Little Swinburne Tower, Chollerton. Photo by Peter Ryder.

(NY 94977784) Tower (Remains of). (1)

Little Swinburn tower was probably erected soon after 1415. It measures externally 40 feet north-south by 27 feet east-west, with walls about 5 feet thick, and has had about three floors. (2)

The tower, although showing signs of restoration, is in poor condition, with some parts in imminent danger of collapse. Walls are approximately 12 feet high on the north and 20 feet on the south side. Lying on the ground just outside the west wall is the head of a small pointed window, cut from a single block of stone. (3)

Authy. 3 confirmed. (4)

Condition unchanged. See photograph. (5)

Little Swinburn Tower. First mentioned in survey of 1541. Had a vaulted basement. Ruins show doorway and lower part of spiral stair. (6)

Little Swinburne Tower, Grade II. Ruined towerhouse. 15th century. Random rubble. Parts of south and west walls stand to c30ft. East and north walls more fragmentary with little facing stone left. Roof demolished but traces on west side. Interior: vestiges of basement vault and first floor fireplace. (7)

NY 9499 7775. Shrunken medieval village, tower and fishpond at Little Swinburne. Scheduled RSM No 20942. The tower has been much robbed of stone but the remains show that it was faced in courses of of roughly squared blocks with traces of a protruding chamfered course 3.5m above ground level. It measures 9.2m N-S by 5.2m E-W within walls 1.5m thick which survive up to 3.7m on the N and 6m on the S side. The tower had a vaulted basement, traces of which can be seen in the NW corner. The walls survive at least one storey above this but earlier accounts describe three storeys above a basement, with an entrance lobby and staircase in the E side of the tower. Little Swinburne Tower was constructed shortly after 1415, and is mentioned in a document of 1541. It formed part of the medieval village of East Swinburne, later referred to as Little Swinburne (see NY 97 NW 39). (8)

The tower measures c.14m by 9m externally, with walls of coursed rubble cut back internally to their present thickness of c.1m. There is a chamfered set back 3.3m above the present ground level. The south end and south part of the west elevation stand to c.10m high; the east wall is more ruinous and has lost all its external facing, whilst only a fragment of the north end survives.
The original entrance appears to have been at the north end of the east side, giving access presumably both to the tower basement and to a mural stair in the north wall. Parts of the north walls of the lobby and stair are visible, and a small window lighting the stair. The internal wall faces of the basement have been cut back and roughly plastered; this hacking back is very clear at the south end and almost certainly entailed the removal of a vault. The basement has been lit by a loop in the centre of the south end, now just a ragged hole in the wall retaining a fragment of its internal splay; there has also been an opening in the east wall, also badly damaged; it appears to splay outwards and may be secondary. At the north end of the west wall are remains of a small mural chamber.
At first floor level there are remains of a large fireplace in the west wall, with to the south of it some sort of channel or chute in the wall, possibly connected with a garderobe; there are also traces of a mural chamber at the south west corner. Externally, there are evidences of an adjacent gabled roof on the west side of the tower, its tabling formed by sloping slabs and a large shaped block that seem coeval with the walling; rather strangely, apart from some projecting masonry high up, there are no physical evidences on the wall for this attached building, perhaps implying that this was timber framed; on the ground there is an irregular mound and an abundance of nettles.
The tower does not retain any architectural features which enable the original fabric to be dated; it is most likely a 15th century structure, considerably modified at some stage by the removal of its basement vault. There would appear to have been a contemporary building on the west; it is not clear how this functioned.
The ruins are in poor condition; parts of the south end wall are precarious, with masonry about to fall. It still forms quite a dramatic ruin. (9)

Listed by Dodds. (10a)