Chipchase Castle

Our View

Chipchase Castle is a magical mix of medieval, Jacobean and Georgian, reflecting both the turbulent history of the area and family that owned it. Like many of the great Northumbrian houses, it began as a defensive pele tower against Scottish raiders – and against the neighbours and authorities, too, for the Heron family, who owned Chipchase from 1348, were a quarrelsome lot. How long the tower stood alone is unclear, but by 1541 a stone manor house was joined to it. It was from here that the Herons, as Keepers of Tyndale, set out on Scottish raids. In 1537 John Heron was accused of murder, but was later pardoned. The estates were eventually inherited by Cuthbert Heron in 1591, when he was only six. Yet within 60 years of Cuthbert’s confident gesture in building a new home, there was almost nothing left of the Heron fortunes. Mortgages, dowries, and the political climate, had taken their toll. The family struggled on at Chipchase until 1727, when they were forced to sell. Ownership changed several times until it came to John Reed in 1734. Reed obviously found the Jacobean house dark and gloomy, for he added sash windows and put false windows on the pele so that the south-west side of the house is symmetrical. He transformed the interiors too, with elegant plaster ceilings and fine doorcases, particularly in what is now the billiard room, where there is also a superbly carved wooden overmantel, a survivor from the previous house.