Brackenthwaite

Description

Barns adjoining Manor House, with core of original Manor House. Earliest part is probably late C16 bastle type house; date of 1632 with initials I.A. over entrance may be contemporary with adjoining buildings to right; extensively altered and extended to left in late C18, with inscription over entrance James & Margaret Atkinson and date, which could be 1793, but now partly erased. Mixed sandstone rubble walls, common graduated green slate roof. 2 storeys and numerous bays, built on slope, so appears as single storey to rear. Central bays are original house with extremely thick walls. Late C16 entrance has chamfered red sandstone surround, chamfered and shaped lintel stone, with later irregularly incised date and initials; slightly splayed jambs on inside, have 2 sets of drawbar holes. Walls appear to have been refaced in the late C18, so all other original features are now hidden and replaced by slit vents. (Listed Building Report)

A barn at Brackenthwaite is defined as a bastle derivative based upon the lintel, drawbar and also the holes for the upper floor windows. (PastScape)

The barn is probably an altered bastle and not, as suggested in the PastScape summary, a bastle derivative (a term which should refer to later houses built in a tradition of 1st floor accommodation).