Castle Ashby

A grand Elizabethan and Jacobean country house, built and extensively remodeled between 1574 and the 19th century

Castle Ashby was begun in 1574 for Henry, 1st Lord Compton, and completed around 1600 for his son William, 2nd Lord Compton and 1st Earl of Northampton (created 1618). Between 1624 and 1635, the house underwent major remodeling, including construction of the celebrated south screen and the raising and enlargement of the east and west ranges. The hall range was doubled in depth, with other additions and alterations made in the early 18th century. The west range was partly remodeled and further work carried out in 1748. The hall was rebuilt in 1771–72 following the collapse of its roof, then extensively renovated between 1797 and 1807. The Long Gallery and Chapel were remodeled by T.G. Jackson around 1880. The hall was rebuilt again by Fairfax Wade in 1884 after a second roof collapse, with various 20th-century alterations following.

The house is constructed of coursed squared limestone and limestone ashlar with lead roofs and stone internal stacks. Originally U-shaped in plan, it forms a courtyard house.

The South Front and Screen

The entrance front to the south consists of a magnificent two-storey, nine-window screen flanked by three-storey wings. The screen has a pedimented central bay with a wide segmental-arched doorway and a Venetian window to the first floor above, both flanked by round-headed niches. A bearded head decorates the keyblock of the doorway. The screen is articulated by superimposed classical orders: a Tuscan order to the ground floor with three bands of vermiculated rustication, and an unfluted Ionic order to the first floor. Vermiculated rustication appears on alternate blocks of the doorway.

The Tuscan order carries an entablature with triglyphs and metopes bearing three Compton family crests on either side of the doorway: a demi-dragon, a wyvern holding a sheaf of corn, and a beacon with a scroll reading NISI DOMINUS. Other metopes display martial trophies. The center breaks forward slightly and has attached columns framing the doorway, window, and niches. Pilasters articulate the rest of the screen, whose end bays also break forward with paired pilasters to the inner angles. Raised blank panels appear on the ground floor, while 12-pane sash windows with molded and eared stone surrounds light the ground floor of the end bays and the first floor throughout. The pediment bears a large cartouche of arms and is set against a plain, solid stone-coped parapet. Lettered parapets on either side read DOMINUS CUSTODIAT INTROITUM TUUM.

Facing the courtyard, the screen has seven bays with similar articulation, round-arched arcading to the ground floor on either side of center, attached columns throughout, and a lettered parapet reading DOMINUS CUSTODIAT EXITUM TUUM. Against the end bays rise five-storey octagonal stair turrets attached to the wings flanking the screen. These turrets are of coursed squared limestone except for the top storeys, which are of ashlar and form belvederes with windows to all sides, now mostly blocked inside. They have stone cross windows and lettered parapets bearing the family motto and dates 1624 (southeast turret) and 1635 (southwest turret). Tudor-arched doors open to the court; the door to the southwest turret has arms in the spandrels of the 1st Lord Compton and his wife Frances Hastings, who died in 1574.

The front ends of the wings flanking the screen are symmetrical, each of two bays with four-light stone mullion and transom windows innermost and similar three-light windows outermost. The inner first-floor windows are set in superimposed oriels, with the second-floor oriel projecting slightly further. The first-floor oriels are supported by consoles at either end and center, with carved consoles and gadrooning in between on the southwest oriel only, and arcaded fluting to the base of the second-floor oriels. Lettered parapets carry a Latin text adapted from Psalm 127, verse 1, with the lines reversed: NISI DOMINUS CUSTOS CUSTODIVERIT DOMUM FRUSTRA VIGILAT QUI CUSTODIT EAM NISI DOMINUS AEDIFICAVERIT DOMUM IN VANUM LABORAVERUNT QUI AEDIFICANT EAM. Beginning over the south front of the west wing with Nisi Dominus, the text continues around the inner sides of the courtyard, with in varum appearing above the front end of the east wing and ending over the east front where the east range meets the north range, dated 1624. The section over the hall is dated 1771.

The East Front

The east front, facing the garden, has an irregular composition with baby windows at either end. The left end bay features a large Venetian window to the chapel with blocking to the head of the central round-arched light, which is flanked by blank raised panels. Similar panels appear below the lights of the four-light stone mullion window above. The right end section has a pair of two-storey canted bay windows with mullion and transom windows flanking a stone cross window to the ground floor and a three-light stone mullion and transom window to the first floor.

