Domesday Book records that the manor at West Tanfield was held in 1086 by Count Alan, the founder of Richmond Castle. The Marmion family owned the manor for much of the 13th and 14th centuries, and John Marmion (d. 1322) received a royal licence to crenellate, or fortify, his house in 1314.

However, features like the four-centred archway with hoodmould (the moulded projection above it, to throw off rainwater) on the east side of the tower suggest that the surviving gatehouse was probably built a century later. By this time the manor house was in the hands of the FitzHugh family, so the gatehouse builder was probably either Henry FitzHugh, 3rd Baron FitzHugh (who died in 1425), or William FitzHugh, 4th Baron FitzHugh (d. 1452).

After the death of a later FitzHugh, the manor passed to the Parr family. William Parr was Marquess of Northampton and brother to Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII. In 1571 the manor was granted to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Elizabeth I’s chief adviser. Perhaps some of the later alterations are his work? Following later changes of ownership, the tower was placed in state guardianship in 1976.

Interior

The vaulted ceiling at the eastern end of the gate passage is higher than that at the opposite end, which allowed the gates to open inward. To the left (south) is a small doorway leading into the guardroom or porter’s lodge. This room is vaulted, with a fireplace, cupboard and latrine in the south wall. A window looks eastwards and outwards. A small squint (an oblique opening) in the north wall enabled the porter to look into the passage.

A spiral staircase at the north-west corner of the gate passage leads up to the first floor (and originally led to the second floor and the turret above the battlements). At the entrance to the first floor a recess has been cut into the west wall to allow the door to open. This was probably because the ground-floor vaults replaced an earlier timber floor that had been set at a lower level.

Like the ground-floor room, the first-floor hall has a latrine and a fireplace, but the details are more ornate and the scale of the room is grander. Most striking of all is the elaborate oriel bay window with its Perpendicular tracery.

High above the first floor, a horizontal channel is visible along the internal wall. This would originally have supported the roof structure but, once another storey was added, it supported the additional floor. There are three windows at second-floor level, and another latrine and fireplace.