Eastnor Castle

Eastnor Castle

A country house designed between 1811 and 1820 by Robert Smirke for the 2nd Baron Somers. The building underwent significant internal alterations, largely decorative in nature, by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin in 1849–50 and by G. E. Fox in the 1860s. Sir Gilbert Gilbert Scott also proposed alterations, though these were not fully carried out.

The exterior is constructed of ashlar with a lead and slate roof concealed behind an embattled parapet. The roof trusses and floor beams are of cast iron, representing an early example of the use of iron in domestic buildings. The octagonal ashlar stacks are disguised as turrets. The castle is Picturesque yet symmetrical in character, rendered in a serious neo-Norman and early English style.

The building is rectangular with an E-plan entrance front and flanking towers joined by short diagonal links. It has two storeys and cellars set on a battered plinth. To the north and south-east, the castle is raised on a mound with tall retaining walls.

The entrance front is dominated by a boldly massed centre that rises through three stages, stepped up towards the middle. Round corner turrets and arched parapets punctuate the composition. A projecting porte-cochere under an embattled parapet features three tall round archways with three orders of columns bearing cushion capitals. To either side of the centre are three-to-one bays, with the outer ones advanced and terminated by tall three-stage corner towers that are cloverleaf in plan, with corbelled parapets and single-light round-headed windows set in deep embrasures. The central three-bay sections have three-light Early English style windows on the ground floor set back in recesses and divided by flat buttresses, with roll-moulded cill band and corbelled blocking course above. The upper floor is recessed behind these with large-pane sash windows in neo-Norman style surrounds featuring columns and cushion capitals. The outer single bays have three-light Gothic style windows set within neo-Norman surrounds, with plain tripartite windows on the first floor. Large central double doors and simple round-headed doors occupy the base of the outer towers; the left door provides access to an outer parapet walkway at the foot of the side elevation.

The north-east side elevation rests on a tall battered retaining wall and comprises three bays, with the centre forming a full-height canted bay of three windows. The fenestration varies from that of the entrance front. The garden elevation has four-to-three-to-four windows with tall corner towers matching those of the entrance elevation. The central three windows are set in a three-stage tower canted to the outside. The ground floor has two-light Geometric style windows with neo-Norman style surrounds and columns to the centre; the first floor has three-light plain round-headed windows, with Geometric style outer windows.

Attached to the south-west of the castle is a two-storey kitchen wing forming a T-plan with a courtyard to the south. It features four two-light casement windows under hood-moulds, with tall two-stage square towers terminating the two arms of the wing.

Interior

Little of the original Smirke interiors survives. The Front Staircase Hall was redecorated by G. E. Fox in the 1860s. The Entrance Hall, originally by Smirke and probably remodelled by Scott, was redecorated by Fox in the 1860s with carving by William and James Forsythe of Worcester. The dimensions are 60 feet long by 55 feet high. The space features a Romanesque style triforium gallery and two-light clerestorey windows with Venetian style tracery, a panelled ceiling with braced trusses, and panelled doors in neo-Norman style surrounds. Decorative stencilling in canvas by Fox adorns the walls. The Octagon Room has a coffered ceiling.

The Gothic Drawing Room features plasterwork by F Bernasconi and Son, with painted decoration designed by Pugin and executed by the Crace firm in 1849–50. It has a fan-vaulted ceiling and a large wrought two-tier chandelier by Pugin, made by Hardman of Birmingham in 1850. A highly elaborate fireplace with ogee head and family heraldry is set below a painted family tree. The room contains linenfold panelling with chairs, table, and sideboard all by Pugin.

The Library, by G. E. Fox in the late 1860s, is rendered in Italian Renaissance style with fine inlaid woodwork and an Istrian stone chimneypiece apparently bearing a representation of Garibaldi. It has a coffered ceiling with paintings of the Virtues and Vices. The Little Library, also by Fox, incorporates woodwork from the Accademia degli Intronati at Siena (1646), a Malvern Hills granite fireplace, and Gibbons carving from Reigate Priory flanking the overmantel mirror.

The Dining Room is by Smirke but was altered, with a painted and panelled ceiling, panelled dado, and built-in Gothic style sideboards. The furniture is also by Smirke. The Staircase Hall contains a plain staircase by Smirke with an arcaded balustrade of cast iron and wood. The State Bedroom contains some of the earliest work of the Royal School of Needlework, executed in the early twentieth century for Lady Henry Somerset. Many drawings and work books from the period survive in the muniment room.

The accounts for 1811–12 amount to £85,923 13 shillings and 11½ pence.