Two sites remain in the English Heritage Heritage at Risk Register for the lower Hull valley and south Holderness areas (s.p.b.s). Paull Holme Tower is sited just north of the Thorngumbald managed retreat area and is clearly visible from the current clay bank (see above). It is also visible from the road that leads past Paull church to the village of Thorngumbald although less clearly owing to a thick roadside hedge. The tower survives on private land and, although it does not suffer wilful damage, the brickwork and internal and external features are being weathered rapidly.
Some information on this rather mysterious site is given by David Neave in his revised edition of Pevsner’s York and the East Riding page 646 with an architectural drawing of the building’s west front on page 647. This late 15th century tower apparently originally adjoined an earlier timber-framed manor house, now lost, although an early 19th century plan showed a building plan forming an H-shaped ground plan. In the early 19th century all the building was demolished leaving only the Tower seen today.
The architectural drawing shows a two-light window which is a gothic revival import of the late 19th century but suggesting that back then the structure may have had public access. The second and third floors of this three-storey building are set back slightly from the floor below while the parapet projects somewhat. A basement apparently exists and is brick-vaulted. On the first floor is a surviving fireplace and garderobe chamber. A stone plaque on the west front is badly weathered but includes a shield of arms and three Tudor roses.
Various speculations arise from this information but without some relevant documentary evidence it would be all speculation.
The site of the Tower is interesting being in an immediate area of quite pronounced hills, in particular Boreas Hill and ‘Giants Hill’, a local term, these hills presumably related to the arc of morainic low hills seen between Paull and Sutton.
The other site is Paull Fort – to follow.