Watermouth Castle, Including Front Retaining Wall And Rear Courtyard Walls

Watermouth Castle is a country house built to resemble a castle, constructed in 1825–26 with interior completion and alterations to the north front undertaken in 1845 by architect George Wightwick. Later alterations were made in the 19th and 20th centuries, though earlier concealed foundations survive in the cellars. The building is rendered in unrendered stone rubble with ashlar dressings, and features embattled parapets that conceal the roof, along with tall stacks topped with crenellated caps.

The design is organised around a large, impressive entrance stairhall that runs axially through the length of the north-west facing range. This range comprises four bays flanked by projecting turrets, with the left-hand turret embellished by an additional smaller polygonal turret at its outer angle. The entrance stairhall divides three rooms in parallel to the front and rear, terminating in entrance doorways at each end, with the north-east side treated as the principal entrance front. Projecting square turrets with small polygonal turrets at their inner angles flank the entrance doorway. To the left, and only a single room deep, stands a three-bay range with a narrow central bay breaking forward to form a clock turret and incorporating a postern doorway. This range terminates at its left end in a projecting square turret. To the rear, a parallel range forms an overall three-sided rear courtyard plan. Originally, this rear courtyard was entirely enclosed, but the range on the south-east side, including the square turret at the corner with the parallel rear range, was probably demolished in the late 19th century. Turreted curtain walls at the right end of the north-west range form an additional courtyard incorporating a main carriage entrance archway and are carried round as buttressed front retaining walls to the castle promontory.

The castle is executed in castellated Gothic style and comprises two storeys with cellars. All fenestration to the two principal fronts features four-centred arched lights with hoodmoulds and returned ends. The two turrets flanking the main porch to the principal entrance front have three-light windows on each floor and single-light windows to the polygonal turrets at the inner angles, with stone crests above. The central entrance four-centred archway, built out in line with the turrets, features a heavily moulded surround with quatrefoil and mouchette decoration to the spandrels and flanking gargoyles to the hoodmould. A stone balustrade above is pierced with long-lobed quatrefoils. The main door comprises two leaves with Y-bar ribbing. In the recess above the porch is a three-light transomed window with Y-glazing bars, the hoodmould carried up over two quatrefoil stone insets, with a large stone heraldic crest above. To the left, two-light windows on each floor flank the projecting clock turret, which features a clock face over a single-light window and a central quatrefoil clasping a shield over a four-centred arched doorway with moulded surround and studded door reached by a flight of stone steps. At the left end, the projecting square turret has a three-light window over a canted bay window of three lights with single sidelights and a stone parapet pierced by long-lobed quatrefoils.

The north-west façade comprises a four-window range of two-light windows, with ground floor windows transomed except the second bay from the left, which features a canted bay window of three lights with single sidelights and a stone parapet pierced with quatrefoils. The left-hand turret has a single-light window on each floor, the ground floor transomed, and the right-hand turret has a stone crest above a two-light window over a transomed three-light window. The opposing rear entrance features a moulded four-centred arch with crest and stepped gable above. The main carriage entrance incorporated in the rear courtyard walls, which have polygonal corner turrets, has a four-centred arch with quatrefoil decoration to the spandrels and heavy studded doors with portcullis grille above. Over the archway is an heraldic stone panel over a lozenge-shaped stone crest flanked by quatrefoils.

The interior retains its 19th-century Gothic decoration, most notably in the impressive entrance hall with grand staircase to the rear. The hall features a trabeated ceiling with carved bosses at the intersections of the moulded beams, dado panelling, a Devon marble fireplace and fire basket, and doorcases with crenellations over the panelled cornices and engaged colonnettes flanking four-centred arched doorways. The central staircase at the rear breaks into two flights and features heavy fluted balusters and massive carved newels. The staircase is screened from the rest of the hall by a three-bay open-traceried screen, the side bays comprising six trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoil traceried heads. The screen supports a minstrels gallery with fluted balusters and crenellated top rails. The balconies to each side feature four-centred arches and balustrades with slender balusters and crenellated hand rails.

The principal room to the left of the hall has an ornate geometrical plaster ceiling with acanthus-leaf decoration to the cornice, chinoiserie-style dado panelling, a chimneypiece with enriched marble festoon to the mantel, and original doors and doorcases. The principal room to the right has a trabeated ceiling with bosses at the intersections, while the adjoining room features an elaborate plaster ceiling composed of an oval band of oak leaves with inner and outer shaped ribs and crests at the four corners.

Watermouth Castle was built by the Basset family and remained in the occupation of their descendants until 1946.