Midford Castle With Former Offices And Coach Houses

Midford Castle is a small country house dating to approximately 1775, originally commissioned for Henry Disney Roebuck and designed by John Carter. A porch was added around 1810 for the Conolly family. The house occupies a unique, almost triangular or trefoil plan, formed by three semi-circular towers joined together. A basement is surrounded on the north, east and west sides by offices and coach houses, which rise to create a terraced platform that corresponds to the ground floor level on the west side. The entire structure is executed in a Gothick style.

The house itself is three storeys high with a basement, and is topped by embattled parapets. The towers feature three windows each, while the linking sections have a single bay. Gothick glazing bar sash windows are present with pointed heads and under ogee hoodmoulds with finials. First-floor windows are square-headed sash windows with quatrefoil decorated blind boxes, and square hoodmoulds above. The east-facing (entrance) elevation incorporates tripartite windows on the first floor. The towers extend upwards, forming hollow semi-circular screen walls, pierced by quatrefoils within arched hoodmoulds resting on corbels.

A projecting porch on the east side, added about 1810, is flanked by embattled, octagonal turrets with blind cross-loop windows. The central entrance features gothic style panelled and glazed doors, an overlight, and a decorative traceried design, all set within a shallow arch and moulded hood supported by thin columns. A 20th-century entrance wing has been added to the north side.

The walls of the basement and offices are approximately 20 feet high, and are constructed from coursed squared rubble with freestone dressings and ashlar parapets pierced with quatrefoils. Pointed doorways and glazing bar sash windows are set within recessed arched surrounds.

On the interior, the east doorway has panelled and glazed Gothick style doors, an overlight, and an ogee and roll moulded surround. The central room on each floor is lozenge-shaped and the tower rooms have semi-circular ends. All rooms retain panelled doors within moulded architraves, arched window architraves, and fine free style plasterwork ceilings with enriched cornices. The plasterwork features sprays of bay and rose intertwined around branches, forming circular, lobed and star-shaped patterns; the first-floor north room has naturalistic birds depicted. A library contains two recessed niches with moulded architraves, Corinthian capitals, and pointed heads. The dining room features a neo-classical fireplace in an enriched surround, with a tablet depicting musical instruments centrally placed within the frieze, surmounted by an open pediment with an urn and set within a stucco archway with scrollwork enrichment. A matching sideboard arch is found on the opposite side of a door. A dog-leg staircase has a mahogany handrail supported by fluted newel columns.