Newtown Bastle, Tosson

Description

The ruined walls of the only remaining bastle house of the hamlet, stand on a knoll overlooking a small stream (Dixon 1903).
NU 03550059 The remains are of a building measuring approx 7m x 7m. Part of the west and south walls remain, the other two sides being represented by turf-covered banks. The two remaining walls vary in thickness from 1m to 1.4m with a maximum height of 1.4m and are constructed largely of rubble masonry but with a few roughly dressed stones. Some of the stones are very large. To the south are traces of a small attached outbuilding. In the south wall and extending across most of its width is a partly buried dressed stone with a vertical rebate on each side and two square holes, one above the other, running east-west through its thickness. The purpose of this stone is obscure but it may part of a door jamb with drawbar holes. The remains have features characteristic of the defended houses found in the region and which have been dated to the late 16th/early 17th century. The remains occur within the area of a depopulated village (F1 EG 07-FEB-1957).
The fragmentary remains comprise the footings of an east-west wall including rebated west jamb of a doorway, with a drawbar tunnel, and at its west end a later length of wall running north. Insufficient remains to allow the building to be identified as a bastle, but it seems likely it was a defensible building of some sort (Ryder 1990). (Northumberland HER)