Thockrington Bastle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY958791
Latitude 55.10593° Longitude -2.06746°

Thockrington Bastle has been described as a probable Bastle.

There are no visible remains.

Description

(Area NY 958791) To the north of the farmhouse at Throckrington, there are the remains of a bastle house (Hodgson 1897)
Listed, but no further information (McDowall 1965).
The area shows evidence of depopulation, but no tradition or trace of a Bastle could be found. (F1 DK 16-NOV-1966).
Bastle remains near farm, show bolt holes in the walls of a doorway. Mounds beside tower known as the 'night folds' (Long 1967). (Northumberland HER)

Bastle. Not mentioned 1541, though in the area surveyed. Site about NY 958791. (King 1983 ref. N.C.H., iv, 403, n3.)

To the north of the farm house are the ruins of the bastle house which has a pointed doorway and channels in the thickness of the walls for the door bolts. There had been several enclosures (now marked by grass-grown mounds) still known as 'the night folds,' in which it is said that the cattle continue to be folded every night up to the middle of the eighteenth century. (Hodgson 1897)

One of the Shafto's - probably William who was born in 1576 and later became a captain in the Commonwealth army - built a fortified house of some sort on the northern side of the village, most likely as a safe retreat for the villages in times of strife. There was still eleven houses in the village at that time.
Today there are only two cottages, a farm and the church in Throckington. Earthworks surrounded the buildings, the foundations of the strong house being entangled with cottage remains. One set of grass-covered mounds is still called the 'night folds', supposedly where cattle and sheep were held for overnight safety. No doubt that this happened although the mounds look like old foundation coverings. (Dodds 1999)

Comments

Dodds constructs a partly plausible account although the actual evidence is slight. On the six-inch OS map surveyed in 1862 three small roofed rectangular buildings are shown in an orchard north of the farm, by the 1894 map they are roofless and they are not shown on the 1919 map. What Hodgson saw may well be one of these buildings. The southern most of these three building seems the most substantial on the map and of the size of a small 'pele-house' (not of a size able to accommodate the whole village population), its site is now covered by a modern farm building.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 18777.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N9241.

Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 342
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 354
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 325
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 161
  Hodgson, John Crawford (ed), 1897, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 4 p. 403n3 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- McDowall, R.W., 1965, Peels and Bastles of Northumberland (Typescript) R.C.H.M.

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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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