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Fowberry Tower

The House

Fowberry Tower, the home of Graham, Jenny and Rosie MacHarg, is one of the very few houses in the North of England which followed the Gothic taste pioneered by Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill and stands in parkland on the banks of the river Till in North Northumberland.

Fowberry Tower has been described as "one of the most unspoilt smaller country houses in Northumberland" (The Old Halls, Houses and Inns of Northumberland by Frank Graham) and "one of the finest surviving pieces of Georgian Gothic in the North: not a sham castle but an English gentleman's home." (The County Book of Northumberland, H.L. Honeyman.)

In the twelfth century, Fowberry was the seat of the Folebyr or Folbery family for the service of one knight's fee of the old feoffment of the barony of de (1)*Vescy (Vesci) of Alnwick. The first recorded Fowberry was Hugh de Folebyr, who was mentioned in two charters of gifts to Alnwick Abbey before 1184.

Fowberry began life as a pele tower - perhaps to oversee an established crossing point on the River Till and to this day has a fresh water spring under the basement. Before 1666 Fowberry Tower was described as 'a long narrow manor house, crudely classical in style, built on a rectangle 50ft. by 24ft., with walls about five feet thick'. We can surmise from outside factors like centuries of warfare with the Scots and from limited reports, that Fowberry was most probably a tower house, known to stand more or less alone and without a curtain wall or barmekin (see 1541 entry). Defence may have been in the form of stockades or ditches. Such buildings are the Northumberland equivalent of manor houses of the type represented in less troubled areas by hall-and-cross-wing houses. Hall towers have their halls set on the first or second floor over a barrel-vaulted basement on a rectangular block that typically had projecting square turrets at some or all of the angles, a characteristic Northumberland form of the later 13th century and early 14th century. It is believed that one section of the present basement, which is barrel-vaulted (stone), unlike the rest of the basement, which is segmental arches, may be original to this time.

The medieval tower house was rebuilt as a more comfortable home in 1666 for Squire John Strother, but only a few details of this house remain. Externally, it had a coarsely profiled classic eaves cornice, a remnant of which is in a wall in an upper room on the North front. There is considerable evidence that this Classic façade had Gothic windows, which would suggest that some early attempt had been made to conform to Tudor Gothic style. On one side of the hall there was a stone arcade of coffered and moulded arches on columns of the Roman Ionic order, quite well detailed though a little lacking in refinement. This suggests that there was a portico entrance on the South side. A remnant of column can be found by the present front hall. There is also an inscribed, undated stone, which reads – "This stone was laid by Sqr. John Strother and Mary, his Ladye." and a sundial in the garden wall from this period, dated 1666. There is evidence during the Strother's ownership of further unrecorded work to Fowberry, with a door lintel inscribed 1706. George Ridpath in his diary under the date 20th July 1757, states 'Fowberry is a stout ancient peel modernised not unhappily and elegantly finished and furnished'. Fowberry was inherited by John Strother Ker, who sold it in 1776 to Sir Francis Blake, for whom the North front of the house was rebuilt by James Nesbit ( - 1781) Architect, of Kelso during the late 1770's. He made the house wider and added lower one-bay wings to the left and right, using the local Doddington 'pink' sandstone. The façade is of three bays and two storeys on a vaulted basement. Each bay has a group of three stepped lancets of not-quite-correct form.

The moated South side is a mixture of classic and gothic styles, with four-centred arches to the windows. The front was added after 1800 "the few additions made in the 'Regency' style are equally characteristic (as the North elevation) and free from any pretence." A History of Northumberland – Lowick, Doddington, Chatton. Vol XIV. Matthew Culley (the son of agriculturalist and breeder, George Culley) completed the plans for the house when he purchased it in 1807, for £45,000. It is known that the last feature to be completed was the pediment (dated medallion stone) in 1809. The architect is not known*(2). We know that the house was then called Fowberry Hall from architectural prints published in 1826.

There had been a Window Tax in the country since 1695 and it is felt that the nine false windows at Fowberry Tower – glazed as the others, but with black painted stone some inches behind – were actually made as false windows, rather than bricked up at a later date. More windows would have given the appearance of a more impressive and larger house.

There are delightful interiors in the 1770's part of the house, especially the main staircase fan-coving with bee motif picked out in gold leaf, the very fine Adam fireplace c.1776 with its original grate in the King's room and the dining room Adam fireplace with relief gold bee hives atop columns. The dining room and drawing room are on the North front; spacious and lofty, they are probably the finest examples of Strawberry Hill Gothic in the North of England. The drawing room has a fine marble Adam fireplace and is flanked by two Gothic doorways surmounted by (3)*crocketed (4)*ogee arches, the cornices use the triple feathers of Wales and quatrefoils as motifs. Because of its North light, the dining room is decorated in a rich salmon pink, relieved by cream and gold leaf. Around the frieze is the crest of the Blake family, a martlet surmounting a cap of maintenance, alternating with acanthus leaf motifs in gold leaf. In the wall opposite the triple pointed Gothic window is an arched alcove separated by a slim quatrefoil shaft from the framework of another alongside it and two more Gothic doorways surmounted by crocketed ogee arches. The ceiling is on two levels; immediately in front of the alcove it is several feet lower than in the main part of the room and is supported by two cluster pillars. This lower ceiling is also pink and features five large gold medallions.

