Rudchester Manor. Photo by Peter Ryder.

Name NZ 1136 6741. Rudchester (T.I.). (1)

The exterior of Rudchester Hall is 18th century but the building still incorporates part of the late 13th century hall built by Simon of Rudchester. The old parts of the house can only be identified by the great thickness of the walls at the east end. (2)

Rudchester Hall incorporates part of a 13th century tower. The drawing rooms, with walls of great thickness, are a portion of this tower. (3)

Tower at Rudchester. (4)

NZ 1126 6735. The south east corner of Rudchester Hall incorporates the remains of the early tower, square in plan, with walls 1.5m thick, preserved intact up to the present roof level, save where modern windows and doors have been inserted. In the east wall is a small - apparently original - window, and within the tower, a stone stairway is preserved. (5)

Condition unchanged and description correct. (6)

Rudchester Tower. A hall was being built in 1285 - little or nothing remains. (7)

THE EXTERIOR: The house is now, externally, of late 18th century Gothick appearance, with hipped roofs. There is an entrance front facing east of four irregular bays and a south front of three bays. Structurally the oldest part is at the south east corner where there are the walls of what appears to be a tower, c.8.5m by 6.9m externally with walls 1m-1.3m thick of good quality squared stone. To the west of this is a short wing with walls 0.7m thick of small roughly squared rubble with quite well-squared angle quoins; west again is a narrower pent-roofed extension (containing a stair) in similar fabric. To the north of the former tower is a three-bay range again with walls c.0.7m thick, of coursed roughly-squared stone, with quite large roughly-shaped quoins at its northern end. Built into the re-entrant angle between the west and north ranges is a second slightly shorter north-south range, of rubble with tooled-and-margined dressings of 19th
century type, which has been extended to the full length of the north range by the addition of a small flat-roofed and rendered block.
The windows of the east front are all sashes under pointed arches, with raised and moulded surrounds, except for a small ogee-headed light between the first-floor windows of the first and second bays. The doorway is in the second bay; immediately to its left (south) can be seen the heavy quoins of the north east corner of the tower. The square-section plinth is probably an 18th century addition. The walls are largely covered by ivy.
The south front has similar fenestration, except that the openings of the centre bay are simply blind recesses. To the west of the ground floor window in the eastern bay is a straight joint, apparently the west jamb of a doorway. There are traces of a less regular joint east of the window. A chamfered set-back appears at the east end of the wall, but to the west (and round the corner on the east front) it vanishes behind ivy.
THE INTERIOR: At ground floor level the tower is occupied by a single room, its only pre-19th century feature being a large fireplace on the north. This is square-headed with a moulded surround; the lintel has sunk panels under a crocketted ogee arch, with a blank shield to either side, beneath a stepped hoodmould. There are few easily-dateable motifs in all of this, but a 16th century date seems possible. Within the fireplace is a smaller one, obviously more recent, made up of two square moulded pilasters and a slab with a moulded edge, all of which look like re-set Roman pieces.
The entire north west corner of the tower has been cut away at ground floor level and partly at first floor level. The only old feature at first floor level is the ogee-arched window in the east wall, which has a shouldered rear arch.
The only section of the tower to survive above the present second floor (ie at attic level) is a triangular section of the north wall, preserved beneath the late 18th century hipped roof, where it was presumably retained simply as a support for the roof timbers. This shows several interesting features. There has been a second floor doorway at the west end of this piece of wall, of which the eastern jamb, of simple rebated square section, survives. East of this is a blocked cruciform loop and above this a surviving length of corbel table, which presumably marked the base of the medieval parapet. Five corbels survive; the central one has a projecting stone spout and the others a concave groove in their upper surface, presumably to
facilitate drainage of the parapet behind.
The internal (south) face of this wall was not inspected as the attic floor is unsafe.
DISCUSSION: The relatively small dimensions of the medieval building suggest that it may have served as a solar tower to a separate hall block, rather than a residence in its own right. It is known that a hall was being built by Simon of Rudchester in 1285; the tower may be a little later (the ogee-headed window suggests a 14th century date) although the parapet is of relatively early character and has been compared to that at Aydon (NZ 06 NW 11).
It seems most likely that the hall block stood on the west side of the tower, as the west wall is rather thinner than the others (although this could be the result of later changes). The fact that the north west corner of the tower has been largely removed hints that there may have been a newel stair in this position.
The range on the north of the tower certainly seems to pre-date the late 18th century remodelling; the general character of its fabric suggests a 17th century origin. The fact that at attic level its walls appear to have been cut down and that there are remains of a doorway opening in this direction (from the head of the tower stair?) implies that this part of the building was once of three storeys. It may have replaced an earlier structure and possibly always served as a service range.
It is difficult to decide whether the present west wing is contemporary with the late 18th century remodelling, or a little earlier; the character of its angle quoins implies a date after 1700. The Gothick remodelling of the house would seem to have taken place in the last two or three decades of the 18th century, when the Duke of Northumberland led in the adoption of this new style and many lesser landowners followed suit.
Subsequent changes have been the addition of a small extension to the west of the west wing to house a stair, perhaps replacing the old newel stair in the tower, and the new service wing to the north west which is clearly considerably more recent. (8)

A house with a late 13th century core, remodelled and extended in the late 18th century and early 19th century. Dressed stone with plinth. Welsh slate roof. L-plan with later buildings filling re-entrant angle. Gothick style. Grade II* Listed. (9)

A stone-built well was discovered during a watching brief in 2010. It measured 1.5m diameter and was built of shaped, dressed stone with occasional bonding material. It probably dates from between 1780-1820. (10)

The house appears externally to be a Georgian country house constructed of random sandstone blocks, with a hipped slate roof, in an L-shaped plan. However within the fabric of the house is a pele tower in the southeast of the current building, though this has been much altered through time. The pele tower is thought to date, though only the basis of docuemntary references, to the later 13th century around 1285. Only one remaining Medieval window survives with a cusped head of 14th century date. It is unclear if the pele possessed a basement level.
The remainder of the Manor House is of late 18th century date and retains many original features. The discovery of inscribed Roman stones in this period suggest groundworks, and use of material from the adjacent Roman fort, for the construction of this building. A series of later extensions to the Manor House are noted, though now partly removed. (11)

The tower house at Rudchester was built in 1285 by Simon Umfraville. The tower was inhabited throughout the Mediaeval period , and was only altered after 1667. The South wall is origina, although with Georgian fenestration. (12a)

Listed by Dodds. (12b)