Dalden Tower
Dalton-le-Dale, County Durham
The ruins of Dalton Tower in 2017
Dalden Tower
Coordinates	54°49′51″N 1°20′51″W / 54.830759°N 1.347449°W / 54.830759; -1.347449
Type	Manor house, pele tower
Site information
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Ruined
Site history
Built	12th century
In use	12th century-17th century
Materials	Limestone and sandstone

Dalden Tower or Dawden Tower^[1] was a manor house and later a pele tower in the village of Dalton-le-Dale, County Durham. Only ruins survive today.

The site has been a scheduled ancient monument since 1968,^[2] and grade II* listed building since 1950.^[3]

History

Dalden Tower was built by the Escolland family during the 12th century^[4] and Sir Jordan de Dalden built the chapel of Dalden Tower around 1320. Shortly after, it was passed down to the Bowes family no later than 1376,^[5] who built the surviving structures, including the hall, during the late 14th century.^[6] The estate had passed to the Collingwood family in 1615, and later the Milbank family.^[4] A pele tower, which also survives today, was added during the 16th century.^[6]^[7]

Dalden Tower had fallen into disrepair by the 17th century, and most of the stones from the building were taken and used to construct Dalden Hall, which was demolished in 1967 after it had collapsed during the early 1960s,^[4] although part of the surviving wall of Dalden Tower dates to the 17th-early 18th century, longer after it had been abandoned.^[8] The building was excavated during 1965-66 and 1985-89 and parts of the hall range were located below ground, with the location of the moat also being identified.^[7]

References

Anthony Emery. "Streatlam Castle and Dalden Tower". Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500. Cambridge University Press. 1996. pp 138 & 139.
Adrian Pettifer. "Dalden Tower". English Castles: A Guide by Counties. The Boydell Press. 1995. p 27.
"Dalton Tower, Durham" (1824) 135 Gentleman's Magazine 511; "Dalton-le-Dale" (1893) 15 Gentleman's Magazine Library 12 at 13.
Leighton. Memorials of Old Durham. 1910. p 216.
William Fordyce. The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham. A Fullarton & Co. 1857. p 588.
"Dawden Tower" (1897) 8 Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne 55
R Anderson Aird, "Notes on Dalden tower and the village of Dalton-le-Dale" (1902) Antiquities of Sunderland and its Vicinity 29 (14 June and 7 October 1902)
R Anderson Aird, "Visit to Dalton-le-Dale and Easington" (1912) 14 Antiquities of Sunderland and its Vicinity (12 March 1912)
"Excavations at Dalden Tower, Dalton-le-Dale, 1987" (1986) Durham County Council. Listed in bibliography of Shared Visions.
D Coggins. Excavation Archive of Excavations conducted 1985-89.
Elizabeth Williamson (ed). Nikolaus Pevsner. County Durham. (The Buildings of England). Second Edition. Penguin Books. 1983. 1985. Yale University Press. 2002. p 138.
Mackenzie and Ross. An Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive View of the County Palatine of Durham. 1834. vol 1. pp 372 & 373.
Billings. Illustrations of the Architectural Antiquities of the County of Durham. 1846. p 28.
Moule. The English Counties Delineated. 1837. vol 2. p 521.
Hodges, "The Pele Towers of Northumberland" (1891) 5 The Reliquary 1 at 3
5 Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne 173

^ Neville Whittaker. The Old Halls and Manor Houses of Durham. Graham. 1975. p 10.
^ List entry 1020292
^ List entry 1232268
^ ^a ^b ^c King, D.J.C., (1983), Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 135
^ Hunt, William (1889), "Edward the Black Prince", in Stephen, Leslie (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 17, London: Smith, Elder & Co, pp. 90–101
^ ^a ^b Corfe, Tom (ed), (1992), 'The Visible Middle Ages' in An Historical Atlas of County Durham p. 28-9
^ ^a ^b Theodore Nicholson, (1969), 'Report of Excavations at Dalden Tower 1965-6' Antiquities of Sunderland Vol. 24
^ Gidney, L.J., (1987), CBA Group 3: Newsbulletin Vol. 7 p. 31-4