Middleton Castle

Middleton Castle

A moated house with a gatehouse dating from about 1455, built for Thomas, Lord Scales. The gatehouse has attached ranges from 1864 and 1876 for Sir Lewis Whincop Jarvis, and from 1905 for John Taylor Ramsden. The building is constructed in brick with lead and tiled roofs.

The rectangular moat contains a gatehouse positioned at the centre of the south side, with an attached hall and range to the left dated 1876. A further range dating from 1864 and 1905 adjoins the west arm of the moat.

The wide gatehouse was restored in 1864. Built in irregular bond brick with stone dressings and a lead roof behind a parapet, it is rectangular in plan with clasping polygonal turrets at the angles. The building rises three storeys, accentuated by stone string courses. The parapet is embattled and rebuilt, with an undated stone plaque bearing a crest similar to the date plaque of 1876 on the angle tower. Two large gargoyles date from 1864. The angle turrets rise above the main parapet with embattled parapets and shallow machicolations.

The ground floor features a four-centred arch to the gateway, renewed around 1864, with doors of that period. On either side is an opening of two cusped-headed lights under a square hood mould. The first floor contains a central oriel window with a 15th-century base, its mullions and roof renewed around 1864, and a small oriel window mostly renewed to the right. Above the central oriel is a weathered six-quartered coat of arms within a Garter, representing Anthony Woodville, son-in-law of Thomas Lord Scales. The second floor has two openings matching those of the ground floor. The turrets feature small lights at each stage.

The rear facade follows the front arrangement but lacks the second-floor string course, heraldic plaque and mullions. It includes a doorway to the right turret, a three-light mullioned opening to the first floor, and two single-light openings to the second floor, all with squared surrounds. The left turret's second floor has a two-light opening.

A bridge crossing the moat to the gatehouse, dating from about 1860 and 1876, comprises a low brick arch with a stone keystone and stone string course. A later embattled parapet sits above. The bridge front features a pair of octagonal piers, each with a stone cap surmounted by a stone pineapple. The bridge is paved with granite setts.

The hall, attached to the left of the gatehouse and dating from 1864, was altered around 1905. It is built in brick with a carstone base to the moat and plain tiles to the roof. A gable to the left has a gable parapet and two gault brick moulded octagonal shafts to the external stack. A low small opening with two cusped-headed lights under a square hood mould appears to the left. A stepped string course, broken by a tall central stair-light refashioned around 1905, features five lights with two transoms under a four-centred arch. A plaque above bears a crest and arms. A two-bay two-storey range attached to the left is built in brick with a carstone base to the moat and a plain tiled roof with string course. An oriel window to the ground floor left is surmounted by a three-light Gothick transomed window; similar two-light transomed windows appear to the right on the ground and first floors.

Attached to the left at the angle of the moat is a two-bay four-storeyed embattled brick tower dated 1876. The parapet features shallow machicolations rising from stone corbels. The ground floor has a central opening of three Gothick transomed lights under a square hood mould, with two similar two-light openings on each of the first, second and third floors. Ground floor windows throughout the hall and of the 1864 and 1876 phases are leaded.

The west facade comprises several building phases across ten bays. Bays one to four date from about 1905, bays five to seven from 1864, and the four-storeyed bay ten at the angle of the moat is dated 1876. The construction is in pink brick with limestone dressings and string courses, a carstone base, and an embattled parapet concealing a slate roof.

Bays one to four, built for J.T. Ramsden, feature two-light transomed openings with Gothick heads, stone mullions and surrounds, and leaded lights, under square hood moulds. There are four such openings to the ground floor, and three each to the first and second floors (in bays one, two and four). Bay three of the second floor displays Ramsden arms in stone.

Bays five to seven, for L.W. Jarvis and dated 1864, include a plaque with arms on bay six of the third floor. Openings in bays five and seven match those of bays one to four but have wood mullions to the frames and lack leaded lights. Bay six of the ground floor has a similar three-light opening.

Bays eight and nine comprise two storeys, flush with bays one to seven and ten, and stand forward of a rear three-storeyed range. They have an embattled parapet with shallow machicolations. Bay eight includes a footbridge with a four-centred stone doorway with figure stops and a three-light transomed opening above. Bay nine's ground floor has a double Gothick-headed light with leaded lights; the first floor has a transomed double light.

Bay ten, the four-storeyed tower at the angle of the moat dating from 1876, has a facade matching the south front but includes a large oriel window with leaded lights extending from ground floor to third floor, each with one opening.

The interior dates from the late 19th century and about 1905. The gatehouse ground floor features heavy ceiling joists, a frieze of shields, flowers and grotesques, and lower walls panelled in wood. A large stone fireplace with a chimney occupies the east side. The first floor has a ceiling of geometric panels accentuated by moulded wooden ribs, walls partly panelled with a painted frieze of peacocks above, and an overmantel to the fireplace in early 17th-century style.

The hall features a hammerbeam roof with grotesque corbels and an open-well closed-string staircase with alternate barley sugar and double vase balusters. The dining room to the west of the hall has a ceiling of geometric panels accentuated by wooden ribs, panelled doors, and a 17th-century marquetry overmantel to the fireplace. A ground-floor room in the south-west angle tower has a ceiling similar to the dining room but with an acanthus leaf frieze and plaster festoons of oak leaves. It contains a Jacobean-style fireplace in wood with strapwork, dated 1905 and inscribed with the initials JTR.