Westhall, Northumberland

For the village in Suffolk, see Westhall.

Westhall
Northumberland
Westhall
Location
Grid reference:	NU103341
Location:	55°36’4"N, 1°50’17"W
History
	Country house
Information

Westhall is a privately owned castellated house at Belford in Northumberland, now in use as a farm house.

History

Westhall Farm, a little to the north-west of Belford is approached by a lane from the Wooler road. A fortified house here, surrounded by a moat, is mentioned in a 15th-century document as the Castrum de Belford. The present house was built in 1837 in a castellated Gothic style.

Motte and bailey castle

It has been suggested that Westhall is the site of a much earlier motte and bailey castle, however, Davis, in particular, has strong reservations against it:

Earthworks survive, modern farm on site of a possible C11 Motte and Bailey. Later received C15 tower (qv). Recorded as moat to C15 Tower in SMR and PastScape. The 1415 list mentions a castle here held by the D'Arcy family, it later passed to the Conyers, and then to the Forsters and Dixons, before being sold to William Clarke in the 18th Century. Although the presence of the later tower suggests this may have been a high status location the very nearby presence of a strong natural position and already existing Prehistoric camp at Chapel Crag (qv), which has a mediæval chapel on it, would suggest this may not be the manorial centre. Philip Davis offers I can see no reason to build a motte when there is a more dramatic, better defended but still easily accessible site so close by. If there was a C11 or C12 castle at Belford I would suggest that the remains of the Chapel at NU10463449 suggest where it was located.