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]
Sir
Thomas Grey (d.1344), 3rd in descent from Hugh de Grey, was an eminent soldier in the Anglo-Scottish wars in the reigns of
Edward I and
Edward II. He married Agnes de Bayles.
Sir
Thomas Grey (d.1369), son, "The Chronicler", who wrote the English
chronicle, the Scalacronica. He married Margaret de Presson,[5] the daughter and heiress of William de Presson[6] of Presson, near
Carham in Northumberland.
Sir Thomas Grey (1404-1426), who in 1412, at eight years of age, was betrothed to
Isabel, then three years of age, only daughter of
Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge,[10] and
Anne Mortimer; they had one son.[11] At about this time the family abandoned Heaton and moved to its other estate at
Howick in Northumberland. His descendants gained peerage titles including: Baronet Grey of Chillingham, Northumberland (1619); Baron Grey of Werke (1623/4); Baronet Grey of Howick (1746); Baron Grey of Howick (1801); Viscount Howick (1806); Earl Gret (1806). His most notable descendant was
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, 2nd Viscount Howick (1764-1845), KG, of
Howick Hall, Prime Minister and supposed inventor of the famous tea.
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] a record for recent years in the North East.[13]
^Clare Howard & Rebecca Pullen, Castle Heaton, Cornhill-on-Tweed: An Investigation of the Vaulted Building and Adjacent Earthworks (English Heritage, 2014), pp. 17, 23.
^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
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.
ISBN0-86299-541-8
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)ISBN1449966381
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)