Prospect Tower And Attached Wing

BIDDULPH C.P. KNYPERSLEY SJ 85 NE SJ 896 553 7/33 Prospect Tower and - attached wing

• II*

Prospect tower. Dated 1828. Coursed stone, rock-faced quoins; flat roof invisible behind parapet. Large chimney adds drama to skyline, formerly 3 diagonally-set shafts, 2 still survive. Octagonal tower with screen wall to side wing. Tower: of 3 stages on battered plinth; first stage defined by string; machicolated parapet formerly crenellated. Round-arch mullioned 2-light windows in labelled chamfered, deep reveals, to first and second stages, similar single light to top stage; labelled datestone on the north-east face of the top stage. Entrance to east side. Plinth extended to south to take short single-storey link to attached wing formerly with corbelled parapet. Three labelled 1- and 2-light windows similar to remainder. John Bateman, the horticulturist, started his landscaping ambitions at his Father's house, Knypersley Hall before moving on to Biddulph Grange (q.v.), completed in the 1860's. The Tower, therefore, probably marks the debut period of his work, and clearly owes a debt to Clytha Castle (Gwent); what is there idyllic is here transformed into a rugged picturesqueness, more in keeping with developments later in the C19.

Listing NGR: SJ8967755341