Blackbird Inn is a 13th century stone tower house, founded by William de Valence. The tower with its barrel-vaulted basement and newel stair, is the only surviving part of a much larger defensible manorial complex, which was destroyed in a Scottish raid in 1388. In the 16th century, Mark Errington restored the basement and first floor of the tower, inserting Tudor windows and a fireplace, with a large chimney breast on the outside wall. In the 17th century, the house was absorbed in the construction of a Jacobean manor house. Adjacent is Church of St Mary and nearby in Ponteland is the Vicar's Pele.