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Bale Hill House, Wolsingham
Also known as, or recorded in historical
documents as; Baal Hill; Baylehilhouse
In the civil parish of Wolsingham.
In the historic county of Durham; County Palatinate of (Modern Authority of Durham, 1974 county of County Durham).
Has exceptionally thick walls forming a parallelogram standing east-west. Dimensions 45ft x 35ft, the thickness of the walls is upward of 3ft and the height to the spring of the roof gable has been c.25ft. The lower floor is occupied by a stone-roofed barrel vault, now divided across the middle, running the entire length east-west, with a height of 9ft from floor to apex, having its entrance at the west end, a pointed arched doorway. There is no appearance of a moat, but the position is a strong one. The tower is said in former times to have been the residence of the bailiff of the Bishop's park at Wolsingham, in which it stands, where the name may originate. There is a reference to the repair of the "lodge", perhaps this house, in 1558. Some original mullioned windows and arched doorways are present. It is similar in form to a typical borders bastle but of an earlier date and finer architectural detail. Emery writes this is a two storeyed C15 hall house and records is a residence of the bishop, although the evidence he gives for this is an account of repairing which would not exclude it being the bailiff's house.
This site has been described as a;
Bastle
Pele Tower
Palace.
The confidence
that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Masonry ruins/remnants remains.
This site is a
Grade 2 listed
building protected by law*. (Images
of England number 408281)
The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NZ07443854
PastScape number;
20080
County Sites and Monuments Record number; D2177
- Web site links
- Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles and Tower Houses of County Durham (Malvern) p10
Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses Vol1 (Cambridge) p51-4
Ryder, P.F.,1994, Bastles in Weardale. The Bonny Moor Hen, No. 7 p4
Corfe, Tom (ed), 1992, 'The Visible Middle Ages' in An Historical Atlas of County Durhan p28-9
Pevsner, N., 1983 (Revised by Williamson, Elizabeth), The Buildings of England: Durham (London, Penguin) p513
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p138
Hugill, Robert, 1979, The Castles and Towers of the County of Durham (Newcastle; Frank Graham) p28
Ramm, H.G., McDowall, R.W. and Mercer, E., 1970, Shielings and Bastles (London) p66
Conyers Surtees, 1929, History of the Parish of Wolsingham p42-3
- Journal Articles
- 1896, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Vol7 p246
Featherstonehaugh, 1891-2, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Vol5 p101-2
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*The listed building
may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site
of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.
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