DescriptionMonk Farm, is said to have been a cell formerly attached to Hexham. The 17th century house, at present used as a byre, has a low arched doorway at its west end and windows in its side walls all built-up. On a stone is the inscription EF:AF:1677, doubtless the FAIRLESS family. Edward Fairless held the Monk in 1609 (PSANT 1895-6).
The building, part of the farmstead of Monk, is at present used as a byre and milking house. It was originally of two storeys, but the upper floor has been sometime removed and the ground floor built up some 1-1/2 feet. All existing doorways and windows are modern insertions. The dated stone, referred to by Authority 2 {PSANT 1895-6}, has, according to the tenant, now weathered so much, that the inscription is no longer visible. The roof is modern, but at the east end at the gable top is an original dove-cote, a small square tower of stone (F1 ASP 08-NOV-1956).
Four bastle period buildings now form a range c.30.5m by c.6.2m externally. Later alterations obscure the relative chronology of the buildings in part, but seem to be from south to north. Phase I is an almost square building (of 6.6m sides) with massive quoins; surviving original openings are a blocked doorway in the north wall (now internal) with an unusual two centred arch and a series of splayed slits at both basement and first floor levels; the levels of these openings do not relate well to the present floor levels and could point to either a vault having been cut away (the north wall has been thinned internally) or an intermediate floor being removed. Phase II, 7.5m long, has a round arched doorway on the west and a basement slit, with remains of slightly larger windows above on the east; the round arched doorway, both in form and in position, is very reminiscent of the basement cross passage doorways at Sinderhope Shield (NY 85 SW 15); there is now a recent doorway, possibly a replacement necessitated by a change in ground level, in the opposite (east) wall. Phase III, 10.5m long, has remains of a triangular headed doorway at first floor level in the west wall, with more basement slits and larger chamfered first floor windows on the east, whilst phase IV is a square building with various blocked openings; in the north end wall are a triangular headed basement door and a large fireplace, the corbelled out stack of which has been converted into a dovecote (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)
Range of buildings, formerly partly domestic. C16/C17, perhaps incorporating earlier fabric, with later alterations. Rubble, heavy quoins, stone dressings to some openings. North-west slope of roof stone flags, south-east slope slate. Both external elevations and internal walls show a variety of openings, some blocked, of different dates, including a number of doorways with monolithic flat-pointed or round-arched heads. One internal wall towards the south-west end of the range has a blocked door with a 2-centred pointed arch. The north- east gable has a blocked central door with a monolithic flat-pointed head and is capped by a square dovecote carried on a row of 4 corbels, with a pyramidal stone slate roof. The dovecote is a later adaptation of a large stack, the massive lintel of the 1st floor fireplace remaining visible internally. Monk Farm is traditionally said to be a medieval property of Hexham Priory. The range of buildings preserves a number of features of bastle house type. (Listed Building Report 1985)
The farm at Monk (known as 'le Menke' as early as 1547 (N.C.H. 3,71); there is a tradition of a 'house of correction' belonging to Hexham Priory) stands on a shelf on the east side of the valley of the West Allen, at the head of a steep slope (NY 783565).
Four bastle-period buildings now form a range c. 30.5 by c. 6.2m externally. Later alterations obscure the relative chronology of the buildings in part, but the building sequence seems to have been from south to north. Phase I is an almost square building (of 6.6 m side) with the usual massive quoins; surviving original openings are a blocked doorway in the north wall (now internal) with an unusual two-centred arch, and a series of splayed slits at both basement and first-floor levels; the levels of these openings do not relate well to the present floor levels and could point to either a vault having been cut away (the north wall has been thinned internally) or an intermediate floor being removed. Phase II, 7.5 m long, has a round-arched doorway on the west and a basement slit, with remains of slightly-larger windows above, on the east; the round-arched doorway, both in form and in position, is very reminiscent of the basement cross-passage doorways at Sinderhope Shield; there is now a recent doorway, possibly a replacement necessitated by a change in ground level, in the opposite (east) wall. Phase III, 10.5 m long, has remains of a triangular-headed doorway at first-floor level in the west wall, with more basement slits and larger chamfered first-floor windows on the east, whilst phase IV is a square building with various blocked openings; in the north end wall are a triangular-headed basement door and a large fireplace, the corbelled-out stack of which has been converted into a dovecote.
Unfortunately no original roofs survive, and the wall tops have been altered throughout the range. However, there are a number of intriguing features. Phase I looks almost as if it could have been a tower rather than a conventional bastle; as the two-centred doorway is of convincingly 'medieval' appearance, we may well be dealing with a structure pre-dating the majority of bastles in the area. Phase IV also might be interpreted as a tower-like building, especially as it seems to have been built with its own south wall (rather than utilizing the already-existing north end wall of phase III), although the evidence for this is somewhat obscured by both walls having now been removed. One might tentatively reconstruct the range as having a series of living rooms at first floor level (in the phase II and III sections), flanked by a pair of 'towers' — a degree of elaboration one would not expect from a farmstead of this period in this area. (Ryder 1992)
