House. (1)

Reference is made in Dickinson's History of Allendale to a small local nonconformist sect funded by Francis Swindle, an ex-Wesleyan whose followers built him a remotely-sited 'house' in the Dry Burn valley, named 'Bochim' after a reference in the Book of Judges. The sect became known as the 'Bochimites', but did not survive after Swindle's death.
The ruin, named 'Boakam House' on some Ordnance Survey maps, can be identified with the 'house' built for Swindle. It stands on the line of the stone wall which marks the limit of cultivation, with open moor to the east; the convex slope of the valley side means that none of the farms and cottages on this side of the valley, all of which lie roughly on the 1100ft contour, are visible from it.
The meeting house is a simple rectangle in plan, 6.8m by 5.85m externally, with walls 0.55m thick of coursed rubble, with roughly-shaped quoins. The walls now stand to c.2.5m high at the southern angles, but are more ruinous elsewhere; both openings in the north wall have lost their lintels and part of the east wall has completely collapsed. The principal doorway is set centrally in the south east front and retains its plain roughly-shaped outer lintel. In the opposite wall is another doorway, with a window further east.
Internally, there are footings of a transverse wall stopping 0.95m before the north wall, where it would have cut across the north door. This would seem almost certain to have supported a gallery.
No other features are evident. Dry stone walls link to all four corners of the building. On the north there appears to have been a small yard or enclosure, or possibly a simple roofed structure, the full width of the meeting house and 6.6m long.
The remains of Bochim House are clearly those of a small meeting house, the smallest and most primitive to survive in the Allendales. Its internal area of 24.7 square metres can be compared with the next smallest chapel at Appletree Shield (37.90 square metres). The surviving features seem to imply that it followed a standard chapel plan of having a gallery (and presumably a bench below) facing a pulpit. However, it is difficult to see a Bochimite congregation exceeding 15-20 persons. Another interesting feature is the choice of site, which seems to have been deliberately made with a view to seclusion, in contrast to the various Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels which are always set beside a well-used road or footpath.
The building is in poor condition and requires consolidation. (2)

Boakam House, location uncertain, marked as ruinous on 1st edition 6" mapping. (3a)

Not marked as ruinous on 2nd edition mapping. (3b)