![]() Decorative quatrefoils from this phase can be seen on the east and west faces of the current building and the line of the corridor roof can also be seen. Contemporary drawings of the scheme survive in the Northumberland archives (ZBU 5/6/32-4). We know little about the house itself at this time but a later document (Berwick Record Office : NRO 1216/F.4) shows that it had battlements and ‘pinion gables’ and a separate ‘little house’ or privy.īy the 1760s ownership had passed to Francis Blake (later Sir Francis Blake) who updated his ‘castle’ by demolishing the tower, clothing the building with a ‘Gothick’ masonry skin and adding turreted wings linked by a corridor giving separate access to the hall and chambers. John Selby was Gentleman Porter in the Berwick garrison and by 1585 he was living regularly at Twizel during the summer months. In 1561 it was still described as ‘one part or a quarter’ of a ‘tower, or pele… of auncyent time decayed and cast downe’ but soon afterwards John and Margaret Selby began to restore it. Following damage in Perkin Warbeck’s rebellion of 1496 Twizel remained partly ruined.īy 1537 Twizel was owned by the Selby family. In the 15th century the house passed to the Herons of Ford, who added a tower on the site of the current west wing and a large internal kitchen fireplace, as well as fortifying it with a barmkin (defensible enclosure). fireplace inserted in opening of late-medieval fireplace. Masonry from this phase can be seen near the base of the north wall. William Redel was constable of Norham and High Sherriff of Northumberland and possibly the subject of the effigy in Norham Church. This core was a two-storey hall house, probably built by the Redel family, lords of Tillmouth who purchased the Twizel estate in 1272. Twizel has been altered over the centuries by its many owners, and all have been determined to retain the core of historic masonry which defined it as an ‘ancient seat’. Photography by Richard Ormston (Berwick-upon-Tweed). The following section entitled Family Histories was researched by Kevin Graham. The Brief History of Twizel “Castle” below was written by Dr Catherine Kent (2020). The archaic word “twisel” means a point at which something divides into branches, a fork, and in this context it may refer to the place where the River Till meets the Tweed. Twizel’s variant spellings through time have been numerous: Twizell Twyzell Twysill Twisel Twisle. ![]() “And heedful watch’d them as they cross’d It is mentioned in Sir Walter Scott’s Marmion (Canto Sixth, XIX), as the Scots watch the English army crossing Twizel Bridge in preparation for the battle of Flodden: A half-mile to the north-west of the castle lies the River Tweed and the Scottish border. The remains of Twizel Castle, in the parish of Duddo, stand on the north side of the River Till, close to the Tudor Twizel Bridge and the modern bridge which now carries the A698 road between Berwick and Coldstream.
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