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Heaton Castle

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Coordinates: 55°40′14″N 2°09′30″W / 55.67067°N 2.15838°W / 55.67067; -2.15838
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Heaton Castle, as it appeared circa 2010

Heaton Castle (anciently Heton) in the parish of Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland, England, is a ruined historic castle near the Scottish border.

It is situated in an elevated position above the south bank of the River Till, 4 miles north-east of Coldstream and 9 miles south-west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and 2 miles south-east of the River Tweed, the historic border with Scotland.. The castle was slighted in 1496 by King James IV of Scotland, but remnants survive as parts of the walls of outbuildings of a farm now known as Castle Heaton.[1]

History

The castle was the seat of the de Heton family,[1] which as was usual took its name from its seat. It passed in about 1250 to a branch of the prominent de Grey family, who in 1415 rebuilt it as a quadrangular castle.[1]

James IV of Scotland set miners to work to slight or demolish Heaton Castle on 24 September 1496, and gave his stone masons, led by John Cochrane, a bonus to work through the night. James IV brought the pretender Perkin Warbeck with him into England. They stayed some nights at Ellemford on the Whiteadder Water, and the invasion is known as the "Raid of Ellem". James IV brought his cannon to Heaton, and a horse was killed pulling a gun into position.[2] One record of the invasion mentions the "siege of Heaton", in Latin, "obsidione de Hedtoun".[3]

Description in the 16th century

In 1541 Heaton Castle was described in a survey as "ruinous" but a later report identified "a vault that a hundred horses may stand in".[1] By 1550 the ruins had been adapted "to form bases for large bastle type building with stone vault".[1] The only remains surviving are two buttresses against the north-east wall of a stable-block, together with "probable remains of a turret and rampart", and the long barrel vault.[1] In the 1580s attempts at rebuilding and repair were made, but the project failed when the Grey family became involved in a dispute with the Crown concerning funding.

The remaining building with the long vault has some characteristics of a Bastle house, and has been compared to Akeld Bastle.[4]

The Grey family

Arms of Grey of Heaton and Howick: Gules, a lion rampant a bordure engrailed argent. These arms were adopted in lieu of the ancient arms of Grey borne by all other branches of the family descended from Henry de Grey (1155-1219) of Grays Thurrock, Essex: Barry of six argent and azure

The Grey family of Heaton was descended from Hugh de Grey, a younger son of Henry de Grey (1155-1219) of Grays Thurrock in Essex, a courtier of King John, whose ancestry is traceable back to Anchetil de Greye (c.1052 - post-1086), a Norman soldier and follower of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford one of the great magnates of early Norman England and one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The descent of the de Grey family of Heaton is as follows:

History of the broader de Grey family

The de Grey family was descended from Anchetil de Greye (c.1052 - post-1086), a Norman soldier and follower of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, one of the great magnates of early Norman England and one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Anchetil de Greye is regarded as the ancestor of the noble House of Grey, branches of which held many peerage titles in England, including Baron Grey de Wilton, Baron Grey of Codnor, Baron Grey de Ruthyn, Marquess of Dorset, Duke of Suffolk, and Earl of Stamford. They[clarification needed] married into the royal family.

Descendants of the branch seated at Heaton gained the peerage titles of: Earl of Tankerville (1419, 1695), Baronet Grey of Chillingham, Northumberland (1619); Baron Grey of Werke (1623/4); Viscount Glendale (1695), Baronet Grey of Howick (1746); Baron Grey of Howick (1801); Viscount Howick (1806), Earl Grey (1806) and Baronet Grey of Fallodon (1814). Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, 2nd Viscount Howick (1764-1845), KG, of Howick Hall, Prime Minister, and supposed inventor of the famous tea, was a descendant of the Heaton branch.

Present

In 2011 the estate of Castle Heaton (with Shellacres) was offered for sale at an asking price of £11.5 million,[12] an "enormous asking price" which was a record for recent years in the North East. It was described by The Journal, a local newspaper, as "one of the finest estates to come onto the market in recent years. Situated in a very private setting in north Northumberland, Castle Heaton comprises a lovely agricultural, residential and sporting package...with a large and profitable arable farm, some pretty grazings by the river, a main house on an elevated site overlooking the river and other estate houses, including a six-bed house, a five-bed farmhouse, a granary house with a tower, eleven cottages and two farms, a pheasant shoot, roe deer stalking" and two miles of salmon and sea trout fishing on the River Till.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Heaton Castle (Castle Heaton) - Northumberland". www.northofthetyne.co.uk.
  2. ^ Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. cxli-ii, 299–301, 321.
  3. ^ George Burnett, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland: 1497-1501, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1888), pp. lx, 141
  4. ^ Clare Howard & Rebecca Pullen, Castle Heaton, Cornhill-on-Tweed: An Investigation of the Vaulted Building and Adjacent Earthworks (English Heritage, 2014), pp. 17, 23.
  5. ^ King, Andy (2005). "Scaling the Ladder: The Rise and Rise of the Grays of Heaton, c.1296-c.1415". In Liddy, Christian D. North-east England in the Later Middle Ages. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. pp. 57–74
  6. ^ King 2005, p. 68.
  7. ^ King 2005, p. 69.
  8. ^ Richardson II 2011, p. 254; Richardson III 2011, pp. 206–7; Pugh 1988, pp. 103, 187, 196; King 2005, p. 68
  9. ^ Pugh 1988, pp. 103, 187, 196
  10. ^ Pugh 1988, pp. 104, 187.
  11. ^ Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999, page: 15, 1222
  12. ^ The (Newcastle) Journal, 1 July 2011[1]
  13. ^ The Journal, 1 July 2011[2]

Sources

  • King, Andy (2005). "Scaling the Ladder: The Rise and Rise of the Grays of Heaton, c.1296-c.1415". In Liddy, Christian D. (ed.). North-east England in the Later Middle Ages. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. pp. 57–74.
  • Pugh, T.B. (1988). Henry V and the Southampton Plot of 1415. Alan Sutton. ISBN 0-86299-541-8
  • Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)ISBN 1449966381
  • Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. III (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Further reading

  • Image of tower[3]

55°40′14″N 2°09′30″W / 55.67067°N 2.15838°W / 55.67067; -2.15838

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