Rowton Castle And Attached Stable Courtyard

Rowton Castle is a country house built around 1700 for Richard Lyster on the site of a medieval castle destroyed in 1482. The house underwent significant alterations and extensions in two major phases: 1809-12 by architect George Wyatt (1782-1856) for Colonel Richard Lyster, and 1824-28 for Henry Lyster and his wife Lady Charlotte Ashley Cooper. The building is constructed of coursed Alberbury breccia rubble with grey sandstone ashlar dressings and has a hipped slate roof.

Architectural Development

The original five-bay 17th-century house was extensively remodelled in a Tudor Gothic style. Wyatt's 1809-12 campaign remodelled the north-west front and added a north-east wing. The 1824-28 works remodelled the south-east entrance front with a new porch, extended the north-east wing to the south-east, added a large circular tower to the south-west, and constructed service buildings. The house comprises a basement, two storeys with an attic, and in some parts three storeys.

South-East Entrance Front

The entrance front features a chamfered plinth, cornice, and coped parapet, with two gabled dormers containing four-centred two-light casements. Pairs of brick ridge stacks with five octagonal brick shafts sit off-centre on the rear range, with an external brick end stack to the left.

The central block is arranged in 1:3:1 bays with wooden cross-casements with chamfered reveals and returned hoodmoulds. The central three-storey break, dating from 1824-28, has trefoil-headed panelled buttresses, a first-floor cill string, a cornice to the battlemented parapet, and brick end stacks each with five octagonal brick shafts. The second-floor window has two four-centred lights with Y-tracery, chamfered reveals, and a returned hoodmould.

The first-floor features a canted bay window with 1:4:1 four-centred arched lights, a frieze with plain shields, string courses, and a battlemented parapet. It is flanked by lancets with cinquefoil heads and hoodmoulds with uncarved stops. Three steps lead up to a deeply recessed four-centred moulded arch entrance with a pair of nail-studded boarded doors, trefoil-panelled spandrels, flanking trefoil-panelled buttresses, a moulded cornice, and a pierced parapet with plain shields.

An octagonal tower to the left has chamfered one-light openings and a slit opening in the battlemented parapet. A projecting gabled wing from 1824-28 extends to the right, with a plinth, cornice and parapet, and octagonal corner turrets featuring chamfered offsets, a string course, corbelled-out battlemented parapets, and slit openings on each floor. This wing contains a two-light attic casement and first-floor cross-casement, both with returned hoodmoulds, and a four-centred arched ground-floor window with two four-centred arched lights with glazing bars, cusped panelled tracery, and a returned hoodmould.

Other External Elevations

The right-hand return front has three bays to the left with gabled dormers, first-floor cross-windows, and four-centred arched ground-floor windows with two four-centred arched lights, glazing bars, cusped panelled tracery, and returned hoodmoulds. A three-storey square tower by Wyatt stands to the right with a battlemented parapet, two second-floor two-light casements with hoodmoulds, and a two-storey canted bay. This bay has first-floor mullioned windows (with those to the sides blind) and ground-floor tripartite glazing bar sash with flanking blind windows. Evidence of mullion stubs suggests a probable original intention for ground-floor mullioned windows.

The rear elevation is arranged in 1:3:1 bays with a central full-height half-octagonal bay. A three-bay ashlar loggia to the left has moulded Tudor arches, plain shields in the spandrels, and a pierced battlemented parapet. A three-storey two-bay square tower to the left contains first- and second-floor casements and ground-floor glazing bar sashes. A large circular tower to the right has brick dressings, a corbelled-out battlemented parapet, and irregularly placed cross-windows and narrow slit openings.

A two-storey service block extends to the south-west with red brick dressings, a cornice and stepped parapet, and projecting square corner towers with plinths, corbelled-out battlemented parapets, and slit openings. The four-bay centre has four-pane sashes with chamfered reveals. A porch to the left has a chamfered entrance, flanking buttresses, and a corbelled-out battlemented parapet. Lead downpipes and rainwater heads are used throughout.

