Ruins of the Parson's Tower, Ford. Photo by Peter Ryder.

(NT 94383742) Parson's Tower. (1)

Fortified vicars' house, first mentioned 1541. Only the vaulted ground floor remains. (2)

Scheduled. (3)

Correctly described. See GP. AO/55/276/2. (4)

The remains of Parson's Tower stand alone in a field 60m north-west of the parish church and a similar distance south-west of Ford Castle. Only the basement stage of the tower survives: almost square, the sides 10.1m to 10.5m long, with walls c.2m thick enclosing a single chamber, until recently used as a byre. There are no closely dateable architectural features in the remains of the tower, but it probably dates to late 14th or 15th century. The almost square plan is slightly unusual. The internal thickening of the north wall of the basement is probably a 19th century or early 20th century repair. Some of the trees growing on the north and east walls have recently been cut down, and stonework displaced by their roots (or possibly by animals) lies scattered at the base of the walls. (5)

Scheduled Monument Consent granted on 18th February 1991 to Ford and Etal Estates to carry out works to consolidate the remains. (6)

Parson's Tower, Grade II listed building.
Ruined tower, probably a 'Vicar's Pele'. Medieval. Squared stone. Ground floor entry on S side has been enlarged. Chamfered offset at about 6ft above ground. Walls stand to c.12ft. On E side shallow segmental arch to remains of mural stair. Interior: walls c.7ft thick. Segmental tunnel-vaulted ground floor. (7)

The surviving basement is of coursed squared sandstone blocks. There is a chamfered set-back or plinth 1.5m above ground level on the south west. It rises to a higher level (with the slope of the site) on the other two sides, where little of it survives. Four courses above the plinth the south west angle is cut back to a slanting face, which is probably a secondary feature. The north west and south east corners may have been treated in a similar manner. On the north and east the greater part of the wall facing has been either robbed or displaced by tree roots. The west and south walls show various sockets and roof lines associated with later buildings, some (a cow house and a chase house) being mentioned in a 1792 terrier.
The entrance to the tower has been in the centre of the east wall, via a lobby with both inner and outer doorways and a mural stair leading off to the north. The apparent low segmental arch is in fact the vault of the lobby seen in section. Both inner and outer doorways have been largely cut away, but the archway to the mural stair retains its depressed rounded head. A short section of the roof of the stair survives of stepped lintels laid diagonally to the coursing of the wall.
The tower basement is covered by an east-west barrel vault, many of its blocks bearing incised masons marks. Remains of loops are visible in the centre of north and south walls, that on the north concealed internally by a later thickening of the wall, presumably made to prop up the vault.
The tower is mentioned as a 'lytle tower which was the mansion of the parsonage' in the 1541 survey. Sir Cuthbert Ogle, the parson, had started reconstructing the tower, but his works may not have been completed by the following year when, in a raid led by Sir Andrew Ker of Cessford, he was carried captive into Scotland . By 1663 the parson's house was described as 'totally demolished' and a new rectory was later built at the north west corner of the churchyard. This was pulled down along with post-medieval additions to the tower c.1878. (8)

Scheduled. (9)

NT 944 375. Parson's Tower at Ford Castle. Scheduled No ND/369. (10a)

Parsons Tower was built circa 1338 by William Heron for his resident chaplain. Ruinous in 1513 and not repaired in 1541. (10b-c)