Featherstone Castle

FEATHERSTONE HALL BANK NY 66 SE (South side, off) 15/94 Feathers tone Castle 10/6/52

GV I

Country house. Possibly an early C13 hall-house (now incorporated in west range) with early C14 south-west tower; early C17 alterations; remainder c.1812-30 for Thomas Wallace. Coursed rubble with dressings; slate and stone- flagged roofs; stone chimneys. 4 ranges with corner towers around a rectangular courtyard; nursery wing on north-east tower. Castellated style. Mainly C19 fenestration and embattled parapets.

Embattled west front. Buttressed 2-storey hall range: early C17 ogee-headed doorway to cross-passage (possibly re-set early C13 pointed doorway facing courtyard at far end of passage); two c.1330 cross windows with cusped trefoiled heads. 3-stage early C14 L-plan south-west tower: mullioned windows; scattered loops; original parapet on head corbels with corner bartizans; slightly-taller look-out turret. L-plan stairway to 2-storey added porch on west face of tower. 3-stage north-west tower: small (re-set?) C13 angle buttress; windows with arched heads; taller stair turret; single-storey, 2-bay addition on north.

Embattled south front. Early C14 tower (q.v.) at west. 3-bay centre with taller 2-storey semicircular bay and tower on east have mainly grouped lights with arched heads. Porch on south face of east tower has 4-centred archway and battered angle buttresses. L-plan stair and screen wall on east return of porch.

Buttressed 2-storey, 4-bay east range: mullioned windows with cinquefoil heads; pointed doorway; low-pitched stone-flagged roof. Taller north-east tower has similar details as south-east tower. 2-storey, 4-bay nursery wing has mainly mullioned windows with arched heads, crowstepped east gable and 2-storey semicircular bay on rear.

North range partly hidden by later outbuildings (q.v.) may incorporate earlier masonry; flanking east and west towers already described.

Single-storey wing incourtyardlinkseast and west ranges.

Interior greatly altered in C19. South-west tower: 2 barrel-vaulted basements; fragments of spiral stone stair on second floor. C19 Tudor-Gothic decoration in west range.

(John Gibson, "Featherstone Castle, Northumberland" Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th Series, Vol. II, 1926).

Listing NGR: NY6737860955