| Summary : A well preserved 16th century bastle at Black Middings. This is an example of a type of defensible farmhouse from the border area between England and Scotland, comprising storage or shelter for livestock on the ground floor with living accommodation above.The bastle remains largely intact, with only its roof missing, and measures 7.3 metres by 10.4 metres and stands circa 8 metres high to the gable ridge. Its walls are 1.4 metres thick and it illustrates the usual arrangement of a two storey structure with steeply pitched gables. The stumps of the original raised cruck roof survive. It is of the rarer type of bastle in which the ground floor had a timber ceiling instead of a vaulted stone roof. There are two doorways in the south west wall, one leading into the basement and the other into the upper floor. Both are 18th century replacements of original doorways and are wider than the 16th century doors would have been, since the defensive function of narrow doors was no longer necessary by that time. The upper floor was also heightened by incorporating two original windows whilst the original ladder access to the upper floor was replaced by an outer staircase. The bastle is in the care of English Heritage |
More information : At Black Middings there is a two storied Bastle House. There is a door at one end of the lower storey, and on the south side an outside stair to a door on the upper floor, which also has two small window openings. The upper door, which has an older window united for its head is not later than the 18th century. The flooring and roof are modern (Article compares this building with the two bastles at Gatehouse (NY 78 NE 4) which are probably of the time of Henry VIII or Elizabeth.
To the east of the building are the ruins of an 18th cent cottage which stands partly on the massive foundations of an earlier house which possibly preceded the bastle. (1)
Black Middings. A typical Tudor strong house. (2)
NY 77318999. Remains of a defended house situated upon a rocky rise, against a fairly steep SW - facing slope of pasture moorland, which drops to the River Tarset.
A slight depression NE of the site and separating it from overlooking high ground is subject to boggy conditions, and is reed filled. The site commands the Tarset valley to the NW, SW and SE. The building measures 7.3m by 10.4m and is approx 8.0m high to the gable ridge. The walls of massive stones, are 1.4m thick. Two modern doors in the SW wall lead into the two ground floor compartments, in 1956 used to house cattle and poultry. There is a splayed window in the NW wall. The derelict farmhouse to the SE stands upon older foundations which extend from the defended house to a point 6.0m SE of the farmhouse. (3)
The remains of the bastle are as described, but the foundations to the SE are too indefinite for survey action. (4)
NY 775898 Black Middens. Bastle. (See Type Site NY 88 SE 14 ) (5)
As described in reports of 30.7.56 and 21.7.70.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 (6)
NY 773900. Black Middens Bastle. Under guardianship (7), but previously listed as "Black Middens pele" (8).
Additional scheduled area includes the remains of a rectangular house with late 18th or 19th century windows, the site of a rectangular building and the remains of an inner field system comprising low banks. These remains represent the development of a small upland farmstead originating with the bastle, and expanding into a linear farmstead of the 18th/19th century. (7-8)
II Black Middings Pele A well preserved small late mediaeval bastle house. Description in N.C.H. Vol. XV. (9)
Plans, sections and elevations at 1:20 have been prepared by Plowman, Craven and Associates (10a). Further elevations and analysis of fabric are being undertaken (10b) in the course of display. The bastle is as described by authority 5 except that it is currently roofless and has no upper floor; a viewing gallery has been inserted at first floor level and the original ground floor entrance is totally blocked.
An area of cobbles and paving extends from the foot of the external staircase around the corner of the building. The primary phase of the bastle in the 16th century may be associated with some elements of the surrounding field system. The bastle was later
converted to agricultural use, forming part of the Black Middens farm complex. (10)
NY 7733 9002. Two bastles, an 18th century farmhouse and associated enclosures at Black Middings. Scheduled RSM No 23224. (11)
Listed Grade II*. (12)
Accessible description of Black Middens Bastle. This source notes a documentary record mentioning a raid on the bastle by the Armstrong family in 1583. (13)
Black Middens is one of a number of bastles (not all in the care of English Heritage) along or near the Tarset Burn which can be visited in a single day. (14)
Negative results of attempted tree-ring dating published in 2009. 8 samples of timbers from cruck blades and other roofing timbers were taken for tree ring analysis but it was not possible to produce exact dates of felling for the timbers due to lack of appropriate tree ring comparators needed to check against. This may have been due to the individual timbers all being of different dates or that the source of origin of the timber used was one which currently lacked sufficient available comparators. It is also possible that some timbers were salvaged and re-used in convervation work carried out tn the 1980s. (15) |