Prudhoe – Its Origin & Its Castle

Photographs relating to this article, including those in this extract, may be found in Gallery 7.01

Prudhoe’s origins stretch into what one might refer to as ‘pre-history’. “Early man” cleared the timber from the valley side around our present town and with his primitive ploughs cut furrows in the soil. Evidence that the area was occupied during the Bronze Age came to light in 1847 when a man ploughing a field near Broomhouse Farm uncovered a Bronze Age sepulchre. The vicar of Ovingham at that time, the Reverend W Greenwell, examined the find and declared it to be a cist or chamber constructed from four large slabs of sandstone with two smaller ones and three covering stones. The barrow contained no body, only bits of charcoal, but some nine feet away an urn was discovered which held the ashes of an adult, together with a flint knife. Subsequently, finds of ancient axe heads and other primitive tools have been uncovered near the river, and around the castle evidence of a pre-historic burial ground has been traced. At Edgewell a Bronze Age axe head has also been uncovered and is now in the British Museum. Terrace cultivations could once be seen in fields on the west side of Prudhoe Bank but those were obliterated when the housing development took place beyond and below Castle Road.

In ancient documents we find the name of Prudhoe written in a variety of ways including ‘Proudo’, ‘Pruddo’ ‘Proudehowe’ and ‘Prudho’. As the castle is situated in a commanding position above the river, it is thought that its name is derived from its situation: being Prud (Proud) Hoh (Ridge or Height). Others argue that the name comes from an ancient settler, Prudha, and the Old English meaning is Prudha’s place or Prudha’s ridge.

There are no records of Prudhoe until the beginning of the Norman Period, though local legend says that a detachment of Roman soldiers was based here. It was the Normans, however, who literally put Prudhoe on the map. After the Battle of Hastings William the Conqueror granted lands in the Redesdale area to one of his relatives, Robert de Umfraville, also known as “Robert with the Beard”, who had fought with him in that battle. It was during the reign of William’s son, Henry I (1100-1135) that the Barony of Prudhoe was added to these lands. Alnwick Castle records refer to this as the “Bailliewick of Prudhoe Castle”. The first castle would probably have been of the motte and bailey type consisting of a wooden palisade around a timber fort.

It was Odinel de Umfraville who replaced this wooden structure with a stone castle between 1161 and 1182 and so the castle as we know it today began to take shape. The site of the castle was ideal since it stands 150 feet high on its mound overlooking the River Tyne: the only means of entry being strengthened by the building of a gateway and barbican on the south side.

It appears that Odinel encountered a serious problem during the castle’s construction. At that time the law decreed that the construction of a castle was a community’s obligation and the local nobleman could call upon the local inhabitants to assist with the labour. The people of Wylam, however, refused on the grounds that their village was owned by St Oswin’s monastery at Tynemouth and they, therefore, had no feudal duty to Prudhoe. Baron Odinel was so annoyed at this that he sent a party of his men to seize some of the monastery’s cattle as a fine. Legend has it that, as they were about to swoop, St Oswin intervened and the beasts, together with their herdsmen, simply vanished into thin air! So, without the help of the men of Wylam, and in spite of the saintly intervention, the stone castle was completed.

In 1173 William the Lion, King of Scotland, invaded England, since he laid claim to the Earldom of Northumberland. Odinel, however, refused to recognise the Scottish king’s claims and the latter is reported to have vowed “may I be accursed, excommunicated, put to shame and discomforted if I give the castle of Odinel a fixed time of respite. I will cause him wholly to lose his joy and delight”. But William never did succeed in taking Prudhoe Castle — ‘Umfraville’s joy and delight’. In 1173, having found Newcastle too strongly defended; William sought his revenge on Prudhoe, again without success, and so withdrew to Carlisle, burning part of Hexham Abbey on the way. William returned from Carlisle on Monday 8th July 1174 in an effort to surprise Odinel de Umfraville and called upon Prudhoe Castle to surrender. The garrison refused and the men entreated Odinel to escape and raise forces for their relief, thinking they would eventually fall to the might of the Scots. Odinel made his escape to the security and protection of the Archbishop of York. The enraged Scots made an attack with renewed fury. The contemporary chronicler, Jordan Fantosme, reports that “the garrison did not receive one silver pennyworth of injury, while many of the besiegers were so sorely wounded as to give them no chance of ever seeing their homes again”. The Scottish army of men at arms, bowmen and knights would have been encamped where Castle Dene now stands and it has been suggested that the flat area on which the scout hut now stands on Prudhoe Bank could have been the spot on which siege machines may have been set up to hurl large stones at the castle walls. After three days of fruitless siege the Scots were so irritated by their failure that they burned the standing corn in the fields and spitefully stripped the bark from the apple trees around the castle so that they would die. (Appletree Drive on the Castlefields Estate takes its name from this event). The Scots then pillaged and burned as far as Hedley and, with supplies running low, marched off to Alnwick. Meanwhile Odinel had gathered a band of knights and men at arms and lay in wait for William and captured the Scottish king at Alnwick, defeating his army in the process.

