Castle Hotel

Castle Hotel

A large Renaissance-style hotel comprising three distinct sections forming a long and asymmetrical front. The downhill left end contains a former public house of one bay and three storeys. The central section is a four-bay, three-storey building adapted from an earlier structure, aligned under the same roof line. At the uphill right end stands the higher section built in 1885, consisting of three storeys and an attic with three bays.

The front is faced in random small pieces of broken limestone to create a flint-like effect, with moulded brick dressings, bands and quoins, and stone detailing at the entrance feature. The roof is slate. The right-hand section features a mansard roof to the front slope with three stone chimney stacks and a brick stack to the left, plus two further stone stacks to the rear slope. The central and lower sections each have a brick stack on the left side.

The main entrance is located in the left-hand bay of the uphill section. It comprises a two-storey porch in ashlar red sandstone with engaged columns displaying strapwork above the bases and on the capitals. The doorway has an ovolo-moulded surround with a keyed round arch and recessed panel doors beneath a wood-framed radial fanlight. The cornice incorporates relief foliage above the keystone, and sculpted shield-bearing lions stand above the columns. The side walls contain round-headed openings. The first-floor mullioned window incorporates an oriel between outer single lights with flat ogee heads and corbelling decorated with a foliage frieze. The parapet features relief strapwork above the oriel and displays 'Castle Hotel' in raised letters above the outer lights.

All other main windows are set in moulded brick surrounds with flat ogee-headed lights and ovolo-moulded mullions and transoms, positioned beneath moulded cornices. Second-floor windows bear relief cresting incorporating fleur-de-lis. In the entrance bay is a three-light second-floor window beneath a Dutch gable with pinnacles. The second bay of the uphill section has a shallow full-height bay window, narrower at second-floor level, containing four-light mullioned and transomed windows to ground and first floors and a three-light second-floor window under a Dutch gable. Between ground and first floors runs a moulded brick strapwork panel incorporating mirrored letter C and borough seals. The right-hand bay displays a two-storey canted bay window with three-light mullioned and transomed windows, shorter at first-floor level, and a coped parapet with relief strapwork retaining one ball finial. The second floor contains a three-light window under a Dutch gable. Four flat roof dormers have small-pane windows.

The four-bay asymmetrical central section has window details similar to the upper section, with the bays differing in detail but all bearing two-light second-floor windows beneath the eaves. In its first bay at the downhill end is an elliptical passage arch in red sandstone ashlar. The first floor contains a cross window which, like the second-floor window above, has four-centred lights rather than the ogee heads found on other windows. The second bay features a two-storey canted bay window with four-light mullioned and transomed windows, shorter at first-floor level, with a parapet displaying strapwork and pointed ball finials. In the third bay is a ground-floor cross window beneath fleur-de-lis cresting and another cross window at first-floor level. The fourth bay contains a three-light mullioned and transomed canted bay window under a parapet with strapwork and ball finials, with a three-light mullioned and transomed window at first-floor level.

At the downhill end is a replacement twentieth-century commercial front to the lower storey, framed by pilasters with end brackets and moulded cornice. It comprises a glazed door on the right, a three-light window in the centre, and a former doorway on the left now converted to a window. Openings feature overlights and lights above the transom, a later arched fascia, and a panelled stallboard. At first-floor level is an oriel window with a two-light casement below the transom and wood-mullioned small-pane glazing above. The second-floor window has a freestone moulded sill with a four-light small-pane window incorporating a broader central wooden mullion with a bracket below a timber-framed gable decorated with flower petals in pargetting. The gable features barge boards and a finial.

The right gable end of the uphill section, facing the passage to the churchyard, is pebble-dashed and contains superimposed twelve-pane hornless sash windows lighting the stair. On the right, the ground floor has a tripartite hornless sash window with a two-pane sash window to its right. The first and second floors have twelve-pane sash windows to the right side; at first-floor level these are flanked by small two-pane sashes.

The rear elevation is more altered. The uphill section contains small-pane sash windows and replacement windows in earlier openings, with a large added small-pane dormer on the left side. Also on the left is a lower two-storey L-shaped rear wing of cream-painted roughcast with a three-window elevation facing a small courtyard. It has sash windows, a half-glazed escape door and stair, and a large stack in the angle. The gable end of the projecting section has double garage doors with strap hinges, one incorporating louvres. Its four-window rear wall faces the passage to the churchyard, constructed of rubble stone with a hipped roof to the angle. It contains a four-pane horned sash window and a further window with gauze and thick wooden mullion and transom. The upper storey has three twelve-pane horned sash windows in brick surrounds and a four-pane horned sash window on the right side.

The central section contains sash windows and replacement windows to the right and above an added two-and-a-half-storey gabled projection with modern detail. The wall is slate-hung above the passage at the downhill end. Inside the passage, which is cream-painted scribed roughcast, are replacement half-glazed doors.

The downhill section is constructed of rubble stone and is gabled, with an external stack of two phases of brickwork above a pebble-dashed lower section. It is flanked by four-pane sash windows and a replacement window in a brick surround. A one-and-a-half-storey wing has a twelve-pane hornless sash window in the gable beneath a concrete lintel and a lean-to below. The side wall has a boarded door, and the main gabled section contains sash windows.

The entrance vestibule features a decorative tile floor and panelled dado. Half-glazed doors framed by side lights and an overlight lead into the entrance hall. This space incorporates two fixed painted panels signed 'JDW 1891' in the style of Burne-Jones. The hall opens onto an axial corridor in the uphill section, at the upper end of which is a full-height open-well stair with plain balusters and wreathed handrail. On the first and second floors the uphill section has axial corridors with panel doors serving the rooms. Rooms in the central section are at a slightly lower level.