Mortham Tower

Mortham Tower is a fortified manor house of Grade I listed status, built by the Rokeby family on a new site following the destruction of their previous residence by raiding Scots after Bannockburn.

The complex comprises ranges arranged around a courtyard. The hall, solar, north-west wing and possibly a south-east range date probably to the 14th century. The tower was added in the later 15th century, whilst the south-west range, courtyard wall and gateway date probably to the early 16th century. The solar was remodelled as a Great Chamber in the later 16th century. The hall was converted to a barn around 1820. The building underwent restoration in 1939 by David Hodges and Kenneth Peacock for Mrs Rhodes-Moorhouse.

The solar and north-west wing are constructed of rubble; the hall is rubble to its north elevation and ashlar to the south. The tower is primarily ashlar, except for roughly-squared stone on the lower parts of the north and east elevations. The courtyard wall and gateway are of large roughly-squared stone. The south-east range has large squared stone on the west elevation and rubble on the east, whilst the south-west range is rubble. Cut dressings are employed throughout. Roofs are of graduated stone slate except for a 20th-century flat roof on the tower.

Most windows are square-headed, with or without mullions and hoodmoulds, and feature chamfered and hollow-chamfered surrounds. The hall and Great Chamber range shows central early 19th-century round-headed arches on both north and south elevations, along with the remains of blocked mullioned windows and barn slit vents. The Great Chamber has a lateral stack at the north. The east gable was rebuilt in the early 19th century and now has 1939 mullioned windows. The west gable displays a later 16th-century two-storey canted bay. The north-west wing has a projecting east bay with a restored three-light first-floor window and the remains of an original end stack at its north end.

The square tower features a north-east stair turret partly contained within the adjacent range. The lower floors have restored two-light windows; the second floor has one- and two-light windows with cinquefoil-headed lights. A tall parapet is topped with angle bartizans above a string course. The upper parapet, above a second string course, has large square-headed openings and embattled cresting to the bartizans. Some chamfered loops are present.

The south-east range facing the courtyard is two storeys with four irregular bays; the left bay is a later addition. Windows are mostly mullioned, some restored, and the roof is hip-ended. The south end displays a fine sundial dated 1566.

The south-west range facing the courtyard is two storeys with three irregular bays and similar mullioned windows. The south end features a four-light transomed window with a hoodmould stepped up over a central panel bearing a shield. The rear elevation shows two stepped buttresses and a lateral stack.

The courtyard wall features a projecting central gateway with a double-chamfered four-centred arch and hollow-chamfered hoodmould, flanked by later raking buttresses that incorporate several 12th and 13th-century grave covers. A west projecting turret and embattled parapets complete the gateway. Flights of internal stone steps at each end of the wall serve the wall walk and first-floor doorways in the adjacent ranges. The eastern stair features an old slab bearing the Rokeby arms and initials.

Internally, the hall retains two 14th-century roof trusses with long moulded arch braces to collars carrying upper king posts, with cusping at the heads of principals and posts; later tie beams were added. The first-floor Great Chamber has richly-moulded 16th-century ceiling beams and joists, and a contemporary Tudor-arched fireplace. A room in the north-west wing displays a similar fireplace with a carved lintel and 16th-century ornamental plasterwork over the bay window. The tower contains other old fireplaces, doorways, garderobes and windows with stone seats; corbels at the wall head formerly carried a fighting platform serving upper-level embrasures. The south-west range retains a 16th-century roof.

The building declined to farm use during the 18th and 19th centuries before its 20th-century restoration.