Lee Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Bellingham.
In the historic county of Northumberland.
Modern Authority of Northumberland.
1974 county of Northumberland.
Medieval County of Northumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY86167976
Latitude 55.11204° Longitude -2.21839°

Lee Hall has been described as a probable Bastle, and also as a probable Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.

Description

A pleasant early eighteenth century house standing close to the River North Tyne betwwen its confluences with the River Rede and the Houxty Burn. It is the result of a radical transformation carried out in the seventeenth century on a strong house, bits of which are still evident at the back of the building. In 1620 this was termed a 'capital messuage'; the earlier structure had housed people since at least the thirteenth century. (Dodds 1999)

House. Early C18 with C17 core. Ashlar facade, random rubble behind and to lower one-bay wing on left. Welsh slate roof. 2 storeys. 5 bays. Double-span roof with projecting former service wing to rear. Symmetrical. C20 double door in doorway with moulded round-arched head, with curved keystone, on moulded imposts. Above a floating cornice and pulvinated frieze. Round-headed window in similar frame above. All other ground and 1st floor windows are 12-pane sashes in lightly-moulded surrounds. Similar surrounds to 6-pane attic windows. Bands at ground, 1st and 2nd floor level. Alternating and rusticated quoins. Moulded cornice. Gabled roof with kneelers behind cornice, i.e. from earlier house. Stone-corniced gable stacks. Right return has massive truncated external gable stack; similar stack visible above one-bay left extension.
Interior has early C18 panelling and fireplace with bolection moulding in 1st floor front room; C17 stone fireplace with decorative lintel in 1st floor rear room. Many C18 doors, internal shutters and dado rails. Late C18 wood fireplace with Corinthian colonettes in ground floor front room. (Listed Building Report)

Comments

The social status of this building means if the C17 building was fortified it would have been a rather grander building than the pele-house type bastle probably something compareble to Doddington Bastle. However, as far as Gatehouse is aware, the only source suggesting this was fortified is from Dodds (1999), not a checkable source. In this area it would not be unreasonable to expect a C17 house to have some amount of defensive features and some 'military' architectural features. Any earlier medieval building may also have had some level of fortification, such as a solar tower, but there is no evidence for this.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1044999
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 16438.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N7744.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 354-6
  Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1940, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 15 p. 242
  Tomlinson, W.W., 1902, Comprehensive Guide to Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 217

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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