Marmion Tower

Marmion Tower is a stone gatehouse, built in the early 15th century as the entrance to the fortified manor of West Tanfield. West Tanfield occupied a strategic crossing point on the north bank of the River Ure, and Sir John Marmion and later his daughter-in-law Maud were given licences by the Crown to crenellate the manor house there in 1314 and 1348 respectively. When the antiquary John Leland visited the site in the mid-16th century, he described how "the castelle of Tanfeld, or rather as it is nowe, a meane manor Place, stondith hard on the ripe of Ure, wher I saw no notable building but a fair toured Gateway and a Haule of squarid stone." The tower and the manor passed into the Parr…

The tower is three storeys high, 34 by across and built from magnesian limestone; it was raised in height at some point after its original construction. On the ground floor, the tower contained a vaulted porter's lodge, 20 by wide, with a fireplace, latrine and a "squint" to allow the porter to look into the passageway. A newel staircase in the north-west corner connected to the first and second floors. The first floor has a fireplace and an ornate oriel window, added after the original construction, looking east; Pevsner considered this "must be Elizabethan at the earliest." The second floor has another fireplace, a latrine and three windows with stone seats. The roof has since been lost,…