Blenkinsopp Castle

Blenkinsopp Castle is a house incorporating elements of a medieval tower house. A licence to crenellate was granted in 1340, and a colliery agent’s house was added around 1832, possibly by John Dobson. The building was significantly enlarged and largely rebuilt in a Tudor style between 1877 and 1880 for William Lisle Blenkinsopp Coulson. The first floor of the 1880 entrance block was removed in 1986.

The castle displays a mix of dressed and squared stone, including some Roman material. The roofs and chimneys of the occupied west and north ranges are not visible. The complex consists of a square-plan entrance block, a set-back agent's house to the east, an L-plan north range and house to the west, and a wall enclosing a small yard. The c.1880 additions are in a Tudor style, characterised by mainly 2- and 3-light mullioned windows under hoodmoulds.

The 2-bay entrance block includes medieval fabric, particularly in the east wall, which features a 4-centred moulded doorway within a square frame. This doorway has foliage-carved spandrels under a hoodmould, and a 3-light window is also present. The 2-bay agent’s house has a window with a re-set cable-moulded surround on its front, and a projecting bay window on its east return. The 2-storey occupied house to the west has a single-bay front and 2-bay returns. It features a 2-light first-floor oriel window on the front, embattled parapets, and incorporates medieval fabric in the north-west corner, including a ground-floor room with a rubble ceiling and external wall footings. The wall enclosing the yard incorporates a central round archway and re-set carved Roman and medieval fragments. The 2-storey, 6-bay north range has a 2-bay rear elevation of the agent's house at its east end, with 2- and 3-light windows and an embattled parapet on the 6-bay section, and 3-light windows with arched heads on the agent’s house. An archway and former stable block, now a restaurant, on the west return of the occupied house are not of particular interest. Apart from the occupied house and north range, the remaining elements are in a derelict condition. The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.