Hesleywell Bastle

Description

Bastle, late C16 or early C17. Heavy rubble with long roughly-shaped quoins; C20 asbestos roof. South (farmyard) elevation 2 storeys, 2 wide bays. Left of centre boarded door in stop-chamfered frame, in inserted opening; to right original doorway with monolithic triangular head, now blocked, with small window inserted. Above and to left, traces of original 1st floor door, with blocked slit to left. Later farmbuildings to right not of interest. Gabled left return shows blocked basement slit with chamfered set back above; rear shows ground and 1st floor slits with later 9-pane fixed window 1st floor left. Interior shows 2 original principal-rafter roof trusses with slightly arched collars, 2 levels of purlins and diagonally-set ridge; notched multi-pegged joints. Unusually sophisticated carpentry for the area. (Listed Building Report)

Solitary form bastle, measures 9.9 x 6.7m externally, with walls 1.1m thick. Byre entrance in long wall; first floor form - beamed ceiling; first floor door in long wall. Present state - farm building (Ryder 1990).
The defensible building north of Hesleywell measures c.10m by 7m externally, it has walls of heavy rubble a little over 1m thick. A range of later farmbuildings adjoins to the east, where the original end wall appears to have been rebuilt. The west gable shows the highly unusual feature of a large chamfered set-back (reducing the thickness by about half) at mid height; there are hints in the surviving masonry of the side walls that the east gable was similar. The original doorway, now converted into a window, is set at the east end of the south wall, and has a monolithic triangular head, and a chamfered surround. Further west is a recent doorway. There are traces of blocked slits at both ground and first floor levels in the west end, which has a raised gable coping (the present roof is of asbestos). On the north side are a pair of slit vents, one above the other, towards the west end; there is also a larger window at first floor level, further east, with a projecting slab below it. Internally, the first floor has been removed and the walls are plastered. The most interesting features are the two original roof trusses. Although of fairly standard design (principal rafter trusses with heavy collars) they are unusually sophisticated, with the soffit of the collar cut to a segmental curve and multiple pegging of joints; there are two purlins on each roof slope and a diagonally set ridge (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)