Peckforton Castle

Peckforton Castle

Castle built 1844–50 by Anthony Salvin for Sir John Tollemache MP. Constructed of rock-faced red sandstone with lead, asphalt and tile roofs. The building is arranged around a central ward, mainly 3 storeys with one tower rising 5 storeys high. A dry moat with bridge at the gatehouse surrounds the castle.

The gatehouse features a triple-chamfered giant arch above the gateway arch, a pair of oak Gothic-headed studded doors, shouldered lintels to doors and windows, gate towers and battlements. The western range of the inner ward contains stables, coach house, a rectangular bell tower, kitchens and service areas. To the east of the entrance stands the chapel, and to the north is the Great Hall range of 18 bays. The Hall entrance porch is set forward and approached up steps, with a Gothic-headed arch. The Hall has cross windows with trefoil heads and small trefoil lights in the Gothic heads, and a polygonal oriel window. The service and bedroom wing to the west and the Long Gallery wing to the east have mainly two-light windows with shouldered lintels. A large circular main tower stands behind the Hall entrance, and an octagonal Library tower is positioned at the east end of the gallery wing. The outer walls are articulated with full-height slender turrets or bartizans at changes in direction and corbel tables supporting parts of the battlements. Arrow slots and even a gatehouse garderobe are present. The roof is mainly flat asphalt, concealed by the crenellated parapet. The coach house, a single-storey structure, makes early use of timber lattice roof trusses.

Interior details include a porch leading to a screens passage with oak screen in early Gothic style and matching gallery rail. The Great Hall has a Minton tile floor, large stone chimney piece and stone quadripartite ribbed vault supported by corbels with shields. The Long Gallery to the east features oak panelling 1.8 metres high, a chimney piece in a wide arched recess, and a ceiling panelled by three longitudinal and six cross beams. An irregular shaped Billiard Room with beamed ceiling is accessed from the Long Gallery to the north, alongside the octagonal Library tower with oak linenfold bookcases. The Drawing Room to the north has an oak boarded floor, wide stone fireplace, Gothic-headed door with ornamental strap hinges, plastered walls and beamed ceiling. The main staircase behind the Hall features a light well pierced by shouldered-lintelled openings arranged vertically and horizontally in pairs. The circular tower at the north-west corner contains an octagonal Dining Room with Minton tile floor, two fireplaces and a vault of eight radial ribs running to a central boss, together with an oak sideboard carved with "green men". Below the Dining Room is a Wine Cellar with a circular tunnel vault springing from a short round pier. The kitchens and service rooms, extensive and unaltered, lie south and west of this tower. The first-floor nursery area has plastered walls with cornices, square-headed cross-braced oak doors with ornamental strap hinges and some plastered barrel-vaulted ceilings. The first-floor gallery above the Long Gallery is very similar in arrangement. The Racket Room at fifth-floor level in the round tower is approached by a stone spiral staircase and has a boarded ceiling and board-lined walls; its roof is covered with block lead. Upper ceilings of the Bell Tower and Gatehouse are barrel-vaulted.

The castle represents a great Romantic house and arguably the last serious fortified home built in England, conceived as a refuge from the social disturbances of its time. Designed and executed on a great scale with consummate skill to the highest standards, it ranks among the great buildings of its age.