Summary

Monument to commemorate the Battle of Otterburn, erected in 1777, incorporating a C14 medieval cross base and an historic stone shaft.

Description

Monument to commemorate the Battle of Otterburn, erected in 1777, incorporating a C14 medieval cross base and an historic stone shaft.

MATERIALS: dressed sandstone.

DESCRIPTION: a round base of three steps followed by two square steps. On this is a squared, medieval cross base, and from this rises an upright, faceted and tapering stone about 2.4m high. There are two iron pegs attached to its south face, and most faces contain graffiti.

History

The Battle of Otterburn took place in 1388. The Scots decided to take advantage of the disunity caused in England by the power struggle between King Richard II and the Lords Appellant by mounting a large-scale cross-border raid. James, Earl of Douglas, led a force into Northumberland. As they returned northwards, the Scots paused at Otterburn where, in pursuit of a chivalric challenge to Douglas, Henry Percy ('Hotspur') led an English army into attack.

Arriving near Otterburn at evening, Percy launched a flanking attack with part of his force under the Lords Redmane and Ogyl, hoping to panic the Scots into fleeing straight into the main body of troops under Percy himself. But rather than taking flight, the Scots launched a surprise counter-attack on Percy's men. Fighting continued through the night, and eventually the Scots prevailed, although Douglas himself was killed. On the English side Henry Percy and 21 other knights were captured, and over 1,000 were killed. The accounts of the battle are among the best descriptions of medieval chivalry and military tactics. The defeated Hotspur was eventually to meet his death at Shrewsbury in 1403 in an uprising against the King.

It is thought that a battle stone to commemorate the Battle of Otterburn, was originally erected on the battlefield close to the location of the fiercest fighting. A secondary account describes it as 'nothing more than a roughly carved boulder'. The monument in its present form was erected in 1777 about 150m from its original location so it could be seen from the Turnpike road to Scotland, that was being constructed at the time. The monument incorporates a medieval cross base, and the shaft is said to have formerly been the kitchen lintel at Otterburn Tower or was brought from nearby Davyshiel. The battle is the subject of numerous ballads and poems, most notably The Battle of Otterburn (early C15), Chevy Chase (C16) and Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish and English Borders (1803).

Reasons for Listing

The monument to commemorate the Battle of Otterburn, erected in 1777, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* It is an elegant and poignant monument erected within the battlefield;
* an C18 monument incorporating a medieval cross base and an historic fireplace lintel.

Historic interest:

* it commemorates the Battle of Otterburn of 1388, where Henry Percy ('Hotspur') led an English army into attack against a Scottish cross-border raid, in which the Scots prevailed but Douglas was killed, and Hotspur was captured.

Group value:

* the monument lies within the registered battlefield of Otterburn and also benefits from a spatial group value with a listed milestone on the adjacent Turnpike.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Percy Cross at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7167293

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014