Castlefacts³

West Ealingham Farmhouse

Has been described as a Possible Bastle

There are no visible remains

Name	West Ealingham Farmhouse
Alternative Names
Historic Country	Northumberland
Modern Authority	Northumberland
1974 Authority	Northumberland
Civil Parish	Bellingham

West Ealingham Farmhouse is built on the site of a bastle, one of four evenly spaced along the 180m contour of the south-facing slope of Ealingham Rigg. (PastScape ref. Dodds 1999)

The bastle replaced by the farmhouse is the only one of the four devoid of ground evidence. The regular spacing of this and the others is unusual and difficult to explain as their occupiers had nothing to do with army discipline and were ordinary farmers seeking the security of stout walls and the ability to hail friends when help was needed. (Dodds 1999)

Gatehouse Comments

The other three bastles are Stobby Lea, East Ealingham and Coathill. These bastles were the farmhouses of tenanted small farms made out of an earlier medieval manor called 'le Lee'. The distribution of these reflects only the production of workable holdings of roughly equal size on the southern slope of the Rigg, the farmhouses being built mainly on the spring line. There seems to be no actual evidence this site was a bastle. As this seems to have been the centre of the medieval manor it may be this farmhouse was the original medieval manor house although the probability is this was, at least, converted into a bastle style building.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)

1387840

County Historic Environment Record

www.keystothepast.info/article/10339/Site-Details?PRN=N7997

OS Map Grid Reference	NY843807
Latitude	55.1213493347168
Longitude	-2.24572992324829
Eastings	384350
Northings	580790