Building record 6560/1 - Castle Hill Farmhouse, Castle Hill

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 1253461 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Grade II Listed Farmhouse, now farmhouse and shop, circa 1800. Flemish bond brown brick; grey slate roof. 2 storeys; 2 windows. Rusticated quoins; keystone and voussoirs to lintels; 3 courses of corbelling at eaves. 6-panel door (lower 2 panels flush; upper panels now glazed) in early C20 round-arched gabled porch. 18-pane 3-light casements. Lower rear wing now used as shop. Interior: 6-panel doors; chamfered red softwood beams in left room; cornice and ceiling of 3 panels in right room; stair replaced.

<2> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2017, Castle Hill Farm Barn, Waterloo Lane, Kinglsey, Cheshire: Heritage Statement, R4567 (Client Report). SCH9166.

A heritage statement was produced in 2017 for Castle Hill Farmhouse, Newton, Kingsley and its associated barn (CHER 6560/2), which is located to the north of the farmhouse.

Newton was historically a township within the parish of Frodsham. In 1866 Kingsley was formed as a separate parish, which included Newton. In the 18th century it was an isolated farming settlement, reached only by rough roads. Most inhabitants had a small holding and kept a few animals. Most inhabitants had a small holding and kept a few animals, growing all they needed to feed themselves, and perhaps to barter for other goods. With the arrival of the railways in the 1840s, local farmers could then get their produce into the growing cities of Manchester and Liverpool overnight. Fresh milk, butter, potatoes, fruit and vegetables, chickens and pigs would all be loaded onto trains at Frodsham, Acton Bridge and Delamere Stations. As farms became more profitable they expanded and the fine soils in Kingsley produced good yields.

Much of the land in Newton was owned by the Smith-Barry family of Marbury Hall near Northwich and Fota Island, County Cork. This included Castle Hill Farm, which was sold by Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry to George Beckett, who had probably had an interest in the property for some years, since his name is recorded in the tithe apportionments of 1845. Following his death the property was sold to Arthur Clarke in 1894, and then to Samuel Moss in 1943. It appears from directories that the farm was tenanted throughout the 19th century.

The farm is not marked on Burdett’s map of 1777, but it does appear in the form of two dots on Greenwood’s map of 1819 in the position of the existing farmhouse and barn. The tithe map of 1845 shows the house and two farm buildings to the rear, one behind the other. The 1873 OS map provides a more accurate depiction, showing the house in its current plan form, with the barn and a number of small outbuildings.

The house is of two storeys, and is built of brown brick with a slate roof. The front elevation is symmetrical and is built of high quality bricks laid in Flemish bond with rusticated stone quoins, and tripartite casement windows with exaggerated keystones and voussoirs to the lintels. The eaves are corbelled. At the centre is a 6-panel door, of which the upper panels have been glazed. Based on map evidence, the porch dates from before 1910. The side and rear elevations are built in a Garden Wall bond, using a rougher handmade brick. The east elevation retains two original casement windows and two later windows, and there is a blocked window opening at attic level. The rear and west elevations also retain some original casement windows, and later interventions. The single storey outrigger to the rear appears to be contemporary with the main block, and probably served as the dairy.