Town Trail
Almost three hundred years of border feuding between England and
Scotland formed
a constant ordeal for the people who inhabited the border regions during the Middle
Ages, an ordeal which reached its peak during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
when robbery, raiding, murder, kidnap and arson were everyday hazards. This constant
warfare or border Reiving between the border families had very little to do with
relations between the two countries who spent most of this time officially at peace
with one another.
The terrible violence of this time has left its mark, not only on the English language with some of the most sinister words in our vocabulary such as 'bereave' (from to reive) and 'blackmail' (black rent-illegal rent equivalent of modern protection money), red-handed (caught "in the deede doinge"),but also on the border landscape in the form of a series of fortified towers and defensible houses.
Some of the worst and most sustained Reiving took place in the English Middle March region in which Haltwhistle and South Tynedale played a pivotal role. The towers of Medieval times primarily reflected the need of the local gentry to defend themselves against cross-border raiders. Such peel towers were built of stone with massive thick walls. Typically the only entrance was through a double door at ground level, one being an outer iron grating and the other of oak reinforced with iron. The bottom floor was used as a store room and the floors above were reached via a narrow curving stair. The upper floors were the living quarters and at the very top there would be a beacon to summon help or give warning of an impending attack. The peel was normally a chief's house.
Bastle houses are one of the most distinctive defensible building types which emerged during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These later fortified farmhouses which we call 'bastles' were intended more for the defence of small tenant farmers and their possessions. Such small, thick- walled farmhouses characteristically had both ground floor and first floor doorways, the lower into a basement where animals and supplies could be secured and an upper, first floor reached by a ladder which could afterwards be pulled up making it impossible for raiders to reach the living quarters.
There are well over a hundred Bastle houses remaining but Haltwhistle has more surviving defensible buildings of this type than any other English town. Today you need a good eye to spot the tell-tale signs. There are a cluster of defensible buildings on the Main Street, five bastles (fortified houses) and one tower. Here is a guide to some of the clues which betray a more martial past to the Town's peaceful appearance.
Starting at Market place
No1
The trail begins with the building on the north eastern side of the Market Square.
It shows evidence of having been a fortified house. Much of the building dates from
the eighteenth century but older fabric is evident in the massive rubble masonry.
A boulder plinth is still evident in the lower part of the east wall, exposed in
the open passage. This wall is 1.2 metres thick at ground and first floor levels
and is believed to be a remnant of an earlier Bastle (fortified house).
No. 2
The next building to the immediate east is connected by a covered passage linked
by a covered entry with heavy old beams re-used above it. The 2 storey, 2 bay house
has walls of considerable thickness as shown by the heavy cast-iron pillars within
the shop front, inserted to carry the weight of the wall above.
No. 3 The Sea Chef
Another building with thick walls above a later shop front, the Sea Chef also has an upper cruck roof. The building is connected to the Centre of Britain Hotel which retains a fine and rare example of an urban tower.
No. 4 Centre of Britain Hotel
The Centre of Britain Hotel has a three storey frontage to the Main Street. The slightly projecting eastern bay is a rare example of a fortified urban tower believed to date from the 16th century. Unusually, the tower features an anti-clockwise staircase concealed within the exterior wall. The north and east of the tower has a plain corbelled parapet. Within the parapet is a gabled cap - house similar to some which appear in Scottish towers.
No.5 Archway Cottage
On the south side of Main Street immediately adjacent to the east side of the Manor
House is Archway Cottage (now Haltwhistle Information Technology Centre). This is
a Bastle house 8.9 by 6.5 metres externally with walls a metre thick. The front elevation
is rendered but the original square-headed byre entrance doorway survives in the
centre of the east gable. It is now blocked but is clearly visible from the adjacent
covered entry. The building has old beams and old roof trusses but was remodelled
in 1740, the date on the lintel of the present front door.
No. 1 Golden Square
The house on the south side of the Main Street, next to the Church Hall, and at the
entrance to Golden Square is another disguised Bastle house. This is evident from
the very considerable thickness of the walls (and the massive boulder plinth) although
the exterior is all rendered and visible features are 20th century.
Church of the Holy Cross
The 13th century church is the oldest building in the town, with excellent stained glass windows by William Morris, a pupil of Burne-Jones. It also boasts a 6th century Old Water Stoup and a tomb of crusader Thomas de Blenkinsopp who died in 1388. The church is open to visitors on Thursday & Saturday from 2-4 p.m. from Easter to 30th September.
Musgrove Tower
Haltwhistle's principal defensible building believed to have dated from 1415, Musgrove Tower, was situated on Castle Hill opposite the present day site of the Spotted Cow Inn. Demolished in October 1963 it may no longer be viewed although the commanding position which it once dominated can still be clearly seen.
Pictured here is a rare photograph of the castle in its last days. The walls were
five feet thick and the oak beams, roughly hewn from tree trunks, were still in good
condition at the time of the demolition. The floors consisted of roughly shaped oak
trunks. A spiral stone stair case on the right side of the central section of the
building led to the upper storeys. An earlier roof of flags laid across oak beams
and fastened with sheep bones had been removed in about 1868. One of the most distinctive
features of the building was the turret built on corbels in the top left- hand side
of the central section. The adjoining left- hand, western, section probably housed
livestock.
Overall the Castle Hill Peel Tower is regarded to show traces of Scottish influence in its design. The Tower was probably the official residence of the bailiffs of the town acting under the Warden of the Marches.