20, Castle Park

This is a substantial house, built in 1720 and altered in the 19th century. It was originally constructed for William Birdsworth, a lawyer, and his wife Margaret. The house is built of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, with a roughcast front elevation that mimics the appearance of ashlar blocks set between chamfered quoins. It has a slate roof, a small flat-roofed dormer, and gable chimney stacks. The house stands three storeys high above a cellar and attics, with five bays and a central square projection at the rear to accommodate the staircase. All the windows have moulded architraves and contain eight-pane sashes. A datestone above the central first-floor window is inscribed ‘BW+M 1720’. The elaborate painted stone doorcase features engaged Ionic columns, a pulvinated frieze, an entablature with dentils, and a segmental open pediment that is both panelled in its soffit and tympanum. The door itself has twelve raised and fielded panels and is recessed between similarly panelled reveals.

The interior features a marble floor in the entrance hall. A double-depth room to the left has very good painted raised and fielded panelling with Corinthian pilasters. The room to the right has similar unpainted panelling, but with Ionic pilasters. This room was probably altered in the 19th century, when a front cloakroom was created and the rear wall was extended. The first floor is divided in a conventional manner and contains similar panelling with Doric pilasters. The second floor has a matching dado, believed to be a 19th-century addition. A fine dogleg staircase rises to the attic level and has full-height panelling up to the half-landing above the first floor, thereafter featuring a panelled dado. The staircase has an open string with carved scrolled brackets, two turned balusters per tread, and a ramped handrail.

The house was built by William Birdsworth and later owned by Allan Harrison, the Recorder of Lancaster, between 1731 and 1747. Harrison likely added the doorcase and made numerous internal alterations, including a link with No. 22 to the left. His daughter and heiress, Ann, married Lt. Col. George Wilson, the builder of Abbot Hall, Kendal. The house was owned by the Satterthwaite family from around 1780 to 1932.