguing that it never in fact stood alone, as currently implied, but formed part of a larger manorial complex.
It seems likely that the tower in fact formed a solar tower to a hall, possibly of earlier date, on the west. Unfortunately this is the side of the tower that has been most altered by having the later manor house built against it, the embayment above the entrance doorway being largely infilled by Victorian stonework carrying chimneys from the manor house.
Evidence for the physical association between tower and a medieval hall block is seen in several features:
i) The entrance doorway of the tower is at ground level and not particularly strongly defended; in fact there is very little in the way of cover from nearby loops etc.
Ii) There are external doorways at both first and second floor levels above the entrance. That at first floor level is an insertion and could be as late as the 17th century, but that above (almost hidden externally by the Victorian stonework) is coeval with the tower. It is usually explained as having opened on to an external gallery of some sort (although the only sockets in the stonework which might have carried the timbers of such a gallery, might equally well relate to the floor timbers of the manor house in its post-medieval form). A high level doorway like this, possibly positioned so as to give access to the roof of an adjacent, but earlier building, is seen at Haughton Castle (NY 97 SW 23).
Iii) There are very few windows in this elevation and most of those are in positions that would lie outside or above a putative hall block; all are small loops (which need not necessarily have been external). In particular, the enlarged loop lighting the foot of the main stair is cut at an oblique angle through the wall, only really explicable if it was intended to clear the south wall of an adjacent building.
Thus the tower would seem to have accompanied a hall block. There were probably also other service buildings (and perhaps an external kitchen, which would help solve the controversy about the lack of a proper kitchen within the tower). The range of buildings on the north of the tower is also substantially medieval (referred to by Middleton); the 1728 Buck print of the house shows a ruined tower to the south east, which may have been part of medieval defences.
Another observation by Middleton is that the Manor House porch with the 1614 datestone is clearly an addition to an earlier wall; the datestone may in fact have been reset when the porch was built, perhaps in 1629 (the date on the second stone). (9)

Scheduled. (10)

Condition audit of the wall paintings at Belsay Castle. Includes a wall painting record, documentation of original materials and execution of the painting, deterioration and damage, and proposals for treatment and monitoring strategies. (11)

AD Archaeology excavated six pits (1m by 1m by 0.50m deep) prior to the upgrading of lightning protection. In Trench 5 (E2) a stone-capped drain was located and elements of the foundation of the southern wall of the medieval Tower were exposed. In Trenches 2 (E8) and 6 (E11) cobbled surfaces of probable medieval date were exposed. In a connecting trench to Trench 6 (E11) a stone structure was located which abutted the north face of the medieval Tower. The stone structure lay directly beneath the garderobe chute on the north face of the Tower and it is probable that it relates to this feature. The structural remains and cobbled surfaces located (Trenches 2 (E8), 5 (E2) and 6 (E11)) were not disturbed by the works. Following their recording these features were covered with membrane and a layer of soil to ensure their preservation in situ. (12)

Tree-ring analysis and radiocarbon dating of two tiebeams in the castle tower roof show they were felled in AD1439-64(DR). As the present roof is thought to be a re-roofing done in AD1896-7 with the tower dating to c.AD1370, the tiebeams cannot be survivals of the original roof. It is possible the tower is later than previously thought and they are primary timbers, or that they have been reused from a different structure. (13)

Belsay is in the care of English Heritage. The precise date of its construction is not known but it was probably in the latter half of the 14th century. There were additions to it dating from 1614 when it became a gentleman's residence, complete with formal garden to the south and ancilliary buildings to the rear. (14c)

The manor of Belsay is first recorded in 1240: nothing is known of it although it was sufficiently well-appointed to receive Edward I in 1278. There are no certain traces of this manor, although it
probably occupied much the same site as the castle (at NZ 08487855). There are traces of what may have been a moat to the east of the tower. The towerhouse was probably built in the late 14th century and a manor house was added in 1614. A large west wing was added in the early 18th century and this was replaced in the late 19th century with a much smaller house now in ruins. Nothing remains of the formal walled garden to the south of the manor, shown with considerable licence on an engraving of 1728 (14d), except a barely perceptible linear mound, 0.05 metres high extending from the 17th century front door, which is clearly the remains of the central path shown on the engraving. Surveyed at 1:1000 as part of the RCHME Belsay Survey, full information is held in the NMR archive. (14b)

Scheduled. (14e)

