Castleshaw is a hamlet in the Saddleworth parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines, 2.4 miles north of Uppermill, 3 miles west-southwest of Marsden, and 5.3 miles east-northeast of Oldham. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Castleshaw is most notable for the Castleshaw Roman fort, the remains of an ancient castrum. There are two reservoirs, Castleshaw upper reservoir and Castleshaw lower reservoir. Today, the mainstay of the Castleshaw Valley is farming with local people and visitors using the Valley for its many recreation opportunities such as walking, cycling and fishing. From the Saddleworth parish registers the majority of the people involved in domestic textile working were described as clothier, with the term weaver only rarely occurring. This suggests a clear manifestation of the dominance of the small family clothier in the Pennine woollen industry at this time. The woollen cloth woven in Saddleworth was produced by small clothiers who rarely employed any persons outside their own family units. Any putting-out system, whereby manufacturers distributed the raw material to domestic weavers, was not taking place within Saddleworth to any great extent during the eighteenth century. In Castleshaw a church register record of 1721 describes Edmund Buckley of Wood as a clothier, a similar attribution is given to James Platt of Broadhead in 1726, Isaac Bradbury of Castleshaw in 1749, John Shaw of Oakenhill in 1747, Benjamin Gartside of Oakenhill Lee in 1782, and Thomas Platt of Waters in 1726. Old photographs of now demolished buildings such as those at Castleshaw and surviving buildings such as Mill Croft and Wood Barn with their characteristic multi-light mullioned windows providing light for loom workers, provide further testimony to this domestic textile industry. Lower Moorcroft Wood, a farm situated in the upper Castleshaw valley but long since demolished, has left to posterity an interesting description provided by a former occupant which gives an insight into the arrangement that many of the farms may have had. As well as having a barn and shipon, indicating farming activity, the upper storey of the house was described as follows: It had a long row of mullioned windows, and had been designed to accommodate hand looms and things appertaining to hand loom weaving, and only on second thoughts was it sleeping accommodation. There still remained there two hand looms, a bobbin wheel, a hand jenny, and some warping waws (walls). There were also skips, baskets, beams, empty bobbins, and various other articles used in the weaving of cloth around the place. These had belonged to my grandfathers elder brother, who had been a small manufacturer on his own, marketing his cloth in Huddersfield. The general picture provided by this description is in keeping with the other evidence consulted, indicating farmers supplemented their living with domestic textile manufacturing, which was also carried out within their homes. Rather than being involved in a putting-out system it would appear that these farmers were independent clothiers, who undertook trading activities as well. Wood Barn, a grade 2 listed building, is a farmhouse and adjoining (converted) barn of mid-18th century date. The house displays characteristic elements of local architecture of this period, such as watershot stone work, a stone slate roof and recessed flat-faced stone mullion windows. A William Wood, described as a clothier lived here in 1757. Like many of his contemporaries he had a dual income and this was evident in the building; farming being represented by the barn and weaving as indicated by a row of mullion windows.