Hepburn Bastle, Chillingham. Photo by Peter Ryder.


The barrel vaulted basement at Hepburn Bastle, Chillingham. Photo by Peter Ryder.

(NU 07072488) Bastle (Ruins of). (1)

The 'hold' at Hebburn is first mentioned in 1509 (2) and is also mentioned in a survey of 1542 when it was said to be a tower in reasonably good repair. (3)
In the south-east corner of Chillingham Park is the ruinous 'bastle-house' of the ancient family of Hebburn. It is difficult to conceive how this 'bastle house' could ever be called a 'tower' as it was in early surveys. A heap of stones near the park wall has been pointed out as the site of the tower, but on the other hand the work is more like the reign of Henry VIII than of Elizabeth and it is unlikely that the surveys of the border fortresses would have omitted this strong house near a tower. (2)
In 1564 it is referred to as a 'mansion house' and was no doubt of larger extent than the present building which bears on the south side the marks of the roof of a wing which has entirely disappeared. The house seems to have been abandoned after the death of the last male heir, Robert Hebburn in 1755. (3)
The bastle-house is three stories high of ashlar, with a finish suggestive of late 14th century work. The ground floor consists of two vaulted chambers, and the entrance is a vaulted passage through the south wall, which is 9ft 4ins thick. A doorway in the east side of this passage leads to a wheel stair, now ruinous, that gave access to the upper floors.
The first floor, the walls of which are 6ft thick, was divided into three rooms, each with a fireplace and with mullioned and transomed windows. The windows are all (later) insertions.
The second floor is an attic contained in a roof that had two gables at each end. It has small square window and is apparently a reconstruction of the late 16th century. (4)

Architectural description correct. The smaller of the two chambers of the ground floor is built into the thickness of the east wall with a square hole in the floor giving access to an underground or basement compartment the full extent of which could not be determined.
The remains of the bastle are in fair condition although the upper part is overgrown with ivy. See photograph. (5)

Condition unchanged. (6)

Grade I, Hebburn Bastle.
This is one of the oldest and most interesting of the 'bastle' type of strong house in Northumberland and much more architectural character than its successors. Late 14th century with some 16th century alterations. See illustrations and detailed description of it in NCH vol XIV. See also C J Bates's 'Border Holds'. (7)

Hepburn Bastle, Grade II*.
A tower house not a bastle. 15th century with 16th and 17th century windows. Dressed coursed stone. Tunnel vaulted basement and two floors above. Chamfered plinth and further chamfered set back above first floor. Two original slit windows to basement. Mullioned and mullioned-and-transomed windows above. Roofless and unoccupied at time of survey. Spiral stair has collapsed. First mentioned 1509. (8)

