# Dalton Tower, County Durham



## jonney (Jun 3, 2012)

Dalden Tower at Dalton-Le-Dale was the ancestral stronghold for the Lords of Dalden. Dalden Tower was needed when Robert the Bruce laid waste much of East Durham as far south as Hartlepool in the years after Bannockburn. Down the centuries the Tower, Hall and Manor of Dalden passed through the hands of the de Dalden, Bowes and Collingwood families. The latter, staunchly Catholic, are believed to have abandoned the Tower and Hall in c. 1600 for their more comfortable home in the adjacent manor of Seaham which they also owned. Their surname features heavily in the early registers from Seaham St. Mary the Virgin which began in the Commonwealth era. The Collingwoods sold out the twin estates of Seaham and Dalden to the Milbankes in c. 1676/78 and they in turn sold out to the Londonderrys in 1821. By then Dalden Hall had been converted to a farmhouse and the Tower had long been in ruins. A more in depth history can be found here http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English sites/993.html

Not a lot of the tower remains today but there are still a few nice features left




















































Thanks for looking

Jon


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## leftorium (Jun 4, 2012)

you feeling OK Jon? or did you just mistake it for a type 22 variant from a distance


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## jonney (Jun 4, 2012)

leftorium said:


> you feeling OK Jon? or did you just mistake it for a type 22 variant from a distance



lol no mate I was enroute to a pillbox and stopped to photograph this. I used to be a stone mason so I have a love of old stonework as well as ww2 concrete


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## flyboys90 (Jun 4, 2012)

Love the fireplace!


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