Repair work at Shittleheugh Bastle unveiled to ancestor
Apr 20 2010 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
FAMILY history researcher Rodney Clark got the best of all presents yesterday when his ancestral home was unwrapped.
Shittleheugh Bastle, near Otterburn in Northumberland, is a fortified farmstead from the turbulent days of Border raiding in the 16th and 17th Centuries.
The bastle has been on English Heritage’s at risk register and so last year Natural England stepped in and agreed to help the landowner carry out urgent work on the building using funding from the Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme.
The work by specialist craftsmen Gary and Jim Simpson, of Heritage Consolidation Ltd, involved the use of traditional lime mortar, which had to be protected from frost, so the bastle was swathed in hessian wrapping to protect it during the winter.
Mr Clark, who lives in Benton in Newcastle, spotted a Journal article about the work on the bastle last December and contacted Natural England to say that his ancestors had lived there.
As a result he was invited to be at the event yesterday where the wrapping was removed.
