Wester Old Town, Allendale

Description

So called to distinguish it from Allendale Old town nearby, there is a converted bastle in use as a barn. Encouragingly it was a Grade 2 listed building, and when it neared collapse the farmer applied for grants to restore. He was refused, and when the bastle collapsed in a storm, he and his son cleaned the stone and rebuilt it as it had been. Unfortunately they could not afford to replace the stone flags of the roof, and so corrugated iron has had to suffice. In Roman fort. (Dodds 1999)

Bastle house late C16 or early C17 remodelled c.1700, partly rebuilt 1984; and barn dated 1821 with initials I.P. on lintel. Rubble, stone dressings. Stone slate roof to barn, C20 metal roof on bastle. Elevation towards farmyard 2 storeys. Barn has boarded doors with alternating jambs, that to 1st floor above external stone stair, and slit vents. Bastle to right has upper and lower doorways with chamfered surrounds re-set in rebuilt wall. Left return has round-headed opening, probably re-used, in gable. Rear elevation has various openings including door with dated lintel. Interior: end wall of bastle has original byre doorway with chamfered surround and drawbar tunnel, old 1st floor beams. 1st floor has C18 fireplace. (Listed Building Report)

NY 81435793 Old Town is a farmhouse with out-building which incorporates the remains of a Defended House. It is of two storeys with walls of rough dressed stone on strong foundations. Similar Defended Houses exist at Gatehouses, (NY 788890) and were dated 'Tudor' (F1 ASP 05-NOV-1956).
NY 814579. Wester Old Town bastle-derivative house, probably remodelling of bastle. Measures 9.9m x 6.1m. Partly rebuilt after collapse in 1984. Byre door, first floor beams etc. (Ryder 1984).
The bastle, or bastle derivative house, now a byre with a hayloft above, is incorporated in a range of farmbuildings east of the modern farmhouse; it measures 9.8m by 6m externally. The only remains of a bastle proper seem to be in the metre thick east wall, where there is a square headed byre doorway, with a drawbar tunnel in its south jamb; the other walls of the building are only 0.6m thick and seem to belong to an 18th century remodelling. Ramm et al describes various features at first floor level (a doorway and two windows in the north wall) since destroyed by a collapse of the wall in the later 1970s; the wall has been rebuilt with the doorway, but not the windows. These features are probably later 18th or early 19th century. A barn adjoins the east end of the old house; high in its east gable is a semicircular opening with a rebated arch, possibly an earlier feature reset. Another barn nearby has a lintel inscribed 'I P 1821' (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)