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Kirtling Tower

History of Kirtling Tower

Listed Building & Scheduled Monument:

Gatehouse c.1530 built for Lord North (c.1496-1564), house rebuilt c.1872, architect J.A. Hansom (1803-1882). Red brick with black diaper brick patterning, limestone dressings.

The original hall survived until 1801 and was visited by Queen Elizabeth I in 1578, it was situated within the moated site of a Saxon Castle owned by King Harold.

Historic England

The monument consists of three separate areas. The first area contains the main moat at Kirtling Tower which is the largest in the county measuring 180m x 150m and is known to occupy the site of a Saxon Castle owned by King Harold. It has three well defined arms to the north, east and west, and at the south end of the moat stands a Tudor gatehouse and attached 19th century buildings

Vanishing Cambridgeshire p.130 notes that Kirtling had been dominated by its squire, Lord North, a Roman Catholic with a private chapel and chaplain at his home, Kirtling Tower, next to the church. The North family had added a memorial chapel in the parish church in the 16th century where several family were buried. In 1905 the Lord noticed that the memorial chapel was being used for services and ordered the vicar to stop. The vicar refused though. Then the catholic chaplain objected to religious material in the parish magazine. The vicar resigned in 1906.

Kirtling Tower 1931 (MoC287/54)

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