The earliest documents relating to Prudhoe, other than those specific to the castle, are the charters of Richard de Umfraville (1195-1226). Richard gave a charter to ‘William, son of Pagan, 16 ½ acres in the field of Prudhoe ….. with common pasture …… to be held by homage and service together with 8 acres in the waste… to hold at a yearly rent of one pound of pepper” In 1213 Richard de Umfraville (now the Baron of Prudhoe) pledged his four sons and his castle of Prudhoe as a surety of his loyalty to the king. Unfortunately for Richard, he and other barons became weary of King John’s tyranny and took up arms against John. The result was that the king deprived Richard of his castle and lands and these were bestowed upon Hugh de Baliol, Lord of Bywell. His sons, though, appear to have retained their liberty.

On John’s death and the accession of Henry III in 1216, the Umfraville possessions were all restored to Richard. In thanks to God for his good fortune, Richard gave to the monks of Hexham a toft (homestead) and eight acres of land in the township of Prudhoe. Records do not pinpoint the location of this land, however, the 1859 map names land around what is now the Dr Syntax) and a plot of land to the west of it as “Hexham Land”.

In 1256 it is recorded that “at the Assises, William, son of Sibill, was accused of wounding Stephen, son of Stephen of Cornshow at Prudhoe, so that immediately afterwards he died”. It appears that William escaped and the township was fined for failing to take him. The jury found that he had no goods and, as a result, he was outlawed.

An inventory of Prudhoe compiled in 1307 lists 120 acres of arable land worth 6 pence an acre per year; 40 bondages, each of 18 acres, worth yearly 8 shillings; 16 cottages each worth 1 s 3d a year; 2 watermills worth £5 yearly; a pool worth 2 shillings yearly and a fishery in he Tyne worth £1 per year.

The last of the Umfraville barons was Gilbert who died in 1381. His widow, Maud, married Henry de Percy, the 3rd Lord of Alnwick, and so Prudhoe Castle passed into the hands of Northumberland’s most distinguished and powerful family. The heraldic crescent, which is part of the Percy coat of arms, can be seen on several buildings in Prudhoe today, for example Duke’s cottages at the bottom of South Road, indicating that they belonged to the Percy estates. The land on which Eastwood Middle School now stands was bought from the Duke of Northumberland.

The only occasion that Prudhoe Castle was taken was in 1405 when the Earl of Northumberland rebelled against King Henry IV. The king marched to Prudhoe at the head of thirty thousand men and took over the castle without a battle.

The accounts of John Eland, the Bailiff of Ovingham fishery for 1503-4, itemise 92 salmon in winter sold at 1s 4d each; 107 salmon in summer up to the feast of St Mary Magdalene (i.e. 22nd July) of which 12 were sold at 8d each and 95 sold at 6d each. Repairs were made to the fish dam, and 6d per cartload was paid to various of the lord’s tenants for carting fifty loads of stone and timber. Four pence per day was paid to each of the labourers for a total of 130 days’ work entailed in mending the dam.

In 1536 it is recorded that Edward Bell held one tenement, a croft of one rood (i.e. a quarter of an acre), 2 acres of meadow in the millstead, 7 acres of land with common in Prudhoe Moor at a rent of eight pence.

The muster roll of 1536, which records the men who could be called to arms, includes Prudhoe’s contingent comprising the constable, Mr Carey providing 8 men, Richard Rothfurtle providing 4 men, Jefrey Butflower with 2 men “able with horse and harness”.

By 1557, Prudhoe had been restored to its owners, but there was more trouble to follow. The castle was suspected as being a hide-out of Thomas Percy, a member of the ill-fated Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

In 1622, the certificate on Prudhoe cites 22 tenements, “3 fieldes for corne lying in common” and a fourth field divided into closes.

