Lambley Farm Bastle

Description

House C16 or early C17, perhaps incorporating medieval fabric, outshut added C18, facade remodelled late C18 or early C19, altered later Cl9 and C20; outbuildings late C16 or early C17,altered. Squared stone (re-used from the medieval priory), rubble dressings, slate roofs. 2 storeys, 5 bays, symmetrical. Central renewed door with latticed overlight, flanked by C20 margined sashes. 1st floor has 5 C20 sash windows in old openings. Coped gables, left end stack brick, right end stack stone. Lower outbuildings to right in two sections; first part 2 storeys, 2 irregular bays. C20 window with small C17 chamfered window to left. 1st floor 2 C20 sashes with small C17 window to left. Second part 2 storeys, 1 wide bay. central boarded door with truncated triangular head and heavy dressings, probably re-set. Above and to left boarded pitching door; below eaves a long line of pigeon holes with alighting band beneath. Left return shows re-used medieval voussoirs. Rear elevation: outbuilding to left has boarded door in C17 chamfered surround. Interior; internal west wall of eastern outbuilding has blocked ogee-headed niche and corbels above carrying fireplace, later cut through to form doorway. Interior of house has one C18 fireplace with chamfered surround.
The site of the medieval Lambley priory, a Benedictine nunnery, is thought to lie in the field south of the farm; sundry architectural fragments lie in the house garden or have been re-used in the house and farm buildings. The present house has walls over a metre thick which may be medieval. The two sections of outbuilding to the east represent later dwellings of bastle-house type, the second largely rebuilt. (Listed Building Report)

The present farmhouse consists of a five-bay two storey block, with a pair of outbuildings, also of two storeys but somewhat lower, attached to the east end.
THE FARMHOUSE: The main block measures 13.2m by 7.25m externally, and is built of reused squared stone; several moulded stones are reused in the west gable end. There is a later outshut, probably of 18th century date, on the north. There are no visible pre 18th century features, but the walls are around a metre thick throughout. Recent alterations are reported to have revealed evidence around the staircase to show that there were originally three floors rather than the present two.
THE FIRST OUTBUILDING: This measures c.7.1m by 7.3m externally and is of the same squared stone as the farmhouse; its side walls are c.0.9m thick and the east end 1.5m. At the west end of the south wall there are small chamfered windows to both ground and first floor levels, the upper reusing part of a lintel from a larger mullioned window and showing a socket for an iron bar. The central section of the front (south) wall, with a large window (formerly a cart entrance) and a pair of sashes above, has been rebuilt; the only feature on the north is a chamfered doorway, set centrally, with traces of a drawbar tunnel in its jambs.
THE SECOND OUTBUILDING: This is almost square (7.2m long by 7.3m wide) and built of roughly coursed rubble with large roughly squared angle quoins; the walls are only 0.6m thick. Set centrally on the south is a doorway with a trapezoidal head (apparently a relatively recent modification of a square lintel); just below the eaves is a continuous band of pigeon holes with an lighting band beneath. Internally the west wall of this building (ie the external face of the east end of the first outbuilding) shows several features of interest; set centrally at ground floor level is what appears to be a blocked slit vent with, to the south, a small and shallow recess with what appears to be an ogee arched head. Above the slit vent are three corbels, carrying the hearth of a first floor fireplace which has been broken through into a doorway; above this are a pair of corbels to carry a former stack.
The thick walls of the farmhouse and first outbuilding are clearly of bastle period, or might even represent a much altered medieval building; the relationship between these two parts is not clear. The second outbuilding with its much thinner walls if obviously later, and may be of 18th century date; its corbelled out first floor fireplace shows that it is still a building in the bastle tradition (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)