Stable Courtyard

The stable courtyard is built of coursed Alberbury breccia with red sandstone ashlar dressings and grey sandstone ashlar chamfered coping. It forms two sides of a square with a gatehouse to the south-west. Two square turrets in the south-east range have string courses, battlemented parapets, and slit openings. These flank a blocked former depressed-arched carriageway, now containing an inserted reused 13th-century doorway with a moulded arch, hoodmould with carved stops, and nail-studded boarded door with strap hinges, possibly introduced from White Abbey or Alberbury Castle.

The gatehouse in the south-west range has a corbelled-out battlemented parapet, a central depressed archway with hoodmould, a pair of nail-studded doors with strap hinges, and flanking rectangular windows with chamfered reveals and returned hoodmoulds. A flight of fifteen stone steps adjoins the south-east range with a trefoil-arcaded balustrade, chamfered coping, and trefoil-panelled piers with urns.

Interior

The interior contains fittings mainly from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and the early 19th century.

The hall has early 18th-century fittings including bolection-moulded panelling with a dado rail, a fireplace with bolection-moulded surround and panel above with flanking pilasters, doors with eight raised and fielded panels, and panelled window shutters. It also has what is probably an early 19th-century plaster dentil cornice and wreathed ceiling rose.

The left-hand ground-floor room contains early 18th-century bolection-moulded panelling, a dado rail, a moulded cornice, and a bolection-moulded fireplace surround. The ground-floor corridor also has 18th-century bolection-moulded panelling.

The ground-floor left-hand rear room has 19th-century panelling and a 17th-century fireplace heavily carved with foliage trails, a pair of dragons in the frieze, a guilloche-decorated band, carved cornice, and triangular pediment with a pair of trumpet-blowing figures in the tympanum.

The ground-floor right-hand rear room is a saloon by Wyatt with curved corners, a moulded plinth, enriched dado, plaster panels with reeded surrounds, an acanthus-enriched cornice, enriched soffit with paterae and Tudor flower, a plaster ceiling rose, door architraves with bay-leaf ornament and corner paterae, and panelled window architraves. A three-bay screen separates it from the central ground-floor rear room, with Ionic columns, entablature, and segmental recess above. Panelled sliding doors lead to the central ground-floor rear room, also probably decorated by Wyatt with an enriched frieze and Tudor flower ornament.

The staircase hall by Wyatt has an acanthus frieze to ground and first floors. The four-flight rectangular-well staircase has partial cantilevering, an open string, cast iron square-section balusters, a ramped moulded handrail, and a wreathed newel post with curtail. A lobby contains reused probably late 16th-century panelling with a square-in-square motif and carved foliage trails.

The ground-floor right-hand front room, probably from 1824-28, is in a Gothic revival style with a marble fireplace consisting of a depressed moulded arch with trefoil-panelled spandrels, flanking twisted shafts, and a frieze with shields and Tudor-flower ornament. It has Gothic panelled doors, including a pair of large doors to the saloon with flanking Tudor-arched recesses and heavy Tudor-arched pelments with pendants and battlementing.

The service wing has 19th-century 17th-century-style panelling with fluted arches above, and a 17th-century-style staircase with alternating turned and twisted balusters, a moulded handrail, and carved square newel posts. A 19th-century 17th-century-style back staircase also has alternating turned and twisted balusters, a moulded handrail, and carved square newel posts.

The central first-floor room contains re-ordered 18th-century bolection-moulded dado panelling and a 17th-century fireplace heavily carved with foliage trails, a pair of dragons in the frieze, and a guilloche-enriched cornice.

Historical and Architectural Significance

A detached service block stands to the north-west. The castle is an interesting example of how an early 19th-century architect like George Wyatt (son of Charles Wyatt) conceived classical interiors for a Gothic building. His designs were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1809 "as about to be carried out" and in 1812 as "lately executed".