Castle Hill

Castle Hill

This is a substantial country house of squared rubble stone with a slated roof and brick end chimney stacks, of which the left one has been rebuilt and the right one removed around 1959.

The main block presents three storeys and five bays to the north front, with a plain parapet and raised plinth. The plinth features small circular basement openings on each side finished with brick voussoirs, the left one left blank. The centrepiece is a six-panel door with flush panels and plain overlight, flanked by equal-sized timber panels with quadrant-curved rebates to planted border moulding. The door opens onto a broad platform with four steps on each side, constructed of (possibly Grinshill) sandstone, which carries a broad timber pedimented porch, possibly of the early 19th century. The porch displays Greek revival detailing with triglyphs to the frieze, rosettes between dentils of the cornice, and a curved plastered roof within. The two Ionic columns and two Ionic half-column responds are 20th-century replacements; previously these were square piers, possibly not original. The windows throughout are later 19th-century horned sashes with stone voussoirs and stone sills.

On each side are two-storey wings at right angles, linked to the main house by narrow bays with parapets. The right-hand bay has a sash on each floor, while the left-hand bay has a sash above and a 20th-century window below, though this is obscured by a mid to later 20th-century stair extension added to the east side of the main block. The wings have simple pediments and ground-floor three-light Palladian windows. The right wing displays renewed eight-twelve-eight-pane sashes with radiating bars to the arched head of the centre light, stone voussoirs to the arch, and slab lintels to the side lights. The left wing has Bath stone piers to its triple window and plate-glass sashes, probably of around 1860. First-floor windows have been altered on both sides: to the right, a 20th-century pair of small-paned sashes; to the left, a 19th-century pair offset left with stone voussoirs and a later narrow window to the right, the head breaking into the pediment. A rainwater head at the corner bears a bulls-head crest (Loxdale).

The rear of the main house is roughcast with a parapet and rudimentary slate cornice on square corbels. A three-window range of sashes with stone sills runs across, with the centre ones set lower as stair lighting. The sashes are generally four-pane. A ground-floor small door is slightly offset with a 19th-century dripstone on plain consoles. On each side of this door are square bay windows, probably of around 1860; the left one features a broad French window of two plate-glass panes, while the right has a tripartite sash. One-bay narrow sections to left and right with parapets precede the return of the wings southward. The right wing has a sash on each floor; the left has a small window above and a blocked door with dripstone matching the centre door.

An iron trellis runs along the front with ornate cast-iron uprights and shallow-arched frontal pieces in six bays, supporting iron lattice work, with two bays returned along the side walls of the wings. Matching ironwork surrounds the first-floor left and right windows, and a similar pelmet sits over the centre first-floor stair window.

The wings are plain, with an external chimney at the end of the right (kitchen) wing and a coped gable with ball-finials to the left (former coach-house) wing, which formerly bore a lean-to conservatory. The west side of the south-west wing has been remodelled in the mid to later 20th century as a two-storey, three-bay house, though it was originally a coach-house.

An added wing to the east is a two-storey four-bay range of squared local stone with hipped roof and large sashes, except for the ground-floor third window which has a pair of sashes. The windows have cambered heads with stone voussoirs. The left window was altered to a door in the mid to late 20th century. At the east end, set back, stands a three-stage tower serving as a stair tower with an Italianate bell turret. The stair has a sash window to the ground-floor east side, a sash to the first-floor north and east sides, and an ashlar corbelled course beneath the inset bell turret, which is of belvedere type with a leaded pyramid roof over a pair of open narrow arches on each side. The arches have ashlar heads and raised imposts. The keystones on the south are carved with the Loxdale bulls-head crest. An iron weathervane with gilded cockerel crowns the turret, restored around 2002. The south side of the service block has a brick chimney on the roof slope, painted rubble stone walls with two paired sashes on each floor and a door in the angle at the extreme left, all with cambered stone heads. A lean-to addition adjoins the right end.

The east side of the south-east (kitchen) wing has a pair of sashes on each floor, probably of around 1860, with corbelled sills.

The building is not available for inspection. The National Monuments Record mentions a staircase with plain square balusters and spiral end to the rail, and a cellar beneath most of the early house.