Tyne and Wear HER(1513): Newcastle town wall, White Friar Tower - Details
1513
Newcastle
Newcastle town wall, White Friar Tower
Newcastle
NZ26SW
Defence
Town Defences
Town Wall
Medieval
C14
Demolished Building
This tower was sited at the top of the steep slope above Close Gate, and was probably built in the first half of the 14th century. It was unique among the towers on the Newcastle wall in having an octagonal ground floor beneath a circular second storey, the two separated by "a bold moulding". In the 17th or 18th century a mullion and transom window was inserted in the west wall of the upper room. At one time the masons had their meeting hall in the upper room, the companies of bricklayers and mettors below. In 1776 the tower was leased to Isaac Cookson for 21 years, "with liberty to make a battlement and way from his summer-house to the top of the said tower". He converted it into an icehouse. The tower was demolished 1841-1843/4 by Amor Spoor for the construction of Hanover Street.
2485
6367
NZ24856367
<< HER 1513 >> H. Bourne, 1736, History of Newcastle, 11
J. Brand, 1789, History of Newcastle, I, 8 & n.
G.B. Richardson, 1844, Account of the Discovery...in the Western Suburbs of Pons Aelii, Archaeologia Aeliana, 1, III, 148-9
Illustration C.H.H. Blair, 1937, The Walls of Newcastle upon Tyne, illustrated by...G.B. Richardson, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XIV, 125, pl. xii
S. Holmes, 1896, The Town Walls of Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XVIII, 11-12
M.A. Richardson, 1841, Local Historian's Table Book, Historical Division, I, 343; V, 164, 200, 230-32, 304
Illustration, Newcastle Library Local Studies Red, 5 volume, expanded series, book no. 376052A, E.Mackenzie, 1827, View of Newcastle, Vol. 2, between pp. 108 and 117