England’s Border counties are renowned for their castles, which played significant parts in the so-called ‘Four Hundred Year War’ with Scotland, but deserve to be known too for their lesser defensible buildings, the towers, manor houses and defensible churches, which reflect the same troubled society. This book examines and analyses just under 170 of these structures and identifies several different traditions and building types, spanning the centuries from the remarkable Saxon lordly tower that was incorporated into Morland Church, to the long-lived tradition of living on an upper floor that persisted in the Northern Pennines into the 18th century.

Peter Ryder has worked over the last half century, predominantly in the north of England, as a buildings archaeologist. He began his career with the South Yorkshire County Archaeology Service, before moving into Northumberland to work on the National Resurvey of Buildings of Architectural and Historic Interest in the 1980s. His special interests are in medieval buildings and sculpture, and he is author of a number of books, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. This volume owes its origin to a 2002 survey in Cumbria carried out on behalf of both English Heritage and the County Council, following a similar study made of sites and structures in Northumberland. 

Peter can be contacted via pfryder@broomlee.org