Heaton Castle in the parish of Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland, England, is a ruined historic castle near the Scottish border. It is situated in an elevated position above the south bank of the River Till, 4 miles north-east of Coldstream and 9 miles south-west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and 2 miles south-east of the River Tweed, the historic border with Scotland.. The castle was slighted in 1496 by King James IV of Scotland, but remnants survive as parts of the walls of outbuildings of a farm now known as Castle Heaton. The castle was the seat of the de Heton family, which as was usual took its name from its seat. It passed in about 1250 to a branch of the prominent de Grey family, who in 1415 rebuilt it as a quadrangular castle.
Sir Thomas Grey, 3rd in descent from Hugh de Grey, was an eminent soldier in the Anglo-Scottish wars in the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. He married Agnes de Bayles.
Sir Thomas Grey, son, "The Chronicler", who wrote the English chronicle, the Scalacronica. He married Margaret de Presson, the daughter and heiress of William de Presson of Presson, near Carham in Northumberland.
In 1541 Heaton Castle was described in a survey as "ruinous" but a later report identified "a vault that a hundred horses may stand in". By 1550 the ruins had been adapted "to form bases for large bastle type building with stone vault". The only remains surviving are two buttresses against the north-east wall of a stable-block, together with "probable remains of a turret and rampart". In the 1580s attempts at rebuilding and repair were made, but the project failed when the Grey family became involved in a dispute with the Crown concerning funding.
History of the broader de Grey family
The de Grey family was descended from Anchetil de Greye, a Norman soldier and follower of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, one of the great magnates of early Norman England and one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Anchetil de Greye is regarded as the ancestor of the noble House of Grey, branches of which held many peerage titles in England, including Baron Grey de Wilton, Baron Grey of Codnor, Baron Grey de Ruthyn, Marquess of Dorset, Duke of Suffolk, and Earl of Stamford. They married into the royal family. Descendants of the branch seated at Heaton gained the peerage titles of: Earl of Tankerville, Baronet Grey of Chillingham, Northumberland ; Baron Grey of Werke ; Viscount Glendale, Baronet Grey of Howick ; Baron Grey of Howick ; Viscount Howick, Earl Grey and Baronet Grey of Fallodon. Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, 2nd Viscount Howick, KG, of Howick Hall, Prime Minister, and supposed inventor of the famous tea, was a descendant of the Heaton branch.
Present
In 2011 the estate of Castle Heaton was offered for sale at an asking price of £11.5 million, an "enormous asking price" which was a record for recent years in the North East. It was described by The Journal, a local newspaper, as "one of the finest estates to come onto the market in recent years. Situated in a very private setting in north Northumberland, Castle Heaton comprises a lovely agricultural, residential and sporting package...with a large and profitable arable farm, some pretty grazings by the river, a main house on an elevated site overlooking the river and other estate houses, including a six-bed house, a five-bed farmhouse, a granary house with a tower, eleven cottages and two farms, a pheasant shoot, roe deer stalking" and two miles of salmon and sea trout fishing on the River Till.
