Blaise Castle

Blaise Castle is a sham castle built in 1766, designed by Robert Mylne for Thomas Farr, and renovated in 1957. It is constructed from lias ashlar with limestone dressings and features a circular plan with three turrets in a Gothick style. The building has two storeys and a symmetrical front elevation that includes a central two-centred arched doorway beneath a large cross window adorned with Y-tracery and cinquefoil heads. Each turret has three windows with shallow arched cinquefoil heads set in rectangular frames. The castle is topped with a slightly overhanging crenellated parapet, and it includes blind cross arrow slits on both the ground and top floors, as well as pierced quatrefoils on the turrets and a shield above the door.

The interior was largely altered during the 1957 repairs after the castle had fallen into neglect, but it retains a winder stair in the right-hand turret. Historically, the three-tower design was popularized by Fort Belvedere at Shrub House in Windsor. Unlike many similar structures, Blaise Castle was habitable. In 1798, landscape designer Humphry Repton suggested raising one of the turrets to enhance the picturesque quality of its symmetrical outline.