Midgeholm Bastle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Midgewham

In the civil parish of Bardon Mill.
In the historic county of Northumberland.
Modern Authority of Northumberland.
1974 county of Northumberland.
Medieval County of Northumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY78606162
Latitude 54.94879° Longitude -2.33551°

Midgeholm Bastle has been described as a probable Bastle.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

Description

Solitary bastle, 7.0 x 6.5m externally, with side walls 0.8m thick(Ryder 1990).
Midgeholme lies on the west side of the Allen valley and has a long range of farmhouse (dated 1755) and buildings, with a ruined bastle at its east end.
The original dimensions of the bastle are uncertain, since only the north wall and a stub of the east wall survive; by the 18th century it had been reconstructed as a house 7.7m by 6.6m; the north wall of the bastle is 0.9m thick and the east end 1.05m, built of large roughly square stones on a boulder plinth. Close to the west end of the north wall a doorway, probably an original external door, opens into the remains of an outshut (of which only the west wall now survives); this doorway has massive jamb stones and lintel and a chamfered surround, with a harr socket in an internal timber lintel; the jambs are plastered, obscuring any evidence of drawbar tunnels and sockets. Internally, the wall shows a series of sockets for transverse first floor beams; at first floor level is a small window with a timber lintel, now blocked, with further east a blocked wall cupboard which seems to correlate with a projecting slab (the remains of the spout of a slopstone?) on the external face of the wall.
The rebuilt 0.6m thick west wall of the building stands to 0.35m, but is featureless; nothing survives of the south wall other than the chamfered west jamb of a doorway at its extreme west end, and some footings (showing it too to have been only 0.65m thick).
An extension 5.8m long was built onto the east end of the bastle in the 19th century; it has a ground floor slit vent near the east end of its north wall, and traces of a first floor fireplace in the east end. Nothing remains of its south wall other than the chamfered east jamb of a doorway at its extreme east end. Lying at the foot of the wall is what appears to be half of a fireplace lintel with the incised inscription ... above 17... (a note made on a 1984 visit records the date as being '1753') (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N6843.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Dickinsons of Whitfield
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Ryder, P.F., 1994-5, Towers and Bastles in Northumberland Part 4 Tynedale District Vol. 1 p. 28-9
  Ryder, P.F., 1990, Bastles and Towers in the Northumberland National Park (Report for Northumberland National Park Authority) p. 3

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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.

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Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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