Linden House, Humshaugh

Description

House. Pair of C16/C17 bastles, remodelled in C18, further altered and rear wing built in later C19. Rubble, large in parts, with cut dressings; Welsh slate roof. T plan.
South elevation 2 storeys + attics, 5 irregular bays. Gabled centre has canted bay with 2 windows over and 1 to attic, all with 4-pane sashes; upper windows in raised stone surrounds with panelled jambs. Left part has similar canted bay and half-glazed double doors in moulded surround; 4-pane sash and 2 plate- glass sashes to 1st floor, in raised stone surrounds with panelled jambs. Right part has French window and 12-pane sashes, all in chamfered surrounds. Coped gables with moulded kneelers; stepped and corniced end and 2 ridge stacks.
Returns each show outlines of earlier lower gables, that to right with blocked stone-surround doors. Rear elevation shows projecting central wing with windows in raised stone surrounds with panelled jambs; to left C18 outshut with various sash windows, to right blocked 1st-floor window in old chamfered surround.
Interior: west and centre parts of main block show walls over 1 metre thick.
The south elevation displays masonry of at least 6 constructional phases, with a variety of different fabric and quoin types. (Listed Building Report)

The south elevation is now of two storeys and seven bays; bays four and five are topped by a later gable, carried through as the ridge of a rear wing. No pre-19th century architectural features survive, but an examination of the various fabric types suggests a building history as follows:
i) a low building, perhaps single storeyed, five bays in length. Its steeply pitched gable is visible in the west end, with a gentler rear slope as if there were an integral outshut.
ii) the western three bays of this building are heightened; the heightening has heavy irregular quoins; a side wall thickness of c.0.85m is maintained for the full height of the wall.
iii) the eastern two bays are similarly heightened.
iv) bays six and seven are added as a building of two low storeys, perhaps in the earlier 18th century.
v) bays six and seven are heightened and given a rear outshut, perhaps in the early 19th century.
vi) later 19th century changes, probably after two or three separate properties are combined to produce the present house. The rear wing is added, along with the gable to bays four and five; a later block is built in the re-entrance between the rear wing and the west end of the front range.
Dating is difficult. The west end wall is 1.3m thick, which suggests a defensible building, although the outline of its steeply pitched gable (for heather thatch?) with its low eaves line does not. Possibly this is an earlier house converted into a bastle in the early 17th century, although there is insufficient evidence to prove this (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)