The Raw Farm, Hepple

Description

Bastlehouse. C16 or early C17, the upper storey partly rebuilt C18. Random rubble. Asbestos roof.
Probably C18 ground-floor doorway on west side with large stone lintel. To right outside stone steps to partly-rebuilt 1st floor doorway.
Original ground-floor doorway on right return, now masked by later building; chamfered jambs and lintel. Window on east side with chamfered jambs carved with a human head and a rosette with tassels.
Ventilation slit or gun loop on left return.
Interior: tunnel-vaulted ground floor. Well-built segmental rere arch of original door, which has drawbar tunnels.
The scene of the murder in 1791 of Margaret Crozier by William Winter who was executed at Winters Gibbet in Elsdon Parish. (Listed Building Report)

The Raw Bastle survives in an excellent state of preservation and exhibits unusual carved ornaments.
The monument includes a medieval defended farmhouse, or bastle, situated among farm buildings 30m to the north-west of the present farmhouse. The structure, constructed of roughly squared stone and surviving to first floor level, is rectangular in plan, measuring 9.1m by 4.5m within stone walls 1.6m thick. Traces of a plinth and a more massive foundation course are exposed at the north-east side. The upper storey has been partially rebuilt in the late eighteenth century with smaller, squarer masonry. The basement, or byre, is barrel vaulted and has an original doorway at the centre of the south-east gable; other entrances in the south-west and north-west wall are later and the latter has now been turned into a window. A slit window is placed centrally in the north-west gable. At the eastern corner of the basement there are indications that a small staircase formerly existed; this identification is supported by the existence of corresponding masonry at the south-east end of the upper storey. On the external south-west wall a stone staircase leads up to the first floor living area through a late eighteenth or nineteenth century doorway. There are first floor windows on the north-east and north-west walls; the jambs of the former are decorated with carvings including one of a female head. The bastle now has a modern roof of metal sheeting. The upper storey of the bastle was apparently the scene of the murder in 1792 of the occupant, Mary Crozier. A local criminal, William Winter was hanged for her murder. The circumstances of this crime were widely known and Winters Gibbet became a local landmark. (Scheduling Report)

Situated 3 miles north of Elsdon at Raw, are the remains of Haws Peel which was tenantless in the late 18th century and by the mid 19th century was in ruins (Hodgson 1827; Tomlinson 1916).
The structure measures overall, 12.3m by 7.7m with walls 1.5m thick at ground level. The upper storey has been completely reconstructed and there is a modern gabled roof of grey slate. The original entrance is in the south-east end and is equipped with bar-holes. The building is now used for stock and storing of farm produce (F1 ASP 29-MAY-1957).
Bastle now farmbuilding. Rectangular building 12.3m x 7.3m; walls of roughly-coursed roughly-squared stone 1.6m thick; upper storey partly rebuilt in smaller squared stone; boulder plinth and foundation exposed on north east. Original byre entrance door in centre of south east wall, now within later building, has square-headed chamfered opening; twin draw-bar tunnels in south west jamb. Mutilated loop in north west wall, later doorway on south west and doorway reduced to window on north east. Basement has segmental barrel vault with tiny (0.25m square) ?ladder hole in apex, wall cupboards at north west end, beam holes for loft at south east end; other ragged holes in the walls are probably later alterations. First floor now reached by external stone stair on south west has 18th/19th century doorway; similar doorway in north east wall formerly had external stair. Slit window on south west largely in 18th/19th century masonry; window on north east has jambs carved with book/rosette and female head; later lintel. Much encumbered with 19th/20th century farmbuildings. Serious structural crack developing in north west gable-end, possibly occasioned by lowering ground level on north east side (F3 PFR 26-JUL-1990).
16th or early 17th century, built of random rubble with asbestos roof. Still intact though somewhat hemmed in by later buildings. The most visible side is the west side which has an 18th century doorway on the ground floor and, to the right, the outside stone steps to the original, but partly rebuilt, first floor doorway. The original ground floor doorway is in the south gable and is masked by a later building. The most unusual feature of the bastle is a window on the east side whose jambs are carved, uniquely, with a human hand and a rosette with tassels. The ground floor is tunnel-vaulted and the passage through to the door unusually treated with a well-built segmental arched vault. The Raw was the scene of the murder in 1791 of Margaret Crozier by William Winter who was executed for the crime at Winter's Gibbet in Elsdon parish (Grundy 1987).
Excavation work carried out on the northeastern side of the bastle revealed wall footings of large boulders, above which the main body of the wall - as squared and mainly coursed stones - rises. The external stair on the western wall of the bastle is a later addition to the building. Internally barrel-vaulted ground floor and with an arched and splayed passage in the southeast wall. A void has been examined within the thickness of the northern wall; it appears a failed attempt at inserting a later window. There are five areas of graffitti visible on the ground floor walls which appear to be sets of initials. Internal features include cupboards, arched panel with an eroded bust and smoke-hood. The bastle has seen many alterations and insertions since its original construction (Hale 2007). (Northumberland HER)