| Peel Tower |
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| fortification | |
| scottish borders | |
| history of northumberland | |
| history of cumbria | |
| towers in the united kingdom | |
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A line of these towers was built in the 1430s across the Tweed valley from Berwick to its source, as a response to the dangers of invasion from the English Borders . Others were built in Cumberland , Westmorland and Northumberland , and as far south as Lancashire , in response to the threat of attack from the Scots and the Border Reivers . Apart from their primary purpose as a warning system, these towers were the homes of the Laird s and Landlord s of the area, who dwelt in then with their families and retainers, while their followers lived in simple huts outside the walls. The towers also provided a refuge so that, when cross-border raiding parties arrived, the whole population of a village could take to the tower and wait for the marauders to depart. In the upper Tweed valley, going downstream from its source, they were as follows: Fruid, Hawkshaw , Oliver, Polmood, Kingledores, Mossfennan, Wrae, Quarter, Stanhope, Drumelzier, Tinnies, Dreva, Stobo, Dawyck, Easter Happrew, Lyne, Barnes, Caverhill, Neidpath , Peebles , Horsburgh, Nether Horsburgh, Cardrona, etc. Peel towers are not usually found in larger places which have a is a fine example of a so-called '' Vicar 's pele'' and the one at Hulne Priory is in the grounds of the Priory . Hawkshaw , ancestral home of the Porteous Family at Tweedsmuir in Peeblesshire , a peel tower dating from at least 1439 , no longer stands but its site is marked by a Cairn . Nowadays some towers are derelict while others have been converted for use in peacetime; the Embleton tower is now part of the (former) vicarage and that on the Inner Farne is a home to bird wardens. The most obvious conversion needs will include access, which was originally difficult, and the provision of more and larger windows. SEE ALSO |
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