Bastle at Low Leam Farm

Reasons for Designation

Bastles are small thick-walled farmhouses in which the living quarters are situated above a ground floor byre. The vast majority are simple rectangular buildings with the byre entrance typically placed in one gable end, an upper door in the side wall, small stoutly-barred windows and few architectural features or details. Some have stone barrel vaults to the basement but the majority had a first floor of heavy timber beams carrying stone slabs. The great majority of bastles are solitary rural buildings, although a few nucleated settlements with more than one bastle are also known. Most bastles were constructed between about 1575 and 1650, although earlier and later examples are also known. They were occupied by middle-rank farmers. Bastles are confined to the northern border counties of England, in Cumbria, Northumberland and Durham. The need for such strongly defended farmsteads can be related to the troubled social conditions in these border areas during the later Middle Ages. Less than 300 bastles are known to survive, of which a large number have been significantly modified by their continuing use as domestic or other buildings. All surviving bastles which retain significant original remains will normally be identified as nationally important.

The bastle at Low Leam Farm survives in a very good state of preservation and is a good example of its type.

Details

The bastle, a defended medieval farmhouse, is situated among farm buildings 12m to the north of the present farmhouse. The structure, composed of blocks of roughly squared stone, and surviving in original form to eaves level, is roughly rectangular in plan, measuring 9.4m by 5.6m within stone walls 1.2m thick. The basement, or byre, was entered through a doorway in the west gable; this is square headed and displays a relieving arch over the lintel and two draw bar tunnels. The doorways in the east and north walls are later additions. There is an original slit window in the south wall of the byre which has been blocked at a later date. The top stone course of the byre projects outwards in order to carry the heavy timbers which supported the upper storey. The upper storey was used as the main living area of the farm and access was gained through a door placed in the south wall, now blocked and only visible from a later farm building built against the south wall; also visible is a blocked slit window and an inscribed stone carrying the initials `M C' and a date thought to read `1602'. The walls of the bastle were raised in the 19th century and it has a modern roof. The monument is also a Grade II Listed Building.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

25035

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Ryder, P F, Bastles and Towers in Northumberland National Park, (1990), 13
Ramm, H G, Shielings and Bastles, (1970), 84

End of official list entry

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