Low Fairnley Bastle, Rothley

Description

Bastlehouse. C16 or early C17. Date 1723 over 1st floor door probably refers to alterations including building of outshut to rear. Random rubble, the upper parts an C18 rebuilding. C18 ground-floor doorway, now a window to left. Stone steps to almost central 1st-floor doorway with chamfered Tudor-arched surround, the lintel inscribed 1723 for Sir Walter Blackett of Wallington. :WB:Bt Flanking renewed 12-pane sashes in C19 alternating-block surround. Gabled roof with end stacks. Continuous outshut to rear.
Interior: walls c.4 ft. thick. On ground floor finely-out corbels to support 1st-floor fireplace. Large, probably C18, fireplace on 1st floor. (Listed Building Report)

At High Farneylaw (area NZ 008889) there is a farm which is an old peel house with the byre below and the farmers apartments above (Hodgson 1827).
NZ 00958875. Low Fairnley, a much restored bastle, with modern additions, now in use as a farm store (F1 DS 27-AUG-1968).
Solitary form bastle, measures 12.9 x 7.0m, with walls 1.1m thick. First floor beamed ceiling; first floor door in long wall. Present state - house (Ryder 1990).
Low Fairnley is a bastle recently renovated to serve as a house. The original building measures 12.95m by 7m externally, with walls of heavy rubble 1.05m thick. There is a late 18th or 19th century rear outshut built of hammer dressed squared stone. The south wall has a doorway with a flattened triangular head within a square frame, set centrally and reached by a short flight of stone steps; on its lintel is the incised inscription '1723 / WB:BT (Williams Blackett, Baronet). To either side are 12-pane sash windows, with substantial squared dressings keyed in with the adjacent walling; the whole upper section of the wall appears to have been rebuilt. Set close to the west end is a former doorway of uncertain date (now reduced to a window) and, to the east of the external steps, an apparent slit vent. The west gable end has only a boulder plinth and two inserted windows high up. The east end seems to have been entirely rebuilt in squared and coursed stone; it has a recent garage door, reusing older chamfered jambs. The interior of the building was not seen. It is described in Ramm et al as having well-cut corbelling at the west end of the basement, which carried the hearth stone and considers the present doorway to be an original feature, reset when the upper part of the wall was rebuilt. This may not necessarily be the case. Whilst stylistically the door surround is a little old fashioned for the second decade of the 18th century, in this area it would not necessarily be out of place. The size of the sash windows, the jambs of which are clearly coursed in with the rebuilt walling, seems a little unusual for the early 18th century; possibly the remodelling took place at a later date (c.1800?) possibly at the same time as the addition of the rear outshut, the doorway already having its lintel inscription when reset (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)