Hardcastle Garth

Hardcastle Garth is a house and cross wing, now divided into two separate dwellings, dating to 1666 and 1703. It was built for members of the Hardcastle family. The building is constructed of coursed squared gritstone with graduated stone slate roofs. The two houses are arranged in an L-shaped plan. The earlier, northern house is two storeys high with three bays, likely featuring a lobby-entry plan. The west wing is also two storeys high with three bays and an end stack. Both sections have a plinth and quoins.

The northern house has a studded board door located to the right of the centre bay, set within a moulded quoined surround with a deep lintel shaped like a shallow Tudor arch, bearing the inscription 'I 1666 H' in raised letters on a three-part panel. To the far left is a probable four-light recessed-chamfered mullion window that was converted into a door in the 18th century and subsequently reformed as a window in the 19th or 20th century. Further four- and three-light recessed chamfered mullion windows flank the door; the first floor has three similar three-light windows, and above the door is a single-light trefoil-headed window. A continuous hoodmould runs over the ground-floor windows, with a label stop on the right, obscured by a later attached wing. The building features a large ridge stack above the door, a stepped external stack to the left gable, and an end stack to the right. The west wing’s east front has a centrally positioned half-glazed four-panel door set under a four-centred cyma moulding to the lintel and jambs. An incised inscription ' H ' T L 1703 is on the lintel. The door is flanked by four-light (now three-light) double-chamfered mullion windows. Three two-light windows are on the first floor, with the mullions having been removed, and a likely inserted central window; the far-right window was originally of three lights. A continuous hoodmould covers the ground floor. Decorated kneelers, gable coping, and corniced end stacks are also present. The interior was not inspected during the most recent survey.

The later west wing was probably built as an extension of the 1666 house, with the service rooms originally located only in the earlier house, and internal access between the two.

References include B Jennings (Ed), A History of Nidderdale, 1867, page 116, and the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Vernacular Building Study Group Report No 176, 1975.