Anick Farmhouse, Sandhoe

Description

Bastle house, late C16 or early C17, altered late C17, outshut added mid-C18. Large roughly-coursed rubble with cut dressings; Welsh slate roof. 2 storeys, 3 bays. Central flush-panelled door in wave-moulded surround, with 6-pane fixed casement over; flanking bays have 8-pane Yorkshire sashes. All windows in stepped stone surrounds. Remains of original byre doorway and upper doorway (with jamb grooved by knife sharpening) in right bay. Coped gables with moulded kneelers; stepped and corniced end stacks.
Interior: walls 0.90 metre thick. 2 late C17 fireplaces, the western with flat-pointed arch in square frame, the eastern with bolection moulding. (Listed Building Report)

Solitary form bastle, measures 11.0 x 6.4m, with walls 0.9m thick. Byre entrance in long wall; first floor beamed ceiling; first floor door in long wall. Present state - house (Ryder 1990)
Anick Farmstead (previously Anick Farmhouse). The oldest part of the house is a bastle 11m by 6.5m externally, built of roughly coursed rubble with walls c.0.9m thick. Remains of both the original doorways survive in the south wall. The byre doorway at the east end of the wall has lost its head and the upper part of its west jamb; all that is visible of the upper doorway, set a little further west, is the west jamb (with knife sharpening grooves). The absence of old quoins at the east end of the house, and the irregular nature of the end wall (with slight external set-back) suggests that it incorporates the west end of an earlier building (seen on 1st edition OS 25 inch). The house retains a number of interesting post-bastle features, dating from remodelling during the 18th century. The three bay south front has a central wave moulded doorway (with the incised date '1799' on the west jamb) and formerly mullioned windows, originally of three lights, in the end bays. Each has a rebated surround, with an internal chamfer, giving the impression that the frames have been set in the wall back to front. The two-light window above the doorway is of the same form but more recent.
Inside, there is a marked internal batter on the front wall. The west room has a large fireplace with a flattened triangular head within a moulded square frame; the scratched date '1761' is surely too late for this form. In the eastern room, the parlour, is a smaller bolection moulded fireplace. The western room retains some old beams including one, close to the east wall, with cuts for a stud partition. The present internal divisions and central stair are entirely modern.
The original bastle would appear to be of early 17th century date; the placing of both doorways in the south wall implies that this was a terraced bastle, built end-to-end with other contemporary buildings; there is both structural and map evidence of an adjacent house, probably earlier, to the east. The house was remodelled early in the 18th century; it is not clear whether the odd flat faced mullioned windows are work of this period or a little later. Map evidence suggests that the rear outshut is an early 19th century addition, although its stonework and features could be a little earlier. The house was renovated c.1984, when the outshut was heightened and a small rear yard enclosed and reroofed to form a further extension (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)