White Hall Farmhouse (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Western House

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY916546
Latitude 54.88616° Longitude -2.13261°

White Hall Farmhouse has been described as a probable Bastle.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

House, dated 1755 (with initials TMI) on door lintel, incorporating earlier bastle fabric. Rubble with long roughly-shaped quoins and cut dressings; Scottish slate roof. 2 storeys, 3 bays, slightly irregular. Right-of-centre 4-panel door in chamfered surround with dated lintel, 8-pane fixed casement over; paired 8-pane (lower) and 6-pane (upper) casements in flanking bays; all windows in chamfered surrounds, those in end bays formerly of 2 lights. 2 tiers of blocked pigeon holes to left of window above door. Coped left gable with stack rebuilt in brick on older stone base; rendered right end stack. Adjacent later house to right altered and not of interest.
Interior: during recent alterations gable-headed byre door of bastle exposed in east wall, now concealed. (Listed Building Report)

Solitary form bastle. Byre entrance in gable end. Present state - house (Ryder 1990).
White Hall Farmhouse is an altered bastle. The original part of the house measures 10.9m by 6m externally, with end walls of heavy rubble with roughly shaped quoins; the side walls, only c.0.65m thick, were probably rebuilt in 1755, the date on the lintel of the present south door (a square headed opening with a chamfered surround; the date is accompanied by the initials M over T I). Above the door is a chamfered single-light window; the bays to either side have had two-light mullioned windows (with narrow chamfered surrounds) on each floor; the mullions have been removed and the sills of the lower windows lowered, perhaps in the 19th century. There are a series of (blocked) pigeon holes set below the eaves. The west gable has a blocked slit set centrally and a (later?) blocked window at attic level. The east end of the house is adjoined by an 18th century house. During renovations before 1984 a central doorway is reported to have been uncovered in the east end wall, with a triangular arched head. There is a later outshut at the rear of the house (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1155663
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1388358.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N8371.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- rightmove
Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 430
Periodical Articles
- Christopherson, R., 2011, 'Northumberland bastles: origin and distribution' Medieval Settlement Research Vol. 26 p. 21-33 (listed in appendix)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Ryder, P.F., 1994-5, Towers and Bastles in Northumberland Part 4 Tynedale District Vol. 2 p. 98-9
  Ryder, P.F., 1990, Northumberland Bastles Survey Unpublished p. 7

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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.

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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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