As more peaceful days came to the Border Regions, Prudhoe, like many other castles in the county had outlived its use and fell into disrepair. A survey of 1596 had described it as “old and ruinous. . . .in form not much unlike a shield hanging with one point downwards”. Such must have been the state of its inadequate defence that one must question the validity of the tale which states that when Oliver Cromwell, on a tour of the Borders, visited Prudhoe he was “so displeased at the sight of a baronial pile that appeared impregnable” that he fired a cannonball at it.

Old Print of Prudhoe Castle in a state of some decay
Vegetation is growing out of the tops of the turrets (by the Buck Brothers)

A cannonball was, however, found in 1995 in the playing fields of Ovingham Middle School. It was 3 ½ inches in diameter and made of iron and weighed 5 ½ lbs. It has been identified as coming from the 17th century and of the type used in a type of cannon known as a “Saker Ordinaire”. How it came to be there is a matter of speculation. During the English Civil War (1642-51) records of military activity in the Prudhoe area are rather thin, although there was considerable military activity in the Corbridge and Hexham area in February of 1644. Part of Cromwell’s New Model Army tracked the movement of Charles II’s troops in August 1651 and, in so doing, crossed the Tyne at Ovingham and at Eltringham fords. As for the cannonball it is possible that it literally fell off the back of a wagon since it was found too close to the surface to have been propelled by a cannon. It may have been lost by Cromwell’s army in 1651 , or else by the Scots in their forays of 1644 when they faced two regiments of horse commanded by Sir Gamaliel Dudley and Lord Henry Cavendish. The Scots had been encamped on the north side of the Tyne at Ovingham. Dudley’s and Cavendish’s Royalists, facing a greater force of the Scots were forced to retreat back across the river. Dudley lost four of his Dragoons as their horses were so weak that they were unable to battle with the current. Following this the Royalists headed back to Newcastle while the Scots, having made river crossings at Eltringham and Bywell, as well as Ovingham, headed for Sunderland following a route which took them via Ebchester and Chester-le-Street.

Other records of Prudhoe at this period state that in 1649 William Fenwick began to “negotiate with Robert Walker, William Bell, Robert Sisterson, John Huchisson, John Marshall and Robert Thompson, tenants and freeholders of Prudhoe, for the division of common fields”. The agreement was finally drawn up on 23’ February 1650. Another piece of folklore about Prudhoe Castle tells of a “Grey Lady” who is still reputed to walk the corridors of the Georgian Mansion at night. The Mansion built between 1808 and 1818 has some fourteen rooms and was built attached to the keep in the centre of the decaying castle. The mansion was once occupied by the Duke of Northumberland’s agent. The Grey Lady and her activities are remembered by having a street, Grey Lady Walk, named after her on the Castlefields Estate, which was begun in 1997.

Like many other castles, Prudhoe also has its legend of an underground secret passage. In Prudhoe’s case, it is said to link it with Bywell Castle, which is some three miles away! No archaeological evidence of such has been found.

In a letter sent in 1989 to the custodian of Prudhoe Castle, Elizabeth Rogers (nee Graham) of Welwyn Garden City, gives an insight into the conditions in the castle when she lived there between 1950 and 1952. She describes the grounds as “a great, brambly overgrown wilderness”. She says that her mother would never go near the old conservatory (which was long disused and falling into decay) without feeling that it had extremely unpleasant associations. Elizabeth, too, admitted that it seemed to her to have an evil quality about it.

Miss Graham (as she was then) and her mother lived on the ground floor of the manor house in rooms on the left of the front door. At that time, this was one large room (not divided as it is today) and the bedroom was where the toilets are now. Another family, an Irish couple, called Cavanagh, lived in the East Tower. There were also at least four other couples living in the house at the time.

Mrs Rogers was well aware of the legend of the Grey Lady but states that she was never nervous when left alone in the Manor House (she was a student in Newcastle at the time). However, she was always very frightened when she was alone in the East Tower. One night, when alone, she says, “I heard distinct chanting coming from the chapel. I tried to convince myself that it was the wind in the trees, but I had a sleepless night”.

She also tells of a “White Horse” though she never saw it. “Apparently”, she says, “a white horse would sometimes drift noiselessly around the courtyard.. .when I had to go to the house I would beat Roger Bannister”. (The first man to break the four-minute mile).

