The Castle

TL 1075 22/69

LEIGHTON BROMSWOLD, CHURCH LANE (North-east side), The Castle

21.7.51

GV II*

House, formerly a vicarage and originally a gatehouse. 1616 by Sir Gervaise Clifton to designs by John Thorpe (Soane Museum). Altered as a dwelling mid C17 and later perhaps c.1700, with modifications and additions c.1904 by the Church Commissioners, reusing material from Stow Longa Manor House, Cambridgeshire. Walls of red brick coursed in English bond with stone dressings; plain tiled roofs and leaded flats with internal chimney stacks. Original gatehouse plan a rectangular block with central carriageway flanked by two rooms with chambers above, and four square towers at each angle of three storeys; C17 alterations include the blocking of the archway, the enlargement of the flanking rooms (foundations of original walls discovered in 1904) with baking oven and hearth built to north-east, since demolished. A porch added to south-west elevation in 1904, and service rooms to the north-west. South-west elevation: Blocked round arch to carriageay with faceted key block and moulded imposts flanked by Doric columns on pedestals supporting an entablature with triglyphs and rosettes on the frieze, enriched pilasters above capped by ball finials with a stone balustrade between, and with either missing balusters or stone crests (VCH). Enlarged inserted first floor mullioned windows, the central ovolo mullioned window c.1904. Towers with stone quoins to the first floor and moulded plinth and string courses at each floor level. Ground and first floor windows with hollow-chamfered mullions and transomes, and similar second floor windows without transomes; pyramidal roofs perhaps originally with weather-vane finials. North-west elevation: Similar to south-west without balustrade and with inserted bow window into blocked carriageway, (a stone cill of a former C17 window lies nearby). Interior: Altered in 1904 by the insertion of chimney stacks and stone chimney pieces, stone door heads, and rebuilt oak staircase from Stow Longa Manor House. A finely carved beam inserted above the bow window is said to have come from the building (possibly from the projecting south-east bay when raised in 1904 to two storeys). At first floor a number of c.1700 two-panelled doors with original hinges. The gatehouse was part of an original plan to build a large house within the rectangular moated site to the north-east, whether this was achieved or not is uncertain. The plans for both the house and the gatehouse by John Thorpe survive. It is possible that the gatehouse was converted to a dwelling shortly after the death of Sir Gervaise Clifton.

RCHM Huntingdonshire p130 VCH Huntingdonshire p86 Pevsner Buildings of England p282 Thomas Norton's map 1660 RO John Thorpe Collection: Soane Museum

Listing NGR: TL1166875210