Castle Mill Central Range Parallel To And Set Back From Road

Castle Mill is a mill building, now used as a store for sign writers, located parallel to and set back from the road on the south side of Waterside in Knaresborough. It dates from the mid to late 18th century and has some 19th-century alterations. The structure is built of stone rubble, rendered on the right side, with brick in English bond on the left, and features a stone slate roof with six ridge courses of Westmorland slates and a stone ridge.

The building has two storeys and four first-floor windows. On the south-east facade, there are four small-paned sash windows on the ground floor, two of which are side-sliding and two are vertical. The first floor on the left side, which is the brick section, has two side-sliding segmental-arched sashes with glazing bars and projecting sills above a blocked arch. On the right side, which is rendered stone, there is a sash window with glazing bars in a flush wood architrave and a small-paned window with bars. The right side features ashlar gable coping and a kneeler, along with a banded end stack.

At the rear, there are two 20th-century windows on the ground floor, an 8-pane side-sliding sash on the first floor to the left, and the remains of a 12-pane sash to the right. The left return is attached to the north-east side of a weaving shed.

Inside, the ground floor on the right retains remains of a plaster ceiling with a moulded cornice, and the vertical sash window has panelled reveals. The north-east gable wall has a blacksmith's hearth built against it. The building is currently in very poor condition. Originally, this part of the mill complex may have been built for domestic or office use. It is likely part of the paper mill complex that was operational by 1770 and was converted to cotton spinning in 1790. After it was converted to flax spinning in 1811, a large weaving shed was added around 1830-1840, and it is probable that at that time, the lower storey of this range was converted into a blacksmith's forge for maintaining mill machinery and for shoeing. The south end of the building was likely rebuilt in brick during this period.