On several occasions Elizabeth and her mother heard a curious sound, “as if someone was bouncing a ball rhythmically up and down the steps outside”. Mrs Cavanagh had the same experience. She has been told that a young boy who lived at the castle, and later became a priest, used to spend hours practising bouncing a ball up and down the steps.

Mr and Mrs Cavanagh were often awakened in the Tower, “by the sound of water being hurled, with great force, at the door”, though nothing was to be seen.

In the hallway of the house stood an ornate oak table with an extremely heavy top. One night, Mrs Rogers says “an incredible sound woke us all — the whole house shook and reverberated with the sound. We all thought there had been an explosion (there was a very wicked gas water heater in the kitchen). On examination we discovered that the massive top lid of the table was lying on the hall floor. There was no question of it having slipped, or being pushed – it took three men to put it back in place”.

In Mrs Rogers’ time in the castle, the room, which is currently the shop, was home to a gentleman who, in earlier years, had suffered from some sort of facial paralysis, of which he had been cured. One night, Mrs Rogers writes, “he became uncomfortably aware that there was someone, or something, outside. He opened the curtains to see, assuming it might be a prowler. As he did so, an enormous white shape hurtled towards him through the trees”. Mrs Rogers comments: “The paralysis returned (not surprisingly)”. Mrs Rogers concludes: “No doubt you’ll decide that all these things are the result of over-heated imagination, tricks of the light, hallucinations, etc.; but I can assure you that living in the East Tower was for me, at least, a very frightening experience. Perhaps we’re foolish to be frightened, as these things don’t seem to harm us. As my mother used to say ‘They’re only shadows from the past’. (The oak table was a bit of a loud one).”

In the early 1930’s, Mrs Elsie McIver went to the castle as resident cook to Captain Clark and his mother. The castle was rented to a succession of officers from the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, who were sub-tenants of Colonel Nielson who in turn rented it from the Duke. Mrs McIver was married from the castle and proudly had the address of ‘Prudhoe Castle’ on her marriage certificate. Mrs McIver returned to the castle in 1946 as cook to Don José Paniego di Ecay, the Spanish consul based in Newcastle.

One eccentric occupant of the castle within living memory is reported to have had an affinity for dressing in a large black cloak, rather like Dracula, and hanging around the castle entrance, much to the consternation of passers-by. He is said to have committed suicide by jumping off the castle walls.

The castle ceased to be occupied in 1963 but Mrs McIver’s husband, Jack, looked after the gardens while it was in the charge of the Ministry of Works and was closed to the public. During Mr & Mrs McIver’s association with the castle, it had many noted visitors including the French and Portuguese consuls, Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing and Lieutenant-General Sir Brian Horrocks, the military historian. In the early 1970’s, an American novelist, Edith Kuether, made many visits and probably used Prudhoe Castle as inspiration for the settings of some of her Scottish based novels.

It is beyond the brief of this book to deal in detail with the architecture of Prudhoe Castle. The information can be found in publications specifically about the castle. Special attractions, however, are the oriel window, the remains of the mill and the adjacent bridge. The oriel window is situated in the small chapel, dedicated to St Mary, above the main gateway. This is just as it was in the 14th century. It is the oldest example of an oriel window in England. The reason for the window being built out of the wall of the chapel was due to the fact that the priest lived in a loft above the chapel and it was considered sacrilege for him to live about the altar. The window was, therefore, built out from the gateway forming a little chancel to accommodate an altar which was placed within the window bay.

The remains of a mill are to be found on the east side of the entrance. This was managed by tenants of Prudhoe Castle Farm, below the castle. Records at A1nwick Castle indicate that the mill ceased work sometime between 1868 and 1883, during the time of the 6th Duke of Northumberland. The small bridge adjacent to the mill has the strange feature of having a rounded arch on one side which becomes a pointed one when viewed from the other side.

In addition to the castle, Prudhoe’s fortifications also once included a pele tower. In 1326 Roger Manuyt, the keeper of the castle, was ordered to build a pele outside the gates of the castle, though why a pele should be built just outside a heavily fortified castle is a mystery. From Stockdale’s account of 1596 it would seem that the peel was in the Tilt Yard, since Stockdale writes of it being “between two moats on the west side of the barbican where a chapel stood called Our Lady of the Pele yard”. He states that the pele yard was entered from the barbican by a large “Gate Rowme”.

The castle is once again open to the public, being under the care of English Heritage. It has a resident custodian and regularly stages special events such as historical re-enactments. It also has its own society, the Friends of Prudhoe Castle, who meet regularly in the old mansion.