Broomhaugh Farmhouse

Description

Solitary bastle, 9.6 x 6.4m externally, side walls 1.24m thick, end wall 1.1m thick. Byre entrance in gable end. First floor beamed ceiling with first floor door in long wall. Present state - house (Ryder 1990)
Broomhaugh Farmhouse is the northernmost house on the east side of the old village street. The main front of the house is now rendered, with various sash windows (mostly renewed); the south gable, partly behind a recent conservatory, shows old heavy rubble. There is a much altered outshut at the rear (east). The southern part of the main block, measuring 9.6m by 6.4m externally, is a bastle, extended northwards in the later 18th century; the front (west) wall of the bastle is 0.92m thick and the east wall (perhaps partly cased?) 1.24m; the south end is 1.13m thick. In this end, and now opening into the conservatory, is the original byre entrance doorway; this is square headed, with a chamfered surround; the jambs are made up of three megalithic blocks, the topmost especially 'long'; a little extra headroom has been gained at some time by cutting away the soffit of the lintel. At first floor level (above the conservatory roof) is a blocked doorway with a timber lintel, set west of centre; this appears to be a later insertion. Traces of an older lower gable line are visible. No other bastle period features are exposed, except for a first floor cupboard in the east wall, between the southern pair of first floor windows, which may represent the original upper doorway (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)

House. Late C16/early C17 bastle enlarged and remodelled mid C18. Rubble, vastly rendered; slate roof. 2 storeys, 3 wide bays, irregular. Renewed door in bay 1, 12-pane sash to left with similar window above. Bays 2 and 3 have 9-pane casements with 18-pane Yorkshire sash between, 12-pane sashes to 1st floor. Coped gables; stepped end stacks, that to right corniced, ridge stack rebuilt on old base. Left return shows 12-pane sashes; right return shows original bastle byre entrance with massive dressings and chamfered jambs (head partly cut away), now within C20 conservatory. Outshut to rear altered C20 and not of interest. Interior; southern 2 bays have thick walls of original bastle, mural recess between 1st floor windows probably represents upper door. Stair of c.1800 with urn newels, stick balusters, ramped and moulded handrail. Whalebone arch (erected by returned mariner in late C19) attached to south-west corner. (Listed Building Report)