Between these sections stands a three-storey, ten-window range with a former open loggia to the ground floor, featuring round-headed arches divided by pairs of diamond-banded pilasters flanking narrow niches. Similar niches appear on the first and second floors between pairs of sash windows with molded stone surrounds. Raised blank panels sit below the niches and second-floor windows. The loggia was enclosed in 1691. Rainwater heads dated 1748 flank the chapel bay. Mid-19th-century terracotta cherubs by Blashfield (1868) occupy the niches, representing the months. The lettered parapets of the right end bay windows read SALUS EST IN DOMINO. A Latin text from Psalm 128, verse 1, begins above the right end bay and continues over the north front: BEATI OMNES QUI TIMENT DOMINUM QUI AMBULANT IN VIIS EJUS, continuing LAUDATE NOMEN DOM. to wrap around the corner over one end of the west range, ending INI AMEN 1827.

The North Front

The north front comprises two storeys, a basement, and an attic, with a ten-window range of roughly symmetrical composition. A central door with molded stone surround is approached by a flight of steps. Above it, segmental-arched windows with stone mullions and transoms and molded stone surrounds light the first and second floors. The central bay is flanked by plain giant pilasters. Two bays of cross windows with molded stone surrounds and segmental-arched heads stand on either side, followed by full-height canted bay windows with stone mullion and transom windows. To the far left is a six-light window to the first floor with stone mullions and transoms and a king mullion; pairs of cross windows appear to the far right. Two-light stone-mullioned basement windows and horizontal oval attic windows with molded stone surrounds complete the elevation. A plain giant pilaster marks the right angle only. Rainwater heads at the inner angles of the bay windows are dated 1721, with two more to the left end dated 1772.

The West Range

The three-storey, ten-window west range faces the back court and has six-panel doors left and right of center, with molded stone surrounds—the left door with a fanlight, the right with an overlight. Leaded cross windows with molded stone surrounds are stepped in pairs to the left of center where they light the west staircase, with a pair of two-light stone mullion windows above with similar surrounds. Early 18th-century single-storey screen walls come forward and curve outwards to frame the central seven bays, with service rooms behind. A plain stone-coped parapet caps the seven-bay center, with taller lettered parapets to the two bays at either end. The parapet to the right reads FICANT EAH and does not relate to anything else, possibly being part of an earlier inscription. The side facing the inner courtyard has unusual second-floor stone cross windows with shouldered heads.

Interior

Stone rib-vaulted undercrofts survive below the hall and the former stone parlor, the latter rebuilt at a lower level around 1920. Large carved wood chimneypieces from Northampton House, Canonbury, are found in the hall (dated 1599) and King William's Room (dated 1601), the latter with terms supporting a two-tiered overmantel, cartouches of arms, and allegorical figures in niches. Plasterwork ceilings dating to around 1625–30 in King William's Room feature strapwork and cartouches of arms; a similar ceiling appears in the Old Library.

The west staircase dates from around the same period and is an open-well serving all storeys, with fine carved wood openwork panels to the balustrade and carved stone doorcases to the landings. Lady Margaret's Bower is a small room decorated by the 2nd Earl, who succeeded in 1630 and was killed at the Battle of Hopton Heath in 1643. His arms impaling those of his wife decorate the painted wood corner chimneypiece. Painted wood paneling features large round-arched panels with small landscape panels above, each inscribed with a sign of the Zodiac. A recess for a day-bed and plaster ceilings with strapwork complete the scheme. The painted decoration is attributed to Matthew Sooderick by E. Croft-Murray.

The east staircase dates to around 1666 and is an open-well with openwork acanthus panels to the balustrade. Carved wood drops to overmantels of the state rooms are in the style of Grinling Gibbons. Mid-18th-century plaster cornices appear in the first-floor rooms of the west range. Neo-classical plasterwork roundels decorate the former Sculpture Room. The End Drawing Room was remodeled around 1807, possibly by C.H. Tatham. The Chinese Bedroom was created around 1871 by E.H. Godwin using late 18th-century Chinese wallpaper, with dark green lacquered woodwork and a ceramic fireplace with Chinese fish, probably by Minton. A dressing room is en-suite. The chapel was remodeled by T.G. Jackson with woodwork inspired by an original chapel pew, though it has since been converted to a bedroom.

Attribution and Architects

The south screen is attributed by Colen Campbell to Inigo Jones, but some surviving evidence suggests that the architect was Edward Carter. Mr. Johnston, who supervised the rebuilding of the hall range in 1771–72 according to accounts, may be John Johnson of Leicester. The Mr. Tatham mentioned in Lady Northampton's letter of September 1806 as in charge of work to be carried out in the east range is probably C.H. Tatham.