Wingfield Castle

Wingfield Castle is the remains of a fortified manor house built in the late 14th century for Michael de la Pole, who received a licence to crenellate in 1384. The structure forms an irregular rectangle on plan and is surrounded by a moat.

Only the south curtain wall survives intact. It is constructed of flint rubble with stone dressings and features red brick embattlements, mostly rebuilt. A string course with gargoyles runs below the parapet. The ground floor has lancet and loop windows, while the upper floor contains 2-light windows in Decorated style.

The gatehouse is set not quite centrally and represents the finest feature of the remains. It has three-storey polygonal corner towers with flushwork panelling at the base. The outer entrance is a moulded segmental pointed arch dying into the imposts. A moulded inner arch retains its original gates and wicket gate. The jambs contain square panels bearing the Wingfield and de la Pole arms and a portcullis groove. The courtyard face presents a 4-centred arch, with four doorways of 2-centred arches beyond the gateway. Evidence for a vaulted roof survives. The first-floor guardroom contains an original fireplace with stone buttresses terminating in corbels carved as human heads. The 2-storey curtain walls retain several fireplaces and a piscina on the inner side, marking where living rooms and the chapel once stood. Foundations of the missing curtain walls and bastions are traceable.

The present house is built into the remains of the west curtain wall, probably on the site of the great hall, part of which it may incorporate. This building dates from the mid-16th century with at least two phases of 17th-century alteration. The range extends approximately 40 metres long. Part of it is rubblework, colourwashed or plastered; part is timber-framed to the upper floor, with good 16th-century exposed close studding to the east. The roof is plain-tiled to the east and glazed black pantiled to the west. The structure comprises 2 storeys and an attic, with various mullioned and mullion-and-transom windows—some original, others of later date, and some 20th-century copies of 16th-century work. Fine diamond-leaded glazing with many stained glass panels adorns the windows; much glass is old but all was inserted in the 20th century from elsewhere.

The entrance is a 2-storey rubblework porch with a 4-centred arch. The hoodmould is supported on stops carved with falcons, the crest of the Jernyngham family, to whom the castle was granted in 1544. Above the entrance sits an oblong niche surrounded by guilloche work. The original doorframe and door are retained. To the north of the porch stands a 3-storey stair tower, square in plan with splayed angles to the ground and first floors. To the west is a massive external stack with four octagonal shafts, two having moulded brick embellishment and star caps. Three other external stacks exist, one with rebuilt octagonal shafts. Later axial stacks are also present.

The interior contains a number of good 4-centred arched brick fireplaces. The main ground floor room has ovolo-moulded ceiling beams dating from around 1600. In the kitchen is a blocked late 14th-century opening to the moat, featuring a moulded arch. A fine 16th-century plain oak newel stair in two flights survives. A large first-floor room has a plain barrel ceiling. Much 17th-century work is evident, particularly in partitioning. The mid-16th-century roof features clasped purlins and arched wind braces.

The detached buildings within the line of the curtain walls are not included in this listing.