History

The Castle Hill Farm complex was established in the early C19 as Fox's Brewery and continued as a working brewery until 1950. The surviving buildings date mainly from the second quarter C19 to the late C19, and consist of the owner's house, a brewery range with adjacent malting tower, a large granary with dray house, a stable block and a brewery office. They are ranged loosely around a courtyard.

Exterior

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A 3-storey brick house, originally of the 1820s and raised and extended in the mid C19. The SE (garden) front was originally the main entrance front. Of 3 bays and symmetrical, under a shallow-pitched slate roof with slightly oversailing eaves. Central, recessed entrance with plain, late C19 conservatory addition, now mostly renewed. 2-pane double doors with plain rectangular sky-light. Flanking canted wooden 8-pane bay windows to the ground floor with flat roofs. 4-pane recessed sash windows to first and second floors, the latter narrower and under the eaves. Projecting stone cills and painted brick voussoirs. The NW facade faces the brewery yard. Asymmetrical fenestration with 12 and 16-pane recessed sashes to the first and second floors, and modern ones to the ground floor. Stone cills and rendered voussoirs. Central 2-storey porch-addition (mid C19) with entrance to S side. This is chamfered with moulded and returned label. Modern door. Inner entrance with original 6-panel Regency door, the upper 4 fielded. 15-pane rectangular fan-light.

Flush with the house, mid C19 single-storey additions to the SW, set behind a low brick wall and under a continuous slate roof. Modern window to L. Then a 16-pane recessed sash window and a further 12-pane one and finally a plain entrance with cambered head.

Abutting this to the SW, a contemporary single-storey lodge or office with shallow-pitched slate roof and decorative ridge tiles. 16-light sash window to the S face and a recessed entrance to the W face with cambered head and plai boarded door. Plain shuttered window to the L. Adjoining the lodge to the S and W, a pair of red brick gate piers with moulded yellow brick caps and stone hinge-blocks. Later gates. That to the S originally served the house, and that to the W gives access to the brewery yard. Adjoining the
right-hand gate pier of the S gates is a c.100ft stretch of garden wall, roughly 10ft high. Rubble to the S and brick-faced to the N.

Reasons for Listing

Group value with other listed items within the remarkable former Fox's Brewery complex.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29492882

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)