Westenhanger Manor

Westenhanger Manor is a castle or fortified house, now partly ruinous, built in the 14th century with early and late 16th-century additions and late 18th or early 19th-century rebuilding. It was restored in the 1980s.

The castle originally comprised a rectangular courtyard measuring 130 feet across, defended by circular bastions at the west and north-east corners and a rectangular bastion at the south-east. Rectangular towers stood at the centre of the north, south and east sides, with a gateway at the centre of the west side. The 14th-century structure was built of coursed ragstone. Formerly, continuous ranges of buildings lined each side of the courtyard; fragments from the 16th century survive at the north-west corner.

An early 16th-century L-plan house, probably built for Sir Edward Poynings before 1521, occupies the north-east corner. Its long right wall runs along the east curtain wall, with the main range at right-angles to it and a rear range parallel to it between the main range and the north-east bastion. Part of the house, including its front elevation, was rebuilt in the late 18th century.

The surviving house has two storeys and attics. The front (south) elevation is of red brick in Flemish bond on a chamfered rock-faced ashlar plinth, with a plat band not extending to the corners and a dentilled brick eaves cornice. The right gable end formerly had a crow-stepped gable (shown in a historical print). The roof is hipped with the right hip returning. There is a rear stack to the right at the junction of the main range and wing, with two hipped dormers. A regular front of seven recessed 24-pane sashes has splayed brick voussoirs. A panelled door sits under the third window from the right. A late 20th-century porch has been added.

The rear (north) elevation of the main range has a chamfered stone plinth. An early 16th-century first-floor window contains two round-headed chamfered brick lights. A broad blocked early 16th-century rectangular ground-floor window has a chamfered brick architrave and moulded brick cornice. The west elevation of the rear wing features a moulded stone plinth continuing from the rear elevation, with 19th-century red brick in Flemish bond above; the north end was partly rebuilt in the late 20th century.

The east return elevation (right side) has a battered stone plinth. The eaves of the rear wing are slightly lower than those of the main range. A narrow two-storey brick section towards the centre of the rear wing probably replaced a removed garderobe shute. A partly blocked rectangular early 16th-century six-light stone mullion window on the first floor of the main range has hollow-chamfered mullions and round-headed lights. A single cinquefoil-headed light with square hoodmould is positioned towards the north end of the first floor of the rear wing. Later one, two and three-light leaded casements appear on both floors.

The north-east bastion was converted to a dovecote, probably in the early 16th century. It has a conical plain-tiled roof and a chamfered two-light first-floor window to the south-west. Three small casement windows open to the moat side of the ground floor.

The interior of the surviving house contains a 15th-century chamfered brick fireplace with a four-centred arched wooden bressumer with carved spandrels in the east end of the first-floor room of the main range. A possibly 16th-century staircase stands to the rear of the rear wing. An 18th-century open-well staircase with turned balusters, moulded handrail and shaped cheeks occupies the main range. The ground floor of the rear range has a corridor with three rectangular wooden doorways with rectangular leaded lights to rooms. The rear wing has a staggered butt purlin roof. The dovecote on the first floor of the north-east bastion is entered from the first floor of the rear wing by a four-centred arched brick doorway and is encircled by 15 tiers of ledged plastered brick nesting boxes.

The ruins are largely 14th-century. A curtain wall continues south from the east end of the main range, with the north jamb of a doubly-chamfered splayed first-floor window belonging to a considerably taller range and the jamb of another ground-floor window morticed for bars. The base of a stone tower projects east from the centre of the east curtain wall. The south end of this wall is non-extant. The base of the rectangular south-east corner bastion is set at an angle to the corner. The south wall and south range of the courtyard no longer exist. The east half of the south-west corner bastion remains to a height of about two metres, with the base of a blocked plain-chamfered north-east doorway.

The west wall is continuous between the south-west bastion and the west gateway. The north and south walls of the west gateway contain four pairs of attached semi-octagonal stone shafts with moulded capitals, with evidence for a ribbed tunnel vault above them. The base of a portcullis groove is visible to the west. A hollow-chamfered round-headed doorway with broach stops opens to the west end of the north wall between the gateway and the north half of the west range. The west curtain wall continues north from the gateway, standing to a height of about four metres with a recess, possibly for a brick fireplace, about three metres from the gateway. Adjacent to the north (formerly separated by a wall of a room) is a small four-centred-arched moulded brick fireplace with a herringboned brick back-plate. The north-west bastion has a deeply-splayed west window or loop-light and a pointed-arched doorway to the east.

A break in the north wall occurs to the east of the bastion. The north end of the stone east wall of the west range remains, with the base of a hollow-chamfered brick window and a four-centred arched hollow-chamfered stone doorway with broach stops. A chamfered stone plinth descends each side of this doorway. The east wall continues to the south at a height of about one metre, joining the east end of the west gateway. The west end of the north curtain wall no longer exists. The wall resumes to the west of the central north tower and continues, at varied height, to the north-east bastion.

The north tower has three low storeys marked by ledges in the wall showing floor levels. Loop lights open to the north, east and west of each floor, with a larger opening to the south. A garderobe shute runs within the east wall. A doorway to the south now has brick jambs.

The castle had a licence to crenellate granted in 1343 to John de Kiriel. Sir Edward Poynings carried out extensive work before 1521. Sir Thomas Smythe undertook further work from 1585 to 1591, though little of his work remains. The castle was largely demolished in 1701 for building materials. The site is moated and designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument for its uninhabited parts.