Ninebanks Tower, Adjacent To The South End Of Ninebanks Post Office

NY 75 SE WEST ALLEN NINEBANKS (West side)

14/242 Ninebanks Tower, adjacent to the south end of Ninebanks Post Office II*

Tower, built onto east gable of earlier manor house in early C16, heightened and stair turret added later C16. Rubble with stone dressings, later C16 work more massive rubble. Roughly square in plan. 4 storeys; rectangular stair turret at west end of north face. Elevation to street (east): blocked rectangular chamfered loop just above ground level with small inserted window over, 1st floor window formerly of 2 lights, monolithic head with 2-centred arches, 2nd-floor rectangular chamfered window with a pair of raised inverted shields on the lintel. Weathering of a pitched roof or gablet above. Hollow- chamfered course carries oversailing 3rd floor with a pair of rectangular windows one above the other, and a corbelled cornice which formerly supported a parapet. Stair turret has 3 chamfered loops. Right return has blocked Tudor-arched door partly concealed by the stair turret, and a rectangular chamfered lst-floor loop. Left return has chamfered loops to the 1st and 3rd floors and a small slit to the 2nd. 2 stone spouts project from the moulded parapet. To the left a buttress-like projection is part of the earlier house. Rear elevation shows inserted door and much patching; several doorways with chamfered surrounds, some blocked, in stair turret. To left of turret one jamb of a ground-floor window of the former north range.

Interior; at 1st and 2nd floor levels doorways with monolithic Tudor-arched heads, now blocked; to right of the 2nd-floor door is a blocked chamfered window, looking into the tower, i.e. part of the gable of the earlier manor house. At 3rd floor level the remains of a fireplace. Lower section of stair turret now infilled; upper part retains its stone newel stair, with near the top a circular gunloop on the north.

The heraldry on the tower, now defaced, is thought to relate to Sir Thomas Dacre, ruler of Hexhamshire 1515-1526.

Dickinson G., 'Historical Notices of the 2 Parishes of Allendale and Whitfield' (1903) p 28 et seq.

Listing NGR: NY7820453201