Coanwood Stonehouse Bastle

Description

Incorporated in a north-south range of farmbuildings at West Stonehouse farm is a former house, probably of bastle derivative type. The building, with a late 18th or early 19th century barn attached to its southern end and a 19th century cottage built onto its west side, is a rectangular block 14.9m by 6.3m externally. The southern part is built of heavy rubble, the northern (which has apparently been rebuilt) of more regularly coursed stone with squared quoins; the walls of the northern section are only 0.6m thick but the older southern part has side walls 0.9m thick, with a pronounced batter. Most of the visible features seem to relate to a late 18th or early 19th century reconstruction; two first floor windows on the east reuse the heads and sills of two-light mullioned windows, and a small window in the rebuilt north end reuses old chamfered dressings. Two chamfered windows of 17th century character in the west wall, again at first floor level, seem to be in situ; the southern, a single light, is set close to the south end of the wall, the second, probably of two lights, is near the centre of the wall and is now blocked, being concealed externally by the added cottage. The ground floor was filled with hay at the time of the survey; the first floor has not been inspected in detail (the floor is unsafe) but has a roof structure that might possibly be original; this is of five bays with principal rafter trusses having slightly arched collars, a ridge, and two levels of purlins; the second truss from the north is closed, with a boarded and plastered partition. This building certainly seems to have been a first floor house, probably best classed as a bastle derivative than a bastle proper; it may date to the second half of the 17th century. Although considerably altered, it probably merits a closer inspection and measured survey when empty of hay (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)