Denton Foot (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Nether Denton.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY57186240
Latitude 54.95440° Longitude -2.67029°

Denton Foot has been described as a certain Bastle.

There are major building remains.

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

Description

Bastle, now a house. Dated 1594 on lintel and initials C.B. (Christopher Bell), with early C19 additions and alterations. Calciferous sandstone rubble walls over 2m thick, on chamfered plinth and large flush quoins; Welsh slate roof and coped gables, C19 cream brick chimney stacks. 2-storey, 3-bay original house, with extension of 2 storeys, 2 bays to left. Original house now has C19 2-pane sash windows with chamfered surrounds; central upper floor window has been recut through filled entrance, with reused dated lintel. Side wall right has filled ground floor entrance and small attic window. Rear wall has 2 small original first floor windows with original iron grilles. (Listed Building Report)

The two-storey building, measuring 13.0m x 7.2m with walls up to 1.7m thick at ground level, has been modernised and forms part of a private dwelling. At first floor level are three small, plain-chamfered window openings, probably original, two in the N wall, and the other in the E gable end (F1 DS 07-DEC-71).
NY 572623 Denton Foot The bastle stands in a hollow near the Castle Beck. Now modernised and used as a farmhouse; a reused lintel has CB 1594 engraved on it. A Christopher Bell had a tenement with 26 acres of enclosed ground here (Ramm et al). (PastScape)

Denton Foot is lived in, but clearly with very thick walls, two metalled windows and a datestone of 1594. (Site report from Catherine Bancroft Jan 2009)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1051049
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 12674.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 239.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 102 (slight)
  Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 148 (plan)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 95
  Hugill, Robert, 1977, Castles and Peles of Cumberland and Westmorland (Newcastle; Frank Graham) p. 82
  Ramm, H.G., McDowall, R.W. and Mercer, E., 1970, Shielings and Bastles (London: HMSO) p. 77 no. 14
  Curwen, J.F., 1913, Castles and Fortified Towers of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 13) p. 278
  Jenkinson, H.I., 1875, Practical Guide to Carlisle, Gilsland, Roman Wall, and neighbourhood (London) p. 103 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Ward, T., 1990 May, 'Bastle Houses of the Anglo-Scottish Borders' Fortress: The Castles and Fortifications Quarterly Issue 5 p. 35-43
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Graham, T. H. B. (ed.), 1934, The barony of Gilsland. Lord William Howard's survey, taken in 1603 (Feild-Booke yt explaines all the Map Booke for Gilsland taken in 1603) (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 16)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Catherine Bancroft Jan 2009 pers. corr.

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.

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