Hylton Castle

Hylton Castle is a fortified tower-house dating to circa 1400, built for Sir William Hylton. The castle was extensively altered in the early 18th century for John Hylton, who changed the windows, added a north wing, and reconstructed the interior. His son, also John, added a south wing. In the 1860s, these wings were demolished, and most windows were altered, along with internal modifications for William Briggs. During the mid-20th century, the castle’s shell underwent consolidation and restoration work carried out by the Ministry of Works.

The castle is constructed of ashlar. The exterior is three storeys high, with three windows arranged in bays defined by turrets. Steps lead to a 19th-century pointed-arch central doorway flanked by nookshafts, with a stone balcony above a three-light window that serves as the entrance to a two-story hall recessed behind a segmental arch to the battlements. Heraldic devices are present to the right of the second-floor window and on a turret to the left. The flanking turrets have a blind panel to the right of the door, lancet windows above, and small square openings below machicolated battlements. The side bays feature three-light ground-floor windows and paired lights on upper floors, also below machicolated parapets. Corner turrets, without openings, have similar parapets. All front windows are 1860s lancets, blocked on the first floor and empty on the second floor. The left return has a door within a largely reconstructed wall; the right return has a two-story, square projecting bay window from 1860, with a single first-floor window and paired medieval lancets on the second floor. The rear elevation features a projecting central tower with windows across five floors, originally a two-story chapel with chambers above and a staircase to the left. 18th-century Gothic screens on the ground and first floors are now blocked, with medieval lancets above. A large heraldic achievement is centrally placed on the second floor, displaying the arms and crest of Sir William Hylton, below Richard II’s badge of a white hart. The right bay has medieval windows on the upper floors. Machicolated parapets are found between the corner turrets and the central tower, with an altered parapet to the tower itself. The roof is absent.

The interior reveals lower courses of ground floor partition walls on the restored ground level; all floors have been removed except in the rear tower, which retains a medieval pointed-arch door to a staircase leading to the upper floors. An oven is built into the wall thickness at the southeast corner, and there is a portcullis slot above the door. Traces of ground floor vaults are visible, as are medieval door and fireplace details. Roof truss corbels feature carvings, and a stone bench is located within the embrasure of the west window of a first-floor chamber. The rear tower showcases diagonal chamfer stops and shouldered lintels to doors. The chambers above the chapel have original hooded fireplaces with corbelled chamfered jambs and eroded chamfer stops. The castle is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument.