Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 27 February 1931
The Old Ruin on Crookhill Road
A good many readers wrote in to identify the photograph of the old ruin on the Crookhill Road which we published last week.
One or two went astray, and fixed the scene at Warmsworth, High Melton. Thurnscoe, and Marr, but the picturesque landmark was correctly located, though variously described, by some hundreds of readers.
It was described the old watch tower; the old water tower; the old pump house; the old keep; the old sheep abed; the old granary; the old tunnel tower; and the Devil’s Den.
One correspondent informed us that it was originally used to accommodate sheep in the washing and shearing season.
From another reader we gather that it was at one time connected by a tunnel with Conisboro’ Castle.
We are also informed that it was built to accommodate pumping plant for the supply of water to Crookhill Hall and the village of Billington. One reader calls it the old pigeon house, and several gave the field in which it is situated its old traditional name, the Cow Pasture, though in one case it is described as the Potter’s Field.