The basement has tripartite segmental windows under segmental arches and a possible older still barrel vaulted ceiling, which, along with one wall under the present dining room is thought to be part of the original tower hall or pele.

(1)*Yvo de Vesci (died 1134) was one of the Norman barons – the Conqueror's chieftains, who became owner of Alnwick soon after 1096, and erected the earliest parts of the present Castle. The castle left the de Vesci family, sold to Henry, Lord Percy on November 19th 1309. (Alnwick Castle, English Life Publications)

(2)*The architects working in this area at his time were: John Paterson of Edinburgh (a pupil and partner of the Adam brothers), George Wyatt and James Nesbit.

(3)*crocketed – crockets (lit. hooks): in Gothic architecture, leafy knobs on the edges of any sloping feature.

(4)*ogee: double curve applied to mouldings - bending first one way and then the other.

(5)*barmekin – outer wall.

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There is not sufficient information for a connected pedigree of the owners of Fowberry, but the names of most of them and significant dates in their lives have been brought together from various sources and records and are listed below:

Between 1096 and 1134 Hugh de Folebyr (son Alan) held Folebyr Coldmorton and Hessilrigg, by one knight's fee, of ancient enfeoffment of the barony of de Vescy of Alnwick.

1199 - 1233 Sir German de Folebyr. Northumb. Pleas, nos. 20, 214, 220.

1242 - William de Folebyr held Folebyr, Coldmorton and Hessilrigg. Book of Fees, Vol. ii.

1242 - During the reign of Henry I, Fowberry was described as of 'ancient enfeoffment'. Book of Fees, Vol. ii.

1256 - William de Folebyr withdrew from a lawsuit with the bishop of Durham over a fishery, which he claimed in the water of 'Welk' (unidentified). Northumb. Assize R. (S.S. vol. l xxxviii).

1270 - 1290. Basilia, daughter of the late German Lord of Fowberry in her widowhood granted to Robert Chaunterelle and his wife Maud, her daughter, certain lands in Fowberry; also all her claim to the half of one third of a knight's fee which her late father, Sir German Fowberry, held of the barony of Alnwick in Fowberry, Hazelrigg and Coldmartin, to hold as freely as the grantor's brother, Thomas of Fowberry, held them. Berw. Nat. Club, vol. xxii.

1296 - Fifteen inhabitants of Fowberry were assessed for the subsidy, among them Basilia's son-in-law, Robert Chaunterelle, £1 10s. 9d and John of Fowberry, clerk, £7 11s. 6d. The total assessment of the township was £40 14s. 1d. Subsidies 158/1 P.R.O.

1353 - 1358 – William, son of John of Fowberry, paid the feudal aid of 1346. Feudal Aids, vol. iv. p. 74.

1362 - John of Fowberry held Fowberry. Cal. Inq. Vol. vii. No. 638.

1368 - William of Fowberry held Fowberry. Tate, Alnwick, vol. i. p. 138.

1400 - John of Fowberry held Fowberry. Chanc. Inq. p.m. 2 Hen. IV. No. 50.

1411 - John of Fowberry, brother of William of Fowberry, quitclaimed to William of Fowberry, son of Christiana, the manor of Fowberry and land in Fowberry, Coldmartin and Hazlerigg with the reversion of the lands held in dower by Agnes widow of William of Fowberry (John's brother). Berw. Nat. Club, vol. xxii, p.326.

1428 - William of Fowberry was seised of Fowberry and one third of Coldmartin. Feudal Aids, vol. iv. p.87.

1467 - Sir Robert of Fowberry was knight of the shire for Northumberland.

1472 - Sir Robert of Fowberry was one of the burgesses returned to parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne. Parliamentary Returns. Cf. Percy Bailiffs' R. (S.S. vol cxxxiv.) p.13.

1477 - Ralph Hylton and Elizabeth his wife sued William Fowberry (Folbery) for one third of the manor of Fowberry as dower of the said Elizabeth. Arch. Ael. 3rd ser. vol. vi.

1496 - Elizabeth widow of Sir Robert Fowberry claimed dower in Fowberry from Richard Fowberry, who pleaded that neither at the time of his marriage, nor afterward was Robert seised of the land. Ibid.

1513 - 1517 – A widow was the inhabitant of Fowberry Tower. (Bates, Border Holds).

