Preston Tower, Preston Park

Designed by FRN Haswell. Built in 1875 for Edward Shotton (steamship owner, alderman, magistrate, River Tyne Commissioner, Ottoman Vice Consul). Other occupants were his wife Mary Alice Shotton, their daughter Helen, Elizabeth Fawcus the cook, Margaret Bell housemaid, Esther Graham laundry maid and Margaret Davison seamstress. The villa is in a Queen Anne style influenced by architect Butterfield. Built in local mottled red brick with sandstone ashlar dressings. The main entrance framed by Doric columns is on the east elevation, as is the three-storey tower. The tower has lancet and paired round-headed windows and a bracketed cornice below a classical balustrade on the top storey.

A war memorial was unveiled in 1990. The memorial is 31 inches high, 48 inches long and 22 inches wide and takes the form of a table formed of sandstone slabs. A granite panel has a regimental badge (a red anchor and the letters R & A) in the top left corner. "TO THE GLORIUS MEMORY OF THE MEN OF THE 3RD REGIMENT MARITIME ROYAL ARTILLERY WHO LOST THEIR LIVES AT SEA DEFENDING ALLIED MERCHANT SHIPPING 1940-1945. THE REGIMENT WAS BASED HERE AT PRESTON TOWERS AND SERVED ITS COUNTRY WITH DISTINCTION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM. COMMISSIONED BY SURVIVING COMRADES".