The Stone Tower

The Stone Tower, Claverdon

A house comprising a tower of circa 1593, probably built for Thomas Spencer, with later additions and alterations including 17th-century chimney stacks and a wing to the north-east added in 1967 by architect George Pace, which also incorporates outbuildings. The building has undergone further alterations over time.

The tower is constructed of regular coursed lias limestone, roughly squared, with lower courses of ashlar and an asphalt roof. The interior rooms are lined with brick in irregular English garden wall bond. The later wing is of limestone ashlar, brick and concrete with red tile roofs, with the roof otherwise concealed.

The exterior comprises a three-storey tower with a raised stair-turret to the west corner. A chamfered plinth runs around the base, with quoins at the angles. A moulded string course sits at second-floor level around the tower, with remains of a first-floor string course visible on the north-west and south-west sides.

The entrance on the south-west side is particularly elaborate: a thick plank door with nail-heads sits within a doorway with chamfered jambs and a 4-centred arch. This is flanked by two projecting piers carrying a moulded 4-centred arch beneath a square head, forming a shallow porch. Above the arch, the string course forms a moulded dripstone, and above this the face slopes back in a series of eleven small moulded offsets to a tall, shallower projection finishing with an ogee gable-head that reaches almost to the second-floor string course. The face of the left pier has toothings for a connecting building. To the left is an inserted window with chamfered jambs, and two further single-light windows to the upper stage with lead cames.

The north-west side contains windows to the stairway: eight single-light windows in chamfered and quoined surrounds, stepped, with the lower window interrupting the lower-stage band and the fifth window interrupting the second-floor band; all have lead cames. A projecting stack rises from first-floor level on moulded corbels on this side.

The south-east side has two windows to each storey. The north-east side has a 2-light mullion window with a similar second-floor window beneath a hoodmould. A low parapet with raised gable ends, probably remodelled, runs across the top. A chimney with diagonal shafts rises from the roof.

The wing abuts to the north-east side as a single-storey range with ten windows. The entrance has a plank door, with further double glazed doors and two pairs of plank garage doors to further outbuildings. Fixed-light windows in wood surrounds throughout are of varying heights, with similar fenestration to the garden facade.

The interior is entered through a small square lobby, with a 4-centred and double-chamfered arched opening to the staircase to the left. The staircase has a massive square central newel to the lower stages, becoming slender and rounded to the upper stage. A low arched doorway leads to the cellar. A further arched doorway opens to the main room, which has a moulded, double-chamfered 4-centred arched fireplace. A niche sits to the side of a window within a wide jamb. Indents, possibly sword sharpening marks, appear on the window jambs and newel.

The first floor contains wooden keys for panelling (now removed). A triple-chamfered, cavetto- and ovolo-moulded 4-centred arched fireplace is present, with a shallow break-forward to the chimney-breast. Several niches of varying sizes are scattered throughout. A further arched doorway leads to an inner room, dated 1593 on the jamb and with a possible mass-clock. The initials 'IH' are inscribed on the inner jamb. This inner room also contains niches.

The second floor has a triple-chamfered arched opening with a probably 16th or 17th-century plank door. A further doorway to an inner room has a double-chamfered, ovolo-moulded arch. Masons marks or counting marks appear on the window and door jambs of this floor. A 4-centred arched opening leads to the roof.

Historically, the building's origins remain unclear. Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, died in 1590 without issue, at which point his manorial rights in Claverdon returned to the Crown. According to Dugdale, the land was subsequently purchased by Thomas Spencer Esq., a younger son of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe, who obtained a lease from the Dean and Chapter of Worcester and "built a very fair house thereupon". It has been assumed, though not proven, that this is Spencer's house.

Until circa 1860, a house of two storeys, the lower of stone and the upper of timber, stood to the south-west. Other apparently similar buildings in the vicinity include a stone tower incorporated into a house at Fenney Bentley and the gatehouse at Wormleighton (1613). A three-storey falconry at Althorpe may suggest a hunting use for the Stone Tower.