Clifton Castle

Clifton Castle is a country house built around 1800 by John Foss for Timothy Hutton. It is constructed of ashlar stone with a graduated stone slate roof. The main house features five bays and two storeys, while a service wing at the rear left has three storeys and eight bays. There is also a service wing at right angles to the rear right, which consists of four bays and three storeys. The one-storey wings form a courtyard with additional service wings at the back.

The main front of the house has a central three-bay section supported by four giant Ionic columns, which hold up a frieze and pediment. There is a plinth, and the central entrance features late 19th-century half-glazed doors with a fanlight, flanked by pilasters on plinths with friezes that support a segmental pediment. Side lights accompany the entrance. All windows are late 19th-century sashes, and there is a first-floor band. The heavy dentilled cornice has a plain parapet, with a coat of arms and flowing foliage on either side.

The left return of the house has a full-height central bow window with three bays. The right return features outer bays that break forward from a central first-floor bay, which has a large tripartite stair window. Below this window are three circular windows with radiating glazing bars, with original sashes except for two ground-floor bays on the right. The service wings have sashes with glazing bars and cornices. The four bays of the rear left wing are likely from the later 19th century.

The north one-storey wing of the courtyard has a central basket-headed arch with impost bands, a two-light window above, and a pyramidal roof. The outer bays of this wing feature mullion and transom windows with casements and sashes. Inside the courtyard, two sides have semicircular-headed arches, and all roofs are hipped with ridge stacks.

The interior of the house is completely original and features a restrained neo-classical style. An imperial staircase has a slender wrought-iron baluster decorated with acanthus leaves and starts behind a screen of columns. The tripartite stair window has Ionic columns, and the ceiling boasts fine plasterwork with a circular central motif and ribbons of natural motifs surrounded by garlands. There are also good neo-classical chimneypieces, cornices, and plasterwork in other rooms.