Newcastle town wall, Plummer Tower

Newcastle town wall, Plummer Tower

HER Number
1553
District
Newcastle
Site Name
Newcastle town wall, Plummer Tower
Place
Newcastle
Map Sheet
NZ26SE
Class
Defence
Site Type: Broad
Town Defences
Site Type: Specific
Town Wall
General Period
MEDIEVAL
Specific Period
Medieval 1066 to 1540
Form of Evidence
Extant Building
Description
A semi-circular, much restored tower, which earlier writers have suggested was originally of two storeys (like Carliol Tower). In his recent description, however, Nolan points out that medieval masonry survives only to the height of the adjoining curtain wall, and may never have been 2 storeys. No other original features survive, i.e. no loops, stairs or parapet. Once called the Carliol Croft Tower, it served as an artillery position at the time of the Civil War. When, in the 17th century, it was the Cutlers' meeting hall it was named Cutlers' Tower, and it was possibly this company which inserted the large, later blocked, windows. In 1749 it was let to the Company of Masons with permission to build a meeting house there - this leading to a new Palladian west front etc. They continued to hold it into the 20th century, after which it was intermittently used as a dwelling house and subjected to a number of restorations. SCHEDULED ANCIENT MONUMENT AND LISTED GRADE 1
Easting
425200
Northing
564420
Grid Reference
NZ425200564420
Sources
<< HER 1553 >> J. Brand, 1789, History of Newcastle, I, 16 & pl.
T.M. Richardson, 1880, Memorials of Old Newcastle-upom-Tyne, pl. ix
S. Holmes, 1896, The Town Walls of Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XVIII, 9-10, 18
J. Nolan, 1993, The Town Wall, Newcastle. Excavations at...Croft Street, 1987-89, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5, XXI, 130-141; URS, 2013, Plummer House, Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeological Assessment