Castle Tor

Castle Tor

Castle Tor is a house built between 1928 and 1934, designed by Fred Harrild FRIBA, with later extensions. It is situated on steep, sloping land overlooking the sea in Torquay, on land that was formerly part of Lord Holdon's estate and was purchased in the 1920s by Horace Pickersgill, the son of a Leeds bookmaker. The house was constructed by local builder William Amos Deakin.

The house is built of traditional materials with rendered mass wall construction, a slate roof, and rendered chimney stack. Some slate-hanging appears on the gables and walls. The majority of windows have been replaced with uPVC in the late 20th century, though some original windows with leaded-lights survive.

The plan is irregular, with principal rooms on the south-east overlooking the garden and sea views, service rooms to the rear, and an entrance hall with staircase to the south-west. An elaborate flight of stone stairs with arches leads to an enclosed entrance courtyard on the west side.

Externally, the two-storey house is asymmetrical. A later 20th-century single-storey extension with large windows and a hipped slate roof occupies much of the ground floor, supporting an extensive sun-terrace with wrought iron balustrading. Above, the original slate-hung gables of the cross wings survive. The south-east cross wing retains its wrought iron balcony above an infilled loggia, with rusticated stone piers. The south-east courtyard elevation is little altered.

To the south, a projecting two-storey porch has a hipped roof and ashlar details to the openings, including a Gibbs surround and a moulded drip hood to the entrance. The panelled door is set in a Tudor arch. A central stained-glass staircase window features a Tudor-rose motif. A number of smaller lancet and single-light windows retain original geometric leaded-lights.

To the north, a narrow cross-wing projects in tower-like fashion with a hipped roof and deep overhanging eaves. It has a series of small single-light mullioned windows wrapping around its three projecting sides just below the eaves.

The east elevation has a large canted-bay window with a steeply pitched slate-hung gable-end and timber mullioned windows with square leaded-lights. To the north of the porch the building steps back with timber mullioned windows and fish-scale slate-hung walls. The rear elevation is terraced into steeply rising ground.

The interior retains notable features including good quality joinery, a dog-leg staircase with twisted balusters, and a stained-glass staircase window. Fine burr-wood doors with crystal handles survive, as do some timber windows with leaded-lights. Much interior plasterwork remains with intricate cornicing and panelling in the principal rooms, though alterations have been made throughout, particularly to the former service quarters. An upstairs bathroom retains mosaic decoration.

Fred Harrild was a former pupil of Sir Edwin Lutyens, articled in 1907, and became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Based for a period in Totnes, he exhibited a number of designs for houses and a garden in Torquay at the Royal Academy between 1929 and 1933. He is acknowledged as a leading practitioner of the late Arts and Crafts movement in Devon. A watercolour of the gardens by Cyril Farey was shown at the 1933 Royal Academy exhibition.

Changes were made to the house around 1980 and in 1998.

Castle Tor sits within a Registered Landscape (Grade II) also designed by Harrild, which contains a number of separately listed buildings and structures.