Farmsteading, Upper Millsteads

Upper Millsteads is a farmstead dating back to around 1855, with later 19th-century additions and an earlier range to the east. The layout is a U-shape, comprising a central two-story threshing barn, flanked by single-story wings that once contained stables, byres, and a former boiler house. Earlier buildings adjoin at right angles to the east, along with a farmhouse, well, a later cartshed to the south, and a later byre to the southeast. The buildings are constructed of squared sandstone with tooled ashlar dressings, and have graded grey slate roofs.

The U-plan steading ranges consist of a two-story barn in the central range, featuring a large sliding timber-boarded door on the right side and slit windows on both floors. There's a door to the left, flanked by square windows, and access to a hayloft above. The rear (north) elevation has slit windows, a winnowing door and three small later square windows on the right, with a late 19th-century extension to the left. The west wing originally contained loose boxes, featuring four doors and a wider opening on the right, and a former boiler house with a coped ashlar ridge stack. Various windows are on the rear (west) elevation, some later. The east wing was formerly a byre, with an irregular arrangement of doors and windows to the west, and slit windows and a central timber-boarded door on the rear (east) elevation. Inside the threshing barn, there's a flagged floor and a threshing machine from 1916; some loose boxes and feeding troughs remain in the west wing.

The eastern range is a long, single-story structure composed of earlier buildings stepped downhill. It contains six timber-boarded doors, some later. A former farmhouse is on the left with a chimney stack, a cow byre in the center with Victorian timber partitions and feed troughs, and a pigsty on the right.

The farmhouse is a single-story and attic, three-bay, L-plan cottage, with an advanced bay in the re-entrant angle (heightened in 1913). It has a broad M-gable to the south and deep, bargboarded eaves. The main entrance, on the south side, has a later door, stop-chamfered ashlar architrave and a border-glazed fanlight, all within a late 19th-century timber porch. The M-gables have regular fenestration, while elsewhere the windows are irregular. Corniced wallhead stacks are present. The interior has a mahogany staircase, timber shutters in the sitting room, and plain cornices to the principal rooms. Non-traditional uPVC windows replace the original timber sash and case windows.

The well has a Victorian lining wall and a circa 2000 drystone parapet with flat coping.

The cartshed, built in the later 19th century, is a four-bay, piend-roofed structure with three monolithic red sandstone columns dividing the bays.

A later 19th-century byre, now ruinous and partially roofed (in 2003), is also part of the farmstead.