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Despite being one of Newcastle ’s
most ancient relics, the ruin known locally as King John’s Palace is a bit of a
mystery. Situated on high ground in Heaton
Park
Dating, as it does, from the 1250s, it has nothing to do
with the much maligned King John, who died in 1216. John was known to have
stayed in the immediate vicinity on his journeys north, but almost certainly
stayed elsewhere – and the ruin which remains today has perhaps understandably
become confusingly entwined in the story of the old king. Instead, the building
was most likely built and first occupied by one Adam of Jesmond, a deeply
unpopular local landowner and Sheriff of Northumberland.
Adam was a knight and a supporter
of King Henry III. He was always in trouble for embezzlement and extortion, and
when he failed to return from a crusade in 1270 no one seems to have been too
upset. His house was allowed to fall into disrepair thereafter, though it was
periodically revived for use as farm buildings in the ensuing centuries. In
1879 it was given to the city, and in 1897 the various farm-related attachments
were removed and the building was consolidated.
What remains of Adam’s dwelling essentially amount to the north wall, north-west turret, and part of the
east wall, plus earthworks to north and south.
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