Belsay Castle (formerly listed as Nos 1 and 2 Old Castle Cottages). Grade I. Towerhouse with attached house circa 1370, attached house added 1614, possibly around earlier core, by Thomas Middleton and Dorothy, his wife. Ruined fragments of early 18th century west wing attached to left. Tower has lead roof, house is roofless. Attached to the north side of the tower is a 2-storey barn, altered 18th century and 19th century but largely of medieval masonry. It has, on the east side, a blocked 2-light mullioned window and several blocked small 16th century windows; on west side 5 18th century bays with doorway in 4th bay; all openings have raised surrounds and are now boarded up. See List for full account. (14f)

NZ 085 784; NZ 088 782: Belsay Castle (Old Tower). Scheduled No ND/226. (14g)

Additional bibliography.(14h-14m)

The manor of Belsay belonged to Richard de Middleton in 1240. He became Chancellor to Henry III in 1270. The manor was forfeited in 1318 but came back to the possession of the Middleton family at a later time. It may have been during this period that the building of the castle was commenced. (14n)

Belsay belonged to the Middletons in royal service until the lamentable lapses of Edward II. Sir Gilbert Middleton was involved in kidnapping and raiding so that he forfeited his life and property. Sir John de Strivelyn, a distinguished soldier and related to the Middletons, took over. There was a manor house at Belsay, but Sir John was responsible for the building of a magnificient Tower house. He served Edward III in his wars and acquired the King's love for chivalry and display as well as knowledge of fortification.
Tower house castle, built between 1439 and 1460 during a period of turbulent border warfare. (14o)

Belsay Castle. NMR aerial photographs. (14p)

Listed by Cathcart King and Dodds. (14q,14r)

The wall paintings in the Great Hall reflect two periods of medieval secular painting. The 14th century decoration of red vinescroll against a bright white background was replace in the 15th century by a more ambitious scheme. This later scheme is divided into two tiers. The upper level depicts a naval scene with two ships and various figures, while the lower tier consists of heraldic shields hanging from lopped trees set against a dark landscape covered in white flowers. Conservation work in 1996 revealed a 'wild man' supporting the quartered shield of the Middleton and Strivelyn families on the east wall. (14s)

English Heritage's Archaeological Survey & Investigation team carried out a Level 1 rapid survey of Belsay Castle in April 2009 (21). The extent of the large formal garden compartment in front of the south front of the 1614 house and presumably broadly contemporary with it (see Source 5a), is reasonably clear from the levelling that has taken place, defined by gross earthworks which have been 'smoothed' to some degree at a later date. To the east, a terrace (followed by the present track) may mark the eastern limit of another garden compartment. The long rectangular pond to the east of the castle (see Source 5) shows no signs of returning at either end and may therefore be a 17th-century ornamental canal rather than a fragment of an earlier moat. Further east, a hollow way which appears to be overlain by broad ridge and furrow, starts to turn as though to cross the south front, before it is lost where the garden earthworks end. This hints that a portion of the medieval settlement may have been lost when the formal garden was created. (14t)

The late 14th century tower is one of the best surviving examples of a peel tower. It was probably built by John Middleton between 1391 and 1396. It was probably not a free-standing self-contained residence, but more likely to have served as the defensive stronghold to a larger domestic complex. Decorated wall plaster is visible in the great chamber.
The Belsay estate has been held by the Middleton family since first recorded in 1270, when it was known as Beleshou. Confiscated in the 14th century after regional anarchy prompted the holding to ransom of two cardinals in 1314 by Gilbert and John Middleton. Returned to Middleton family by marriage in 1391. (14u)

A ha ha, pond, embankment and garden remains associated with the castle are visible as earthworks on air photographs and lidar. To the south of the castle are traces of a low bank, thought to be the remains of the gardens depicted on the Buck engraving of 1728. To the north of the castle is a broad embankment running between NZ 0844 7865 and NZ 0841 7884 for a distance of around 197m. Its function is uncertain but the axial relationship to the castle complex suggests a direct association. To the east of the castle is rectangular hollow, originally thought to potentially represent part of a moat surrounding the castle complex. However, a more likely interpretation of this feature is a later ornamental pond. To the west is a scarp which aligns with the extant northern wall of the castle complex before turning south. This may represent traces of the enclosure depicted on Green's 1769 plan. All the features are extant on the latest 2016 lidar. (14v)

General association with HER 10260 (Belsay Hall) and HER 10253 (Belsay Park). (14)