1524 - On Trinity Sunday 1524, an heir of William de Folbyr took 200 Scotsmen prisoner, on their return from plundering the country. History of Northumberland vol. 1.

1532 - The Scots plundered and burnt Fowberry in a raid, the memory of which is preserved in the name Battle Hill. Ogle, Ogle and Bothal, p.61. and History of Northumberland vol. 1.

1538 - Fowberry township had 70 residents. Arch Ael. 1st ser. Vol. iv. p.195.

1538 - Richard and John Fowberry attended the musters on Coldmartin Heath with 34 men. Arch Ael. 1st ser. Vol. iv. p.195.

1538 - 1539 – John Fowberry (Folbery) of Northumberland graduated B.A. at Cambridge, M.A. 1542, fellow of Pembroke. Venn, Alumni Camb.

1541 - The commissioners for surveying the borders reported that the tower at Fowberry had no (5)*barmekin but was in reasonably good repair, the owner being Richard Fowberry. Bates, Border Hold, p.35.

1549 - Richard of Fowberry. Belvoir Papers, Hist. MSS. Com. vol. 1. p.39.

1558 - Robert Fowberry made his will, mentioning his wife Eleanor, his brother Ralph, his uncle John Fowberry of Holm, his daughter Alice and his younger son Roger. (Dur. Wills and Invent. (S.S. vol. xxxviii) vol. ii.p.159.) It is believed this is the Roger who lost Fowberry from the family and who in 1596 was described by Lord Eure, warden of the marches, as having escaped from Durham gaol with other 'great theves'. Ibid.

1579 - 1580 - Fowberry is described as 'a village of Roger Fowburies, gentleman, with five tenants, none horsed'. Border Papers, Vol. 1 pp.15, 16.

1586 - Roger Fowberry entered into a bond with Lancelot Strother of Kirknewton. Berw. Nat. Club, vol.xxii. p329.

1589 - Roger Fowberry gave an undertaking to his son Roger that he would not alienate the tower and demesne of Fowberry, which were mortgaged to Lancelot Strother. Ibid.

1591 - Roger Fowberry petitioned the court of requests that he 'a gent of an auncient house and name' had been defrauded by his neighbour William Strother who 'being a man of very covetous minde and secretly affectinge and thirstinge after the said mannor (of Fowberry) did most gredely lye in wayt and used sundrye devises and practises' to get the manor from the petitioner. The Strothers, William the father and Lancelot the son, were able to show that Fowberry had been successively leased, mortgaged and finally assigned in fee simple for money advanced by them. Court of Requests, Eliz.no 620,1591.

December 1591 - Roger Fowberry the younger released his title to the stone house and tower of Fowberry to Lancelot Strother, thus ending over four hundred years of Fowberry family ownership. Berw. Nat. Club, vol. xxii. p330.

1611 - John Strother went to Kings College, Cambridge and Gray's Inn in 1614.

1654 - John Strother was given a life rent of Fowberry from his elder brother William.

1663 - Fowberry Tower was the property of William Strother, Esq. Of Kirknewton but charged upon Mr. Heron of Fowberry in the rental for raising the train-bands.

1666 - The medieval tower of Fowberry was rebuilt as a more comfortable house. An inscription on an outside wall reads: "This stone was laid by Sqr. John Strother and Mary, his Ladye." and a Taurian lime tree in the garden is traditionally said to have been planted in 1666 to commemorate the re-building of the mansion.

1676 - Christmas – Colonel William Strother of Fowberry, who was Deputy-Lieutenant, was ordered by the Privy Council to arrest John Welsh, the leader of militant Scottish covenanters and in:-

1678 - what is called the last engagement of the Civil War between English cavaliers and mounted Scottish covenanters, Colonel William Strother, his brother John Strother and young cousin, Robert Marley came upon their intended prey by chance at Crookham. A battle ensued, Welsh escaped, Marley was killed, John Strother's horse was killed and Colonel William Strother wounded. The Scots, all severely wounded escaped to safe hiding places. The County Book of Northumberland, H.L. Honeyman.

1678 - Inscription in the floor of the kitchen at Fowberry Tower (undiscovered) reads: John Strother was living in 1678" (Arch. Ael. 4th ser. Vol. ix).

1690 - 'Madam Mary Strother from Eshott' was buried at Felton 25th August.

1720's - No firm date found. William Strother, being the last male heir of the family, left an only daughter and heiress, Mary, wife of Walter Kerr.

1741 - John Strother Kerr, Esq. of Fowberry, was Sheriff for the county of Northumberland.

1760 - John Strother Kerr, son of Mary Strother and Walter Kerr succeeded to the family estates and Fowberry Tower. Newc. Proc. 3rd ser. Vol. x. p. 48.

1776 - John Strother Kerr sold Fowberry to Francis Blake, afterwards Sir Francis Blake of Twizel. Ibid. page 57, 74, 87. and current deeds. The Strother family had owned Fowberry for 184 years.

