Workshop at Tow House, Henshaw. Photo by Peter Ryder.

This building has proved difficult to categorise over the years and has long been likened to a 16th or early 17th century bastle. It has massive corner stones and a plinth course made of boulders. Today, it is a long, single storey building but originally had an upper floor or attic. It measures about 12.7m long by 6.1m wide with end walls almost one metre thick. Although there are a few features present that are commonly found in bastles, such as narrow windows or loops and a square-headed doorway, it seems to have been a stone-walled cruck house, a rare survival in Northumberland. The walls are not really thick enough to be described as a defensive element of the house. This is a Grade II Listed Building protected by law.