Bathing House and a 50m length of raised sea wall at Norris Castle

Lodge and bath house with attached raised sea wall, early C19, for Lord Henry Seymour.

MATERIALS: constructed of coursed rubble and squared Bembridge limestone, with later repairs in red brick and concrete. Attached sea wall of squared and coursed quarry-faced stone.

PLAN: a two-storey square tower with a single-cell plan. It is built into the sea wall so that access from the estate is on the first floor, with an internal staircase providing access down to beach level. The sea wall extends eastwards from the north-east corner of the building.

EXTERIOR: the Bathing House is currently a roofless shell (2016). The lower storey of the north elevation, facing the sea, is battered out. There is a blocked round-headed doorway with stone voussoirs and a chamfered outer edge to the ground floor, and a square-headed opening to the first floor. The east front includes the main entrance; a chamfered round-headed doorway, and above it, an oculus. At the west end of the south elevation is an inserted square-headed doorway with red-brick jambs and a concrete lintel. Above the doorway is the scar of a lean-to roof for a single-storey addition, which extended to the south with the estate boundary wall forming its west wall. The west elevation meets the East Cowes Esplanade and has a single squared-headed opening with a stone cill at first floor level.

The sea wall is built of squared and coursed quarry-faced stone with a battered outer edge. A 50m length survives to full height, extending east from the Bathing House. Thereafter the wall is ruinous, having suffered erosion, landslips and storm damage, and varies in height with some sections missing altogether; this section, beyond the 50m length, is therefore excluded from the listing.

INTERIOR: a stone staircase in the south-east corner leads down to the ground floor, above which are springings of a brick barrel-vault. An alcove with a red-brick segmental arch is built into the east wall. At first floor level there are fragments of plaster on the walls, tooled to imitate ashlar stonework. There are repairs in red brick and concrete whilst two steel I-beams support the tops of the walls.