Blagill Farm Bastle

Blagill Farm Bastle is one of a number of buildings forming the farm of Blagill, which overlooks a ravine and waterfalls of the Blagill Burn above its confluence with the River Nent, itself a tributary of the South Tyne. It is an isolated spot, and offers little in the way of wider strategic importance, but as a remote farm estate, it was vulnerable to attacks from the Scots.

This may be the reason for the location of a strong house at Blagill, but there was a more valuable resource in the vicinity – lead. The lead mines of Blagill were in operation from as early as the 14th century, producing lead and silver into the 19th century. Alston Moor was a manor granted by King William of Scotland to William de Vipont in 1209, with the chief messuage at Alston. By 1315 it was held as part of the manor of Wark on Tyne, and it is likely that Blagill was one of the 22 tenants at Nent and Corbygates mentioned in that year. The manor of Alston Moor was later held by the Cliffords, Stapletons, Hiltons and Radcliffes, but frustratingly there is no real mention of Blagill, which means we cannot be certain about the actual occupants here.

Blagill today consists of four houses which lie north of the farm, together with the farm itself. The old farmhouse is no longer in use as such, and instead now serves an agricultural function, but it is this building which was once the strong house. It has three storeys, and in the south gable has doorways at ground floor and first floor level – one can also see the roof scar of an earlier steep-pitched roof. Towards the northern end, the west side also has a first floor doorway. The building has been repeatedly altered, and although plans are not available to view online, it is said that at the centre of the building was a square tower of modest size, which has been extended repeatedly to form a larger defensive house. It may even be the case that the building was formed by joining two bastle-type structures together.