1776 onwards - The Blake family had an ambitious scheme for the enlargement of the whole house. The seventeenth century building was not demolished, but was completely embedded in the new work on the North elevation. Commentators noted " the eighteenth century stonework is of considerable originality, and of a massiveness which gives the lie to the accusation of 'flimsiness' so often directed against the early Gothic revival. Internally the fireplaces, woodwork and plasterwork are of most refined character, a blend of 'Adam style' and revived Gothic, and since the destruction of the eighteenth century work at Alnwick Castle they are among the most important and most pleasing survivors of their period in North Northumberland." A History of Northumberland – Lowick, Doddington, Chatton. Vol XIV. The Blake family had lived at Fowberry for 31 years.

1807 - Matthew Culley purchased Fowberry from Sir Francis Blake. Matthew was the son of George Culley the noted agriculturalist and celebrated breeder: - "This eminent agriculturalist (George Culley) and his brother Matthew (of Coupland Castle, Wooler) came into Glendale around 1769. They were very worthy and ingenious men, and to their joint intelligence and exertions, Northumberland in particular, and society in general, are indebted for a powerful impulse given to rural industry. George survived his elder brother Matthew a few years and to the last retained that even gaiety of temper and simplicity of manners, which characterised him through life. This patriarch died after a short illness, at Fowberry, May 7 1813 in the 79 year of his age." History of Northumberland Vol. 1. Pub. 1825. (Dic. Nat. Biog: N.C.H. vol. xi. p.339.)

1807 - 1809 - The Blake's scheme of enlargement of Fowberry Tower was never completed, but was finished by Matthew Culley. The last of the work being the pediment in the centre of the south elevation, which bears the initials MC 1809. This work was much to the amazed gratification of his father, George who observed "Whenever I am at Fowberry, I am struck with astonishment, when I reflect on our beginning in Northumberland 43 years ago. To think my son inhabiting a palace! altho' his Father in less than fifty years since, worked harder than any servant we have now and even drove a coal cart. "The Culleys, Northumberland Farmers 1767 to 1813. D.J. Rowe.

1813 - George Culley dies aged 79 on May 7th. History of Northumberland. Vol. 1.

1849 - Matthew Culley dies aged 75 on June 20th. Unmarried, his will dated 1843 left his estate to his nephew George Darling, son of Matthew Culley's sister Eleanor. "A few weeks before his death Mr. Culley purchased Horton estate from Earl Grey for £46,000. He was succeeded in his large property by his nephew, George Darling esq. of Hetton House." Local Records - 'Historical Register' 1833 – 1866. T. Fordyce.

1850 - George Darling died within a few months of Matthew Culley and his son and heir George inherited Fowberry and by the terms of the will (Matthew Culley's) assumed the name of Culley by royal licence in 1851. He married Jane Arundell St. Aubyn Woodcote, whose name may be connected to a stone plinth in the garden, engraved - R.W. 1829.

1893 - George (Darling) Culley died. He left an only daughter, Jane Darling Culley who inherited Fowberry and she and her husband Arthur Hugo Leather assumed the name of Culley by deed poll in 1884 and royal licence in 1896. Their only son Arthur George Culley of the Coldstream Guards died child-less in Jane's lifetime.

1914 - 1918 - Mrs Leather-Culley, having survived her husband, turned Fowberry Tower into a hospital for convalescent soldiers from the First World War. A large brass bell mounted on an outside west wall may well have been used to alert soldiers to meals.

1920, 27th September - Mrs Leather-Culley sold Fowberry Tower to Captain Archibald William Milburn. The Culley family had owned Fowberry Tower for 113 years.

1947 - A new wing was added on the west side to accommodate the kitchen from the basement.

1965 - Captain Archibald William Milburn died at Fowberry, in the library, in his sleep on December 19th.

1978 - The Milburn family sold Fowberry Tower, gardens and parkland to James A. MacHarg. The Milburns had held Fowberry Tower for 58 years.

1997 - Graham J. MacHarg, eldest son of James purchased Fowberry Tower from his father.

2000 - James A. MacHarg died after a long illness on August 8th, age 71.

Coat of arms of Fowberry of Fowberry: Vert, a stag at speed, silver with horns gold.

Craster Tables, Arch. Ael, 2nd ser. Vol. xxiv.

The Fowberry family crest is of a Red deer stag, which although not found in Northumberland today, were prolific during the time of the Fowberry's – evidence of which is provided by an account of young King James V. "During June of 1529 he commanded all gentlemen that had "doggis that were guid" to accompany him deer hunting. The Earls of Huntly, Argyle and Athol, brought their deerhounds and during the King's short stay in the Scottish Borders, eighteen score of deer were slain." (Border Raids and Reivers, x)