The bastle is rectangular measuring c.16.6m by 10.8m externally, of two storeys and attics. At basement level the walls are c.2.7m thick, except for the east wall (which includes a mural chamber) which is 3.5m thick. It is built of tooled sandstone ashlar. There is a chamfered plinth and a chamfered set-back a little below eaves level and twin gables to the east and west ends.
The entrance is through a doorway set towards the east end of the south wall. It is a square headed opening, clearly altered, with re-used blocks (including one moulded one) in its jambs and a keyed supra-lintel suggesting an 18th century date. East of the doorway a full height rent on the wall results from the collapse of the outer side of the well of the newel stair. There is a square headed first floor window near the centre of the wall, west of this can be seen the roof weathering of an attached north-south range, almost certainly a later addition.
The east end of the building has a central slit window at basement level, which, together with a large patch of rubbly masonry immediately south of it, looks to be of relatively recent date. Further north is a small square headed loop with remains of sockets for an iron grille. At first floor level are two windows, each of two lights, with a transom. The southern has trefoiled heads to its lights. The twin gables above the set-back are partly covered by ivy, but the northern has a square headed window, its lintel formed by a re-set transom.
The north wall of the building is very plain. There is a single two light square headed window (again transomed) at first floor level, near the west end. It has a hoodmould with turned back ends. There are two openings for garderobe chutes, the eastern immediately above the plinth and the western below.
The west end of the building has a single chamfered loop, set centrally, to the basement and a pair of square headed windows to the first floor. Both have originally been of two lights, the northern retaining its mullion, but they do not have transoms. The northern gable has a small chamfered window and the southern a rather larger window, with chamfered jambs but a plain lintel.
The entrance doorway leads into a lobby with a segmental arched stone pseudo-vault. On the right is a segmental arched doorway (with a continuous hollow chamfer to head and jambs) opening into the newel stair, although its northern jamb is partly obstructed by the facing of the remodelled stair well. The west wall of the lobby splays at a slightly different angle to the edge of the pseudo-vault above and seems to correlate with an adjacent area of rebuilt masonry in the south wall of the basement. The rather rough join between the basement vault and the pseudo-vault of the lobby, coupled with this rebuilt masonry on the west and a roughly cut section of wall on the east, seems to imply that an inner doorway, from lobby to basement, has been removed.
The lobby opens straight into the side wall of the barrel vaulted basement, lit by loops in the end walls. The western has a four centred rear arch. Below the sill of the western loop is an area of later rubble masonry, but neither this nor two rubble blocked openings towards the east end of the north wall are visible externally. At the extreme east end of the north wall is an opening with a later timber lintel, from which a shaft rises to link with a fireplace recess at first floor level. The south wall shows an area of rebuilt masonry adjacent to the opening into the lobby; the entire west wall of the lobby. The east end wall has a large area of patching set between a doorway with a four centred arch at the north end of the wall and the square headed rear arch of the eastern loop.
The four centred doorway opens into a mural chamber, roofed by a north-south vault of roughly two centred section. The north end wall of the chamber curves forward at mid height so as to make space for the splay of the loop beyond. In the east wall of the chamber is a large area of rebuilt masonry, including a window, with a roughly shouldered rear arch, cut at an oblique angle through the wall. The south end of the chamber has a ragged opening at roof level into the collapsed stair well.
The floor of the southern half of the chamber is raised a little above the northern and contains a square trapdoor dropping 2.5m into a small rectangular chamber, perhaps a prison or 'oubliette'.
The stair well is an especially puzzling feature. Only the broken ends of stairs remain attached to the circumference and it is difficult to relate these to a stair which would give access to the first floor. On the north is a blocked opening, possibly formed by the enlargement of the well truncating the south end of the mural chamber. West of this the walling of the well is of good squared stone, but obviously secondary from the manner in which it obstructs the north jamb of the lower doorway. The short section of the walling of the original well seems to be set on a curve of a lesser radius, as if it were considerably smaller. East of the blocked opening the walling of the well, to its full height, is of small angular rubble set in cement. The curve of the face of the final form of the well, if projected, would extend beyond the external face of the south wall, implying that it must have been partly housed in some form of projection. The lower courses of the original south wall survive, implying that this projection must have been corbelled out a little above ground level, although there are some rough footings in front of the wall which may also relate to it. An additional complication is raised by the fact that these footings look rather like the base of an external stair, suggesting that at one stage the building was entered by a doorway part way up the stair well.
The first floor of the building appears to have been divided by two transverse walls, although these have left only traces - chamfered door jambs attached to the south wall and fragmentary toothings on the north. The eastern chamber, entered directly from the stair well, was lit by the two-light windows in the east wall, which have three centred rear arches (the southern with conventional voussoirs, the northern cut from four blocks). It was heated by a fireplace on the north, which has now lost its arch. The central room was lit by the window in the south wall and heated by a fireplace opposite on the north, which again has lost its lintel. The westernmost room was provided with two windows on the west and one on the north. In addition, there is a square headed fireplace between the western windows and a mural recess, probably a garderobe, to the east of the northern window.
Ivy growing on the ruined gables partially obscures the remaining features at attic level. At the east end, one hollow-chamfered jamb survives of a central feature, probably a fireplace, walled up during some later phase. Also blocked up is the recess of a window to the south of the fireplace, which has a window seat in its surviving northern jamb. At the west end, both gable windows are set in square headed recesses; the north side of the northern is formed by a block of masonry partly concealing what appears to be a chamfered door jamb at the west end of the north wall. Between the gables are the remains of a second floor fireplace, its rear wall cut through by an opening which would appear to have held a spout draining the valley gutter between the two roofs.
INTERPRETATION:
Whilst the building is often said to be of late 14th century date, there are no features which conclusively pre-date the first recorded mention in 1509 and it is perhaps safer to regard it as a building of c.1500. Several accounts point out that most of the windows appear to be insertions, on the basis that their jambs do not course in with the adjacent masonry, this again is an arguable point.
There are a number of more convincing evidences of later alterations, in particular the remodelling of the stair. Most of the features at attic level, including the twin gables, may also be the product of late 16th or 17th century works; this is clearly demonstrated by the cutting down of the section of the west wall with the second floor fireplace. There were similar paired gables, again the product of post-medieval remodelling at both Cartington Castle and Whittingham Tower.
The most likely interpretation of the building, bearing in mind the alterations at attic level, the massive wall thicknesses at basement level and the chamfered set-back, is that the original form of the building was a tower house of three or more storeys. Its classification as a strong house or bastle is thus incorrect. (9)

Scheduled. (10)

Additional refernece (11a)

NU 070 249. Bastle house, Chillingham Park, Hepburn. Scheduled No ND/69. (9)

Listed Grade II* and Scheduled. (11b-c)

Listed by King and Dodds. (11d-e)

A further historical and architectural over view and analysis was carried out in 2018. (12)