Bastle, 480m north east of Shittleheugh

Reasons for Designation

Bastles are small thick-walled farmhouses in which the living quarters are situated above a ground floor byre. The vast majority are simple rectangular buildings with the byre entrance typically placed in one gable end, an upper door in the side wall, small stoutly-barred windows and few architectural features or details. Some have stone barrel vaults to the basement but the majority had a first floor of heavy timber beams carrying stone slabs. The great majority of bastles are solitary rural buildings, although a few nucleated settlements with more than one bastle are also known. Most bastles were constructed between about 1575 and 1650, although earlier and later examples are also known. They were occupied by middle-rank farmers. Bastles are confined to the northern border counties of England, in Cumbria, Northumberland and Durham. The need for such strongly defended farmsteads can be related to the troubled social conditions in these border areas during the later Middle Ages. Less than 300 bastles are known to survive, of which a large number have been significantly modified by their continuing use as domestic or other buildings. All surviving bastles which retain significant original remains will normally be identified as nationally important.

Shittleheugh bastle survives reasonably well without any post-bastle modifications and retains many unusual architectural features. The existence of a possible attic storey, a porch structure and the positioning of its main doorway suggest that this is an example of a rare `superior' type of bastle occupied by a resident of higher status than usual.

Details

The monument includes the remains of a bastle, a form of defended medieval farmhouse, situated on a west facing slope of moorland with extensive views of Redesdale to the north, west and south. The structure, composed of roughly hewn stone is rectangular in shape and measures 13m by 6.5m externally with walls 1.2m thick. The gables of the bastle stand to full height but the upper courses of the front and back walls have fallen and the bastle is roofless. An original ground floor entrance, placed rather unusually in the front wall rather than the usual gable end, remains intact with a lintel and two drawbar tunnels. Immediately in front of the doorway there are the remains of a porch structure with an outer doorway showing features similar to those of the inner door. It is thought that this structure either contained or carried a stairway to the upper storey living area. The basement of the bastle is furnished with several narrow slit windows, two in the north wall and one in each of the other three walls and there are traces of a support for a first floor fireplace. At first floor level, two wall cupboards are visible in the western gable and one in the east. Socket holes for timbers in the east wall suggest that there was an attic above the first floor. Attached to the east wall of the bastle there are the foundations of a smaller rectangular building measuring 7m by 5.5m; this structure is clearly later than the bastle. The bastle is a grade II Listed Building.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

25042

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Ryder, P F, Bastles and Towers in Northumberland National Park, (1990), 30-31

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