Brizlee Tower

DENWICK HULNE PARK NU 11 SE NU 158148 10/60 Brizlee Tower 31.12.69 I Ornamental tower, dated 1781 below upper balcony. Possibly by John Adam, for the first Duke of Northumberland, although the design is also ascribed to the Duke himself. Ashlar, with cast-iron fire basket. In plan a circle with four rectangular projections; 6 stages, the lower with encircling verandah and the topmost with projecting balcony. Elaborate Gothick style.

Verandah has 4 tripartite entrances, with cusped and crocketed arches, between projections with similarly-arched niches flanked by fluted columns; inscribed frieze below openwork balcony balustrade with geometric and traceried patterns. Beneath verandah are niches and panelled door to foot of stair, copied in stone on other faces. Upper stages divided by fluted and quatrefoil friezes, with 1- and 2-light windows, and niches in projections, some with sills on fan corbels. Coade stone medallions of Duke and Duchess above 3rd-stage niches. Upper balcony, on fan corbels, has pierced quatrefoil balustrade. Top stage has panelled door under cusped arch, and crenellated parapet with large octagonal cup-shaped fire basket.

Interior: stone newel stair, lit by windows with coved internal splays, stairhead ceiling with radial raised bands.

Important landscape feature; its function as a viewing platform for the Duke's park is summed up by an inscribed tablet at lower balcony level:

Circumspice! Ego omnia ista sum dimensus; Mei sunt ordines, Mea descriptio Multae Etiam istarum arborum Mea manu sunt satae

(Look around! I have measured out all these things; they are my orders, it is my planting; many of these trees have even been planted by my hand).

Listing NGR: NU1580214747