White House Farmhouse, Capheaton (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ01657923
Latitude 55.10745° Longitude -1.97564°

White House Farmhouse, Capheaton has been described as a probable Bastle.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

Farmhouse. Late C18 with late C16 or early C17 core. Dressed stone with graduated Lakeland slate roof. 2 storeys, 5 bays. C20 central door in slightly- chamfered alternating-block surround. Renewed sash windows in original openings. Gabled roof with flat coping and end stacks; stack to right rebuilt in brick.
Outshut to rear.
The house has walls approx 3ft thick. The east wall and the rear wall within the outshut are approximately 4 ft thick. (Listed Building Report)

The farmhouse is built around a much older structure with walls c.1.4m thick (Pevsner).
A reference to White House incorporating thick walls implies it might have been a defensible building. There is said to be a reference to a farm on the site in 1511 (info from owner). The main part of the farmhouse is a rectangular east-west block 14.6m by 7.2m, with a later house built onto the west end and an outshut running most of the length of the north side. The five-bay two-storey south wall has features of plain early 18th century character and of no great thickness, but the north wall (1.3m thick) and probably at least the west end survive from an earlier building. The parts of the north wall visible externally are of large roughly squared stone with quite massive quoins and are of 16th or early 17th century character. Although there are no visible features contemporary with this early walling, it would seem reasonable to suppose that it survives from a defensible structure of some sort, perhaps a strong house (the dimensions seem a little on the large size for a typical bastle) (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1303705
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N10198.

Books
- Pevsner, N., et al, 1992, The Buildings of England: Northumberland (London) p. 366
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Ryder, P.F., 1994-5, Towers and Bastles in Northumberland Part 3 Castle Morpeth District p. 20-3

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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.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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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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