Marmion Tower

Marmion Tower
West Tanfield, North Yorkshire, England
Marmion Tower, seen from the east
Marmion Tower
Coordinates	54°12′12″N 1°35′37″W / 54.2034°N 1.5937°W / 54.2034; -1.5937Coordinates: 54°12′12″N 1°35′37″W / 54.2034°N 1.5937°W / 54.2034; -1.5937 grid reference SE266787
Type	Gatehouse
Site information
Owner	English Heritage
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Ruined
Site history
Materials	Magnesian limestone

Marmion Tower, also known historically as Tanfield Castle, is a 15th-century gatehouse near the village of West Tanfield in North Yorkshire, England. It survived the destruction of the surrounding fortified manor and is now managed by English Heritage.

Marmion Tower is a stone gatehouse, built in the early 15th century as the entrance to the fortified manor of West Tanfield. West Tanfield occupied a strategic crossing point on the north bank of the River Ure, and Sir John Marmion and later his daughter-in-law Maud were given licences by the Crown to crenellate the manor house there in 1314 and 1348 respectively. The Fitzhugh family in Ravensworth inherited the property in 1387, and Sir William Fitzhugh probably then constructed the new gatehouse.

When the antiquary John Leland visited the site in the mid-16th century, he described how "the castelle of Tanfeld, or rather as it is nowe, a meane manor Place, stondith hard on the ripe of Ure, wher I saw no notable building but a fair toured Gateway and a Haule of squarid stone." The tower and the manor passed into the Parr family and, on the death of William Parr, into the hands of the Crown, before being held by the Cecils and the Elgins. The Brudenell family owned it from 1747 onwards, until in 1886 it was sold to a Mr Arton. It was sketched around 1786 by William Grose.

By 1786, the rest of the manor except for the gatehouse had been destroyed; Grose recorded a local tradition stating that Thomas Cecil and Sir Christopher Wandesford had used the stone in the construction of Snape Castle and Kirklington Hall respectively in the late 16th century. In 1976, the tower passed into the guardianship of the state and was then restored and opened to the public. In the 21st century it is operated by English Heritage and protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building and scheduled monument.