The Watchtower in the Woods
Over the past decade, Anna Charlton has created a coterie of whimsical cabin retreats within the Capability Brown Landscape of Hesleyside Hall, the ancestral home of the Border Reiver Charlton family for over 750 years. The latest addition to the 4000-acre estate is a staggering four-storey tower paying homage to Charlton's Reiver history and Northumberland’s historically embattled lands.
Located close to the banks of the North Tyne River, Hesleyside Estate is the ancestral home of the notorious Charlton family, once one of the biggest reiving families on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish border. Like other Border Reiver families, the Charltons were involved in cross-border raids, cattle rustling and bloody feuds with rival families from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. During this period England and Scotland were frequently at war and the border region subsequently fell into a complete state of lawlessness. For the border people, any reliance on a central authority to maintain order was unwise and fraught with danger. Families on both sides of the border grouped together for protection and survival, finding security through their own strength and cunning, which often meant setting out in large mobs to rob other families! Legend has it that when it was time to go reiving, the Charltons would all meet at Hesleyside Hall where they would drink, feast and and enjoy a good party until the larder was empty and the ale had run dry. Then the lady of the house would bring out a silver spur in a silver salver as a signal to the men that it was time to go reiving.
The violence sweeping across the borderlands during this time led to the necessary construction of fortified towers and farmhouses to help families defend themselves against the cross-border raids. Many defensive ‘Pele’ towers and fortified ‘Bastle’ houses remain littered across the Northumbrian countryside and have provided inspiration for ‘Raven’, Anna Chartlon’s latest addition to her collection of unique stays at Hesleyside. Raven, pays homage to a classic Pele Tower, a building designed to be defensive, forbidding and uninviting, yet today are seen as intriguing and romantic. It is positioned in a remote, uphill location on the Hesleyside Estate, suitably where a tower would likely have been positioned to maximise a vantage point in order to survey the horizon for would-be intruders. The result is a stark, dark, blank tower with ‘arrow’ slit windows which transports guests back through the centuries to when these defensive structures were often the difference between life and death.
But, other than its forbidding appearance, you can forget any notion of harsh frontier life at Raven. The four-storey watchtower in the woods hides stunning design behind its defensive aesthetic, inviting you to abandon your post and relax, completely. Escapism is at the heart of Hesleyside Huts’ ethos, so when designing Raven Tower, luxury, nature and tranquillity were main drivers behind the design process.
Much like the Pele Towers of old, the main entrance to the building is via an external stone stairway, which leads to the tower’s first floor. Here, Raven’s main window frames elevated views from a living room through the woodlands. Two massive armchairs sit by a rustic log fire, draped with fur wraps. A classic record player and drinks cabinet complete the room. On the second floor you’ll find the kitchen, where a cleverly designed island seating area has everything you need to rustle up a delicious meal. Venturing higher up the tower, you reach the bedroom, which is bright, spacious and boasts a king size bed topped with a luxury mattress and the finest Egyptian cotton bedding. The modern bathroom is found in the top floor of the tower and is dominated by a huge, hand-crafted wooden bathtub positioned under a retractable window facilitating skyward vistas of the tree canopy and Northumberland’s famous dark skies.
Designing a luxury accommodation experience in a building where height is the main reason for its being, did not come without challenges. Quite remarkably the four living spaces have been ingeniously stacked within a 4m square, 10m high tower. The pure magic of Raven has been recognised nationwide and was awarded three Royal Institute of British Architect prizes in 2024. The question for Anna Charlton, what will she create next?
Photography by Amy Louise Roy
