Furnace House, West Allen

Description

Bastle house, dated 1639 with initials T K on byre entance lintel; extended in late C17 and remodelled in early C18 (1710(?) date on jamb of 1st floor door). Large rubble with dressings, stone slate roof. Bastle 2 storeys, 3 bays. Off-centre doorway, partly blocked, with chamfered surround; 1st-floor door directly above with tooled jambs and lintel. To left small 1st-floor window in tooled stone surround, to right small ground-floor window and larger 1st-floor window. Left extension has doorway with wood lintel and to left a small window with wood frame. Right return has ground-floor door and small attic window with wood frame. Outshuts to rear.
Interior: bastle byre entrance has chamfered triangular head. Bastle has internal set-back on rear (north) wall at 1st floor level, remains of C18 corbelled fireplace at east end and central collar-beam roof truss with slightly curved principals. The gable end of the extension shows the remains of a saltbox rebated for a door and a pair of corbels for the original stack. Empty and derelict at time of survey. The house has historical connections with early lead smelting. in the area, as well as being a rare example of a dated bastle. (Listed Building Report)

At the time of survey the building is being restored and its interior is inaccessible. The building consists of a bastle 7.7m by 6.25m externally, with a 6.4m long extension (of the same width) at the west end, with a later outshut to the north of both parts. The west end wall of the original bastle, 1.1m thick, has a central byre doorway with a triangular head and the incised inscription 'T K 1639', with a drawbar tunnel on the south and a harr socket in the lintel. The south and east walls of the bastle are only 0.6m-0.65m thick, and have probably been rebuilt; in the centre of the south wall is a chamfered doorway of later 17th century character, and directly above it a doorway with an unchamfered stone surround and an incised date, possibly '1710', on one of the blocks of the east jamb. West of the doorway is a small window with a tooled stone surround of early 18th century type, with sockets for a central iron bar; there is a larger 19th century window east of the doorway. There are remains of an 18th century corbelled fireplace at the east end, and a principal rafter roof truss with slightly curved principals, and a collar. The western extension is more ruinous (the upper part of the south wall has fallen) and may be of later 17th century date; on the internal face of its west gable are trace of a firehood (with a rebated oven or salt box) and corbels for a cantilevered stack (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)