Building record MDR15475 - Castlegate Stud Farm, Foolow

Farmhouse with a collection of outbuildings and grindstone/millstone. The two storeyed farmhouse is built in mortared limestone rubble with gritstone windows. On the south-facing side it has three horizontal sash windows in the upper storey. It has three chimneys, two in gable ends and one off-centre passing through ridge, and a stone tile roof. A 'C'-shaped outbuilding range is attached to its north side. This is a two-storey outbuilding in mortared limestone rubble with large gritstone door lintels and a stone tile roof. It has no windows in the upper storey except for one at the western end gable, possibly suggesting it was built as a hayloft. Part of this outbuilding immediately north of the farmhouse has been converted into a dwelling with a large cart door on the east-facing side of this range. Attached to the west end is another single-storey outbuilding in mortared limestone and gritstone dressings, with a Welsh slate roof and gritstone coping stones and kneelers. Beside the farmyard boundary wall to the south is a post-medieval grindstone/millstone, approx 2m in diameter and 0.2m thick. (1) The name 'Castlegate' appears on an undated 18th century map of this area, which was common land under dispute in the 17th and 18th centuries before Parlimentary Enclosure in the early 19th century. The present [2003] footpath which runs from Housley past the farm was a green lane in the 18th century named 'Castle gate or Castle way'. The map first appears on a historic map of 1840 OS map, showing the farm with only one building, though it is unclear whether this building is present today. On the 1847 tithe map and the 1880 OS map all the buildings are shown as they are today. There was a large dew poind to the front of the farmhouse as shown on the 147 and 1880 maps: though now gone the wall retains the shape of it. (1)