Warton Farmhouse, Snitter (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Worton

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NU00740285
Latitude 55.31967° Longitude -1.98989°

Warton Farmhouse, Snitter has been described as a certain Bastle.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

The chief inhabitants of Warton lived in bastle houses, which are not mentioned in the list of Border towers. In the diary of Mr John Tomlinson referring to a visit to Warton on 26th August 1717, is the entry, 'several old towers thereabouts for defence against the invasions of the Scots' (Dixon 1903).
NU 00740285. A large farmhouse towards the west end of the village of Warton, contains a fragment of very thick walling which belongs to a preceding structure. Its presence is noted by the much older appearance of the stonework in the north gable and of the house, and a doorway out through this wall at ground level gives a thickness of 1.5m. The full extent of the thick walling cannot be ascertained. The outside west wall, which is of similar construction, roughly-fashioned stone, and possibly the corresponding east wall, though now 0.7m in thickness, may be thinned down walls also belonging to the earlier structure. Against the south side, a rectangular two storyed structure has been added. It is designed in the Rennaissance style. Further additions to the north and east sides are modern.
The house stands upon a ridge of farmland, overlooking the Coquet valley to the south, and undulating ground to the north (F1 ASP 19-FEB-1957).
Condition unchanged. No further information was obtained about the house, but it seems reasonable that it incorporates remains of a bastle. All other buildings in Warton are completely modern (F2 RE 19-AUG-1971).
Warton Farmhouse, grade II listed building. 17th century refronted in early 18th century. Reroofed and extended to rear c.1855. L-plan (Listed Building Report). (Northumberland HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1042062
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 4708.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N2837; 10006*0 (NT SMR).

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 174-5
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 361
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 347
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 169
  Dixon, D.D., 1903, Upper Coquetdale Northumberland: Its History, Traditions, Folk-lore and Scenery (Newcastle-upon Tyne: Robert Redpath) p. 319-20 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Christopherson, R., 2011, 'Northumberland bastles: origin and distribution' Medieval Settlement Research Vol. 26 p. 21-33 (listed in appendix)
  Hadcock, R.N., 1939, 'A map of mediaeval Northumberland and Durham' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser4) Vol. 16 p. 148-218 esp 182

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

Data >	PastScape	County HER		Listing	I. O. E.
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio