CHIPCHASE CASTLE, NOliTH TYNEDALE. 301 



coat-of-arms which arose from this device was three herons ;* 

 and it appears over the door-way of the manor-house, the hand- 

 some adjunct to the ancient Keep, which [was added on by 

 Cuthbert Heron, in the time of James I. This Cuthbert Heron 

 was High Sheriff of the county in 1625, and for his loyalty, and 

 that of his brother Colonel George Heron, (who fell at Marston 

 Moor,) was created a baronet by King Charles II., in 1662. 

 From Sir Harry Heron, who had before sold Nunwick 

 to Mr. Robert Allgood, Chipchase passed, by purchase to Mr. 

 George Allgood about the end of the seventeenth century, f and 

 from the family of Nunwick to Mr. John Reed, connected with 

 the old Reedsdale family of Troughend, who bought it in 1732. 

 Mr. John Reed was succeeded by his nephew, Christopher 

 Soulsby, who took the name of Reed, and obtained the estate. 

 He was High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1764. The son 

 of the latter Colonel John Reed, was the principal partner in 

 the ill-fated Northumberland Bank when it failed, and his 

 assignees sold Chipchase in 1825 to the guardians of R. "W. 

 Grey of Backworth who was then only eight years old. Mr. 

 Grey sold it in 1861 to Mr. Hugh Taylor of Backworth, the 

 present owner who has since greatly improved and extended 

 the property. 



The architectural features of Chipchase Castle are of singular 

 interest. Speaking of the beautiful Manor-House attached by 

 Cuthbert Heron in 1621, Mr. Hartshorne says that the old Tower 

 is " rendered additionally interesting from its union with a 

 building of a later age, which in itself would be attractive amid 

 the best specimens of the Jacobean style. The pole, properly 

 so called, is a massive and lofty building, as large as some Nor- 

 man Keeps. It has an enriched appearance given to it by its 

 double -notched corbelling round the summit, which further 

 serves the purpose of machicolation. The round bartizans at 



* Within the memory of those now living, herons used to build on the highest trees of 

 the Chipchase woods, where formerly, no doubt, had been the old heronry of the castle. 

 They still cling to the old place, for quite recently a pair of herons were in the habit_of 

 building their nest near the bank of the river a little lower down. 



t Wallis's "Hist, of Northumberland" (1769), p. 47, etc. See also Horsley, in " 

 edited Contributions to Hist, of Northumberland" (1729-30), p. 37. 



