Castle House

Castle House, Bramhall

House, latterly used as a nursing home and empty at the time of inspection in February 2000. Dated 1927, with minor 20th-century alterations.

The building is constructed of large pebble-dash on brick, with red brick to the basement storey and concrete dressings in imitation of ashlar stonework. It features coped gables, tall brick chimneys with moulded shafts and stepped oversailing caps. Pitched roofs with stone slate coverings extend from a central square tower with a concealed flat roof. The design exemplifies Eclectic Neo-Tudor vernacular style with Arts and Crafts detailing.

The plan is irregular and T-shaped, with wings extending north, west and south of the central tower.

On the front (north-west) elevation, single-storeyed ranges extend from each side of a diagonally set and canted entrance porch with a wide moulded arched opening beneath a red brick gablet with diaper work decoration. Behind this central axis stands a wide moulded chimney stack in front of the north-west corner of the central tower. A multi-paned glazed door is set within an ashlar-like concrete surround. The left-hand single-storeyed range, built on sloping ground, incorporates a basement and terminates at a deeply-canted bay window with 2-light chamfered mullion and transom windows to each facet, and a shallow parapet. To the right is a 2-light window above a similar basement window. Decorative hopper heads to downpipes either side of the entrance porch are dated 1927. The longer right-hand range features a matching canted bay window and, beyond the line of a coped gable, a lower 2-bay section with a single hipped roof and 2 two-light hipped dormer windows which break through the eaves line. A contemporary hipped roof conservatory adjoins the right-hand end.

The side (east) elevation facing Bramhall Lane South is complex, comprising 3 elements. At the right-hand end, a 3-bay section with exposed basement giving a 2-storey appearance features 2 full-height canted bay windows with 3-light transomed windows to the upper level and 3-light mullioned openings to the lower level. Between these stands a central bay with stepped mullioned windows lighting the main stair. To the left rises the tall central tower with angled corners and a parapet set on a corbel table. The corbels are decorated with shamrock, harp, rose and thistle motifs. The upper stage has a tall mullioned and transomed window, 4 lights tall, of 1:3:1 light form. Below are a single light and a 2-light window. Further left, and advanced, stands a single-storey wing with a hipped roof and an 8-light window with major and minor mullions. The canted south end features 2-light transomed windows to the facets.

The rear (south) elevation comprises a single-storeyed garden front extending westwards from the tower with an advanced range to the right. To the left of the tower is an 8-light transomed screen, the centre part a doorway with a shallow curved head, 2-light overlight and glazed door, with a shallow parapet concealing the roof slope above. Further left stands a canted bay window with transomed 2-light openings. To its left is a small loggia with set-back door and window openings.

The interior displays a complex spatial arrangement of principal ground-floor rooms linked by corridors extending from an inner entrance hall with a domed ceiling and a massive hearth surround with overmantel mirror to its east wall. The south wall is formed by a transomed screen incorporating a doorway into the garden. The principal reception room to the west has a shallow vaulted ceiling with decorative plaster panels and a deep frieze. Its west wall is formed by a full-width hearth recess beneath a stepped voussoired lintel, enclosing a recessed domestic-scale hearth with an overmantel mirror. Flanking the hearth are opposed window seats set into canted bays. A corridor extending eastward from the inner hall leads to a second reception room, extending southwards, with decorative plaster panels to its sloping and flat ceiling surfaces. A full-height semi-circular arch to the south end wall gives access to a canted bay with a hearth in its end wall. A service wing extends northwards from the entrance vestibule, with access to the tower via a main winder stair with splat balusters and moulded newel posts. The tower room contains a late 20th-century inserted ceiling and a blocked hearth. The stair also gives access to a multi-roomed basement. A ground-floor bathroom features mosaic wall tiling and contemporary fitted cupboards. Single and double fielded panel doors are used throughout, with leaded windows displaying elaborate Arts and Crafts style furniture. According to a room bell board in a ground-floor service room, the principal rooms were called 'Front Room, Dining Room, Music Room' and 'Tower Room'.

This is a highly individual and little-altered design completed in 1927, with high-quality interior detailing reflecting the influence of both the Arts and Crafts Movement and Edwardian Eclecticism.