Embleton Tower

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Embleton Tower is a Grade I listed building in the village of Embleton in Northumberland. (grid reference NU23062244)

Embleton Vicarage, Late 19th Century

This is a pele-tower. It was provided for the vicar of Embleton by Merton College, Oxford, who held the patronage of the parish, in 1332. It was probably first constructed as a house and later in the century converted into a tower; allegedly permission to crenellate was given in 1385 after the parish had been laid waste by the Scots.

The tower is three storeys high and, unusually, has two vaulted rooms in the basement. In about 1828 a vicarage designed in the Tudor style by achitect John Dobson was built on to one side of the tower. In the field adjoining the tower, there is an ancient dovecote.

Its most famous occupant was Mandell Creighton, vicar 1875-1884, who started his History of the Papacy there. In 1974, on the retirement of Peter Karney, vicar 1954-1974, the vicarage passed into private hands and became known as Embleton Tower. A new vicarage was built nearby.