East Shaftoe Hall tower. Photo by Peter Ryder.

[NZ 05958176] The most interesting feature of the 17th century East Shaftoe Hall is a pele tower at its west end. (1)

The hall is largely modernised and not outstanding. See photograph. It incorporates at the west end the vaulted ground floor, and part of the upper fabric of a tower. (2)

Vaulted area of tower possibly as early as 15th century. Possibly a well underneath the floor. (3)
East Shaftoe Hall. Late 13th or 14th century pele tower, incorporated into a house, probably in the 16th century. The house was extended and altered in the mid 17th century and again in the 18th century. The tower adjoins the left side of the house, extreme right of which has walls of a similar thickness to the tower, suggesting that there may once have been two towers linked by a central hall range. Listed Grade I. (4)

East Shaftoe Hall stands on rising ground. There was formerly a village nearby and a chapel. There appears to be few historical records of the house, which is a substantial farmhouse displaying a sequence of development typical of southern Northumberland, from a medieval building with a tower through a 17th century house to a superficially Georgianised small country house.
The house is quite a complex building, consisting of a central block of four bays and two-and-a-half storeys, with a cross wing at each end. The western cross wing, formed by the medieval tower, does not project to the south. A later block (the north range) has been built at the rear of the main block, infilling the gap between the wings and there are further single-storeyed extensions to the north and east and a small two storeyed block in the angle between the centre block and the southern part of the east wing. A pent-roofed outbuilding is built against the west side of the house.
TOWER:
The medieval block, generally interpreted as a tower (known to the owners as 'the keep') measures 10.9m by 6.8m externally with, in addition, a stair projection or turret 4.2m by 1.5m at the north end of the west side. The walls, 1.1m-1.3m thick at basement level, are of large squared stone. The block is now two storeys high and covered by the hip-ended roof of the house.
The basement has a slightly depressed barrel vault carried on eight square ribs. The northern two ribs are set slightly skew to allow for the position of a doorway in the east wall, now opening into the house, which has a pointed chamfered arch. A similar doorway at the north end of the west wall opens into the stair well in the turret, 1.8m in diameter. The newel and treads are missing and might, conceivably, have been of timber; there is a small tapering loop, its external opening blocked, opening on to the west wall of the turret. In the west wall to the south of the turret is a recess of uncertain function and further south a splayed loop (blocked internally). In the centre of the south wall is a round-arched doorway with a continuous roll moulding, apparently an insertion and in the centre of the north wall a 19th century sash window with a tooled ashlar surround.
At first floor level the tower is sub-divided by a cross wall 0.7m thick, which may be of some age. A square-headed doorway, apparently with a chamfered lintel (concealed behind wallpaper) gives access to the tower from the stairhead landing in the main block, but there has
been an earlier doorway further south in the same wall, now a cupboard in the bedroom to the east of the tower; this appears to have had a pointed rear arch. A square-headed chamfered doorway opens from the northern room in the tower into the stair well, here lit by a small loop on the north. A square-headed window in the north wall of the room looks like an old feature that has been altered and perhaps reduced in size. The southern room in the tower has a large wall
cupboard (perhaps originally some form of mural chamber, possibly a garderobe) on the west and a 17th century window, formerly of two lights, on the south; there seems to be an area of patching below the sill of this.
MAIN BLOCK:
This has walls of heavy roughly squared stone, c.0.8m thick. The south front is of three irregular bays and two-and-a-half storeys, with late 18th or early 19th century sashes replacing wider 17th century mullioned windows at first floor level; there are similar sashes to the ground floor, but at this level the wall face is largely hidden by vegetation. The wall has a chamfered plinth and moulded strings above each range of windows. Above the upper string are remains of low or cut-down openings directly below the present eaves.
The former rear wall of the block is now internal. It contains a large fireplace, now concealed, served by a massive projecting stack which considerably restricts the size of the eastern rooms in the north range. The west end of the wall would appear to have abutted against the doorway opening into the tower basement, although this is again exposed by a doorway through the wall at this point.
EAST WING:
This has walls of c.0.9m thick, with large roughly squared quoins. Internally it has been much altered, although the present cross wall is probably old. This divides the ground floor into two rooms, each of which has been served by a fireplace (concealed) with a heavy external stack. The modern stair at the south end of the northern part replaces an earlier predecessor, as there is a blocked chamfered window at mid height in the east wall at this point.
PORCH:
The porch block, built in the re-entrant angle between wing and main block, is now enclosed under the same roof as the rest of the house, but is marked by its thinner walls. It has a moulded doorway with a flattened triangular head within a square frame on the south; above this the cut for the shallow-pitched roof of a former external porch is visible. The west wall shows a continuation of the plinth and lower string course of the south front of the main block, although these end short of the south west corner, hinting that the actual corner may have been rebuilt. There appears to be an irregular joint between the south walls of the east wing and porch.
NORTH RANGE:
This runs the full length of the main block, its north wall being set a little outside the line of the north walls of both tower and east range. A the east end the wall butts up against the projecting stack at the north end of the east range, 'doubling up' the thickness of the end wall of the range west of the stack. There is a vertical joint between the western bay of the wall (containing a tall window with a recessed-and-chamfered surround lighting the stair) and the remainder, which is of rather better-quality squared stonework. This western bay shows traces of a former gabled roof, truncated by the present eaves; the eastern section of wall appears to have been heightened, possibly at the same time as the present sash windows were inserted.
LATER EXTENSIONS:
On the north of the north range are two single storey rooms with separate hip-ended roofs, both probably of 19th century date although the eastern is the earlier.
On the east side of the east wing is a low pent-roofed addition, which may have originally been a porch. It has a blocked doorway of late 18th or early 19th century character on the south.
On the west side of the tower is a pent-roofed outbuilding, again probably of late 18th or early 19th century date.
DISCUSSION:
A tentative reconstruction of the structural development of the hall might be:
i) 15th or early 16th century house with a tower or solar tower at the west end, adjoining a hall block that may have been of earlier date. The rib vault of the tower basement is unusual.
ii) the house may have been remodelled in the 16th or early 17th century as an H-plan 'strong house', the old hall block being replaced by the present centre block and east wing, perhaps having their principal apartments at first floor level. The evidence for this is fairly tentative but runs as follows: the north wall of the centre block would appear to have been built across the original doorway into the tower basement. The present south doorway, which presumably replaced the blocked doorway, seems to be of 16th rather than 17th century character.
iii) the house was completely remodelled in the mid 17th century as a conventional ground floor house, with contemporary architectural detail such as moulded string courses. The west wing was the earlier tower; it is not clear how much it was remodelled, as its upper parts do not survive.
iv) At a subsequent date, perhaps in the early 18th century, a further block was built infilling the gap between the stair wing and the north part of the east wing.
v) In the later 18th century the appearance of the house was drastically altered by a further remodelling. The top floor was cut down, the early 18th century part of the north block, which had
presumably had a pent roof, heightened and a single hip-ended roof constructed to cover the whole structure. All the mullioned windows were altered to sashes.
vi) 19th century changes were relatively minor.
This is quite an important house, although slightly diminished by its close proximity to comparable structures at Belsay and Shortflatt where the medieval phases are better preserved. (5)

Listed by Cathcart King and by Dodds. (6a-b)