The Castle

The Castle is a house in Leighton Bromswold, originally built in 1616 as a gatehouse by Sir Gervaise Clifton, designed by John Thorpe (designs held at the Soane Museum). It was later altered as a dwelling in the 17th century and again around 1700. Further modifications and additions were made around 1904 by the Church Commissioners, incorporating materials from Stow Longa Manor House in Cambridgeshire. The house is built of red brick in English bond, with stone dressings, plain tiled roofs, and leaded flats, featuring internal chimney stacks.

Originally, the gatehouse comprised a rectangular block with a central carriageway flanked by two rooms with chambers above, and four square towers at each corner, all three storeys high. The original archway was blocked, and the flanking rooms were enlarged; the foundations of the original walls were discovered during the 1904 work, along with a baking oven and hearth, now demolished. A porch was added to the south-west elevation in 1904, and service rooms to the north-west. The south-west elevation displays a blocked round arch where the carriageway once stood, adorned with faceted key blocks, moulded imposts, Doric columns on pedestals, an entablature with triglyphs and rosettes, enriched pilasters, ball finials, and a stone balustrade with missing balusters or stone crests. Inserted mullioned windows were added to the first floor, with a central ovolo mullioned window dating to around 1904. The towers have stone quoins to the first floor and moulded plinths and string courses at each floor level. Ground and first-floor windows feature hollow-chamfered mullions and transoms, while second-floor windows lack transoms. Pyramidal roofs likely originally supported weather-vane finials. The north-west elevation resembles the south-west, but without the balustrade, and includes an inserted bow window into the blocked carriageway, with a stone sill from a former 17th-century window nearby.

Internally, alterations in 1904 included the insertion of stone chimney pieces, door heads, and a rebuilt oak staircase from Stow Longa Manor House. A finely carved beam above the bow window is believed to have originated from the building, possibly from a projecting south-east bay when raised to two storeys around 1904. At first floor, there are several two-panelled doors dating to around 1700, complete with original hinges. The gatehouse was part of an original plan to build a larger house within a moated site to the north-east, although it is unclear if this plan was fully realized. Surviving plans for both the house and gatehouse are held by John Thorpe. It's possible the gatehouse was converted into a dwelling soon after Sir Gervaise Clifton's death.