34 And 36, Castlegate

Former estate workers' cottages for the Duncombe Park Estate at Helmsley. Numbers 34 and 36 Castlegate are an early to mid-19th-century pair of single-storey-tall but broad-fronted cottages, modified in the mid-19th century, possibly by Sir Charles Barry. They are constructed in sandstone ashlar with a Westmorland slate roof laid to diminishing courses.

The cottages form a mirrored pair with separate entrances and a shared central stack, positioned at the southern end of a terrace. Each cottage's entrance opens via a small lobby into a single downstairs room, with stairs rising from the rear of the room with a winder, running parallel to the gable wall and ending above the lobby. The upper floor was originally possibly a single room but has been subdivided to provide a separate bathroom. A rear outshut, accessed through an internal door at the rear of the downstairs room, probably originally formed various separate outbuildings now largely amalgamated to create a kitchen for each cottage.

The front elevation features 3-light cross-mullioned windows with the first-floor windows shorter than those on the ground floor. The lower lights of all windows are divided 1 over 1 with fine glazing bars; the upper lights are similarly divided 2 over 2 on the ground floor but 1 beside 1 on the first floor. All windows have Tudor-style hood moulds, as do the four-panelled front doors. The shared central stack is also ashlar, with a slight step level with the ridge and a sharply projecting moulded coping.

The south gable is slightly raised, its coping supported by shaped kneelers, with a first-floor window of similar design to those at the front. The rear outshuts are roofed in Westmorland slate laid to diminishing courses, with more plainly treated windows; those on the outshuts are modern.

Number 36 was not inspected internally but is reported to have been largely refitted in the mid-20th century. Number 34 retains a planked partition between the staircase and downstairs room, constructed simply using tongue-and-grooved planks with typical 19th-century rolled-edge mouldings. The door to the stairs through this partition is also planked and retains blacksmith-crafted strap hinges. A similar door on the upper floor passes through a stud wall beneath the collar of the central roof truss. This roof truss is of riven rather than sawn timbers and supports purlins spanning between the gable walls, with joints traditionally pegged rather than bolted.

In 1843, William Duncombe, the second Baron Feversham, altered the entrance to Duncombe Park from Helmsley, moving the entrance gates further into the parkland and constructing a gate lodge at the south-western end of Buckingham Square. Numbers 34 and 36 Castlegate were remodelled or possibly rebuilt at about this time to frame the entrance opposite the newly built 3-4 Buckingham Square. The roof structure of traditionally jointed timbers, some being riven rather than sawn, suggests that these cottages were a modification of existing properties rather than a complete 1840s new build, unlike 3-4 Buckingham Square. Both pairs of cottages feature similar windows to those of the gate lodge, the design of which is credited to the architect Sir Charles Barry, known to have undertaken additional work for the estate beyond his work on the main house.

A stone wall of coursed dressed sandstone is attached to 36 Castlegate, forming the boundary between its garden and Buckingham Square. This wall continues to the rear of the properties, forming the boundary with a back lane.