Listed Building record MDR2407 - Spital Buildings, Spital Bridge, Castleton

This grade II listed water mill was later used as farm buildings, but is now partly derelict. It is late 18th century in date and constructed of rubble limestone with stone slate roofs. The buildings form three sides around a courtyard. A single storey exists to the west and north ranges, whilst a three storeyed mill is on east side, now roofless and partially ruinous. There are nine bays with off centre cart entrance, the wall above collapsed. The segmental arched windows are mostly blocked. There are stable type doors to the lower wings (from list description). (1) A reference of c. 1790 states that ‘in the middle of the valley [between Castleton and Hope] is a large, white building, which is a cotton-mill and worked by a water-wheel’. This is thought to refer to this site just outside Castleton to the north-east, later known as Spital Buildings, presumably due to their proximity to Spital Bridge rather than to any link with the medieval hospital. There is said to be a hollow to the north-west of the building, representing the remains of a mill pond, and evidence of a water channel beyond the building, running parallel to the river, representing the tail race. Low down on the river side wall of the building is an arched outlet which could have taken the outflow of water from the mill. (2-4) The building has also been described as a former workhouse, although the evidence upon which this interpretation was based is not known. At that time (the early 1980s) the building was roofless and in use as stables, although it still retained some cast iron window frames. (5, 6)