Featherstone Castle

Featherstone Castle is a country house, likely incorporating elements from as early as the 13th century, with significant additions and alterations spanning the 14th, 17th, and 19th centuries. The main construction period was between approximately 1812 and 1830 for Thomas Wallace. The building is constructed of coursed rubble with stone dressings, and has slate and stone-flagged roofs. It comprises four ranges arranged around a rectangular courtyard, with corner towers and a nursery wing on the north-east tower, all in a castellated style. The fenestration is largely 19th century, with embattled parapets throughout.

The west front is embattled. A two-storey hall range is buttressed and features an early 17th-century doorway with an ogee head, leading to a cross-passage. It is possible this doorway conceals an earlier 13th-century pointed doorway facing the courtyard at the passage's far end. There are two cross windows dating from around 1330, which have cusped trefoiled heads. The early 14th-century, three-stage, L-plan, south-west tower has mullioned windows, loops, an original parapet with corner bartizans on head corbels, and a slightly taller look-out turret. A two-storey porch was added to the west face of the tower. The north-west tower, also three-stage, has a re-set 13th-century angle buttress, windows with arched heads, a taller stair turret, and a single-storey, two-bay addition on the north side.

The south front is also embattled. The early 14th-century tower is located at the west. The three-bay centre, along with a taller two-storey semicircular bay and tower on the east, contain mainly grouped lights with arched heads. A porch on the south face of the east tower has a four-centred archway and battered angle buttresses. An L-plan stair and screen wall are located on the east return of the porch.

The two-storey, four-bay east range is buttressed and has mullioned windows with cinquefoil heads and a pointed doorway; it features a low-pitched stone-flagged roof. The taller north-east tower has similar details to the south-east tower. The two-storey, four-bay nursery wing has mainly mullioned windows with arched heads, a crowstepped east gable, and a two-storey semicircular bay on the rear.

The north range, partially obscured by later outbuildings, may contain earlier masonry; the flanking east and west towers have already been described. A single-storey wing links the east and west ranges within the courtyard.

The interior was greatly altered in the 19th century. The south-west tower contains two barrel-vaulted basements and fragments of a spiral stone stair on the second floor. The west range features 19th-century Tudor-Gothic decoration.