Studley Castle

Studley Castle is a country house, now offices, designed by Samuel Beazley in 1834 for Sir Francis Goodricke, baronet. An early 20th century wing was added later. The building is constructed in limestone ashlar with moulded stone string courses and cornices, slate roofs behind parapets, and ashlar stacks.

The architecture combines Neo-Norman and Gothic Revival styles. The building has a complex U-plan with a central keep tower and is largely symmetrical, comprising 3-storey wings, a 2-storey central range, and a 4-storey keep, with an 11-window range.

The central range features a slightly projecting 3-bay gabled centre with a deeply recessed Tudor blank arch, diagonal buttresses, and tourelles. An arched porte-cochere with hood mould and octagonal clasping buttresses (continued up as finials) provides the entrance, beneath which sits a mounting block in the paving. The entrance itself has a wide glazed arch with arched hall-glazed double-leaf doors and panels, with plaster ogee niches in the intrados. Lancets grace each floor. A 2-centre arched central window features Y-tracery. The remainder of the central range has buttresses (square on the ground floor, polygonal on the first floor), a moulded cornice and parapet, and arched windows with hood moulds, mostly with Gothick sashes. The first bay has half-glazed double-leaf doors.

An octagonal Neo-Norman keep rises above and behind the central range, with four large 3-storey round angle projections, a corbel table, and a lantern top featuring round-arched windows of 2 arched lights with hood moulds, head stops, and shafts with scalloped capitals. The keep has a machicolated top.

The far-projecting wings have 4-storey octagonal corner turrets. The left wing has a shaped gable; turrets have angle buttresses to the ground floor and lancets to alternate faces. String courses run across, with the top stage featuring blind cross openings and machicolated tops. Notable fenestration includes a 2-storey, 2-light stone mullioned and transomed canted oriel corbelled out. The right wing has a double-leaf arched door with overlight and square-headed windows (blind on the left) flanking an oriel. The inner sides of the wings form a 4-window range with straight-headed windows on upper floors.

The left return side comprises 3 bays with corner turrets and a projecting gable centre with polygonal buttresses. Arched Gothick windows are present, with a central window in a niched recess and a canted oriel on the first floor. The gable has blocked 2-centred windows with Y-tracery. Some 20th century windows have been inserted. The rear of this wing has a gable and turrets with two arched lights and a canted oriel.

The garden front displays a central 2-storey gabled wing projecting forward from the keep, with a wide canted bay window and a 3-light window above. Canted re-entrant angles have lancets. To the left and right, canted bays feature blind arcaded parapets. The left range also has a 2-light window and ground floor windows with stone tracery. The first floor has 3 two-light windows to left and right, with polygonal angle buttresses. The gabled right return side has a ground floor canted bay and a 2-light window above.

The service wing, set back on the left, shows early and mid-20th century additions and alterations. It has irregular 20th century fenestration and terminates in a giant blank lancet with a 2-light staircase window with 5 transoms, topped by brick additions. An early/mid-20th century red brick wing on the left is 3-storey with attic and hipped dormers, a tile roof, and a 10-window range. End bays vary in design, with thin wood mullioned 2-light windows featuring leaded lights. Ground floor windows are 4-light mullioned and transomed with brick buttresses between.

The interior features a plaster rib-vaulted entrance hall leading to a central octagonal hall rising to the full height of the keep. A painted Neo-Norman chimney-piece has a round arch with chevron and ballhead decoration, truncated shafts, blind arcading of round arches above, and Romanesque style grotesque masks. A wooden first-floor gallery supported on 4-centred arches with heavy pendants displays a Gothic balustrade, with niches to each wall (one containing a classical statue) and a moulded string course with angels. The lantern windows contain coloured glass; the ceiling bears coats of arms on glass, much restored in the late 20th century.

The Dining Room to the right has a timber raised hammer-beam roof with arcaded spandrels and moulded ribs, carved head corbels, and a panelled ceiling. A black marble Gothic fireplace features detached piers and a 4-centred arch, with an archway to the bay window.

An octagonal room in the centre of the garden front has a plaster rib vault with a foliage boss and arcaded walls, Gothic panelling, and bookcases.

The Drawing Room on the left has a 3-bay shallow rib-vaulted ceiling with enriched and gilt ribs, gilt stiff-leaf corbels, and arcaded walls with a large overmantel mirror. The ceiling features enriched panels and niches at each end. A white marble Gothic chimney-piece has a 4-centred arch and piers with niches.

An open well staircase features a cast iron Gothic balustrade and moulded handrail. Gothic arched and arcaded doors appear throughout.

Samuel Beazley (1786–1851), the architect, was best known for theatrical work.