Bastle East of Stone Hall Farm, Henshaw

Description

Ruin of bastle house, partly used as and shown on O.S. map as a Sheep Dip. Late C16-early C17. Coursed rubble with roughly-squared quoins. Fragmentary remains of rectangular-plan structure. West gable end and rear wall stand almost to eaves height. Blocked chamfered doorway in west gable end has huge roughly-squared alternating jambs and lintel with cambered top. Front wall and east gable end have largely collapsed. (Listed Building Report)

Solitary form bastle, measures 8 x 5m, with side walls 1.25m thick. Byre entrance in gable end (Ryder 1990).
A ruined bastle lies in the valley bottom east of Stone Hall Farm, on the east bank of a normally dry stream bed; a later sheep dip adjoins the west end. The bastle measures 9.1m by 6.6m externally, with walls 0.9m to 1.1m thick built of roughly coursed stone, with large blocks in the lower courses and smaller flaggy stones above; the quoins are only roughly shaped. Parts of the north and west walls stand to about eaves level; the remainder of the walls are reduced to first floor level or a little below. The square headed byre doorway is set centrally in the west gable, and has a plain chamfered surround; about 1m above is a small rectangular opening, a quenching hole, communicating with the rear of a first floor wall cupboard. The south wall has what appears to be a doorway (presumably secondary) at its east end, and further west a splayed loop opening immediately above one of the steps of an external stone stair, now ruinous. The north wall has a plain square window, without dressings, at first floor level near the west end. The east end has a central loop to the basement, with a strange little rectangular opening immediately below and slightly to the south.
The interior is much cluttered with fallen debris. The east end shows remains of corbelling for a central first floor hearth; the north wall retains several sockets for transverse first floor beams. The west end has a slight set-back at first floor level, and above that the wall cupboard already mentioned. The ruin would appear to represent a fairly conventional small bastle; the quenching hole is an interesting survival, whilst the small hole at the opposite end of the basement is more difficult to explain. The inserted doorway in the south wall presumably points to a remodelling of the bastle as a more conventional house; the south wall at 0.9m is the thinnest of the four, and built of slightly smaller stones - this might point to it having been rebuilt, although the loop and the external stair provide contrary evidence. The quite wide spacing and relatively small size of the first floor beams (judging from their sockets) might point to the first floor having been renewed at some stage.
The ruin is in poor condition with several trees growing on the walls. The west end bulges outwards (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)