Shortflatt Tower
SHORTFLATT TOWER
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1042821
- Date first listed:
- 27-Aug-1952
- List Entry Name:
- Shortflatt Tower
- Statutory Address:
- SHORTFLATT TOWER
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1042821
- Date first listed:
- 27-Aug-1952
- List Entry Name:
- Shortflatt Tower
- Statutory Address 1:
- SHORTFLATT TOWER
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- SHORTFLATT TOWER
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Northumberland (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Belsay
- National Grid Reference:
- NZ 07937 80995
Details
BELSAY SHORTFLATT NZ 08 SE
4/70 Shortflatt Tower 27.8.52
GV I
House and tower. Licence to crenellate 1305 for Robert de Reynes, but most existing work is later. The tower seems late C15 or early C16, the attached house early C17 incorporating and re-using earlier masonry. Squared stone. Tower has stone slate roof, other parts Welsh slate.
3-storey tower; 2-storey house attached to east and 2 parallel wings running north from house.
South (garden) front: Tower, projecting on left, has chamfered plinth and irregularly-placed early C19 sashes. Inner return has Tudor-arched doorway, now a window; left half of lintel with relief carving of shield and panel, the right half uncarved. Hollow-chamfered base to battlemented parapet with stone water spouts. Steeply-pitched gabled roof with end stacks.
Attached house of 4 irregular bays has C18 12-pane sashes beneath early C17 string courses which rise above each window. Roof hipped on right. Enormous ridge stack between 3rd and 4th bays. Roof marks on stack reveal that the building was formerly 3 storeys (cf. interior).
North (entrance) side has C19 Tudor-style doorway into tower. Similar windows, several in double-chamfered surrounds. In tower one enlarged C16 window with chamfered surround and 3 blocked similar windows. North-east corner of tower has a small single-storey projection of older masonry with a double plinth.
Interior: tower has tunnel-vaulted ground floor; one jamb of a recently discovered (1985) large C16 or C17 fireplace on 1st floor; and a possibly re- set earlier medieval fireplace, with chamfered jambs and corbels supporting flat lintel, on the 2nd floor. Massive C16 roof timbers.
In the roof space of the adjoining wing a C16 or early C17 fireplace, also vestiges of plasterwork proving existence of former second floor. In the dining room a wood Rococo fire surround and contemporary Delft tiles. H. Honeyman considered the tower to be of 1305 but more recent information from Mrs. L. Milner (pers. comm.) suggest the later date.
An extremely picturesque house. Archaeologia Aeliana 4th Series XXXII, 1954, pp 126-159.
Listing NGR: NZ0793780995
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 238556
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Archaeologia Aeliana in Archaeologia Aeliana, Vol. 32, (1954), 126-159
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 26-Jun-2026 at 13:39:10.
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All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.