St Donats Castle (United World College of the (Atlantic), including entrance Bridge

This exceptional medieval castle is built of local limestone rubble with Sutton stone and sandstone dressings, very carefully matched across its different periods of construction. The south wall of Bradenstoke Hall, for instance, incorporates medieval and 1920s walling as well as introduced medieval features. The roofs are largely hidden behind parapets when viewed from outside, except for Bradenstoke Hall which has a stone slate roof. The ranges around the Inner Courtyard have Welsh slate roofs, with much lead on the flat tower roofs.

The castle has concentric Outer and Inner Curtain walls, though part of the Inner Curtain is masked or lost amongst later buildings. Medieval structures include the Outer Gatehouse and Inner Gatehouse with Mansell Tower. The main apartment ranges and Hall surround the Inner Courtyard. The Outer Courtyard and Outer Curtain were altered in the early 20th century by three major additions: the Lady Anne Tower, the Dining Hall, and the Bradenstoke Hall.

The Outer Curtain and Approach

The castle is surrounded by a partly filled-in ditch on the north and east, and by a precipitous slope on the west. The castellated outer curtain walls have a corbel table and loops, built in mainly straight sections with corners of wide angle.

The entrance Bridge crosses the dry ditch. Built of stone, it carries a paved roadway flanked by castellated parapet walls and reaches the Outer Gatehouse. The gatehouse has a portcullis in its double-chamfered central arch, an inset coat of arms below the murder chute with two flanking and widely spaced lancet windows. Its castellated parapet has an arrow loop in the large central castellation. A taller corbelled lookout stands on the right return and another on the left return with a smaller and taller turret, the latter without corbels.

Proceeding clockwise from the Bridge, the first break in the faceted wall occurs at the east corner of Bradenstoke Hall, which broke through and incorporated the medieval wall. The Hall's wall has four 2-light windows brought from the Abbot's Lodging of Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire in 1929. These 14th-century Decorated windows have cusped lights with a quatrefoil above, with one at each end and a pair in the centre. Only the heads are medieval, as shown by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings poster put up as a protest on the London Underground at the time of demolition. The poster shows only three windows, so the fourth may be replica or come from the other side of the building. These windows replaced ones previously inserted into the medieval wall by Sir Thomas Garner, which lit Morgan Williams' Armoury. Above the windows is a continuous corbel table supporting a castellated parapet with arrow-loops, behind which rises the steeply pitched roof with a crow-stepped gable on the right.

At the west end of Bradenstoke Hall is a doorway with 4-centred head and, above it, a corbelled oriel with a 1 + 4 + 1 light transom window and stone tile roof. This lights Sir Edward Stradling V's Long Gallery. Above this is a 2-light Decorated style window with cusped head and quatrefoil. To the left are four small windows, one to each floor, lighting the stair tower.

Next comes the Lady Anne Tower, largely rebuilt to three storeys by Sir Thomas Garner for Morgan Williams in 1901–9, then enlarged and raised by a storey by Randolph Hearst in the late 1920s. Both the stonework and windows of the top floor suggest an addition, though very carefully matched. It has Tudor type windows with 4-centred head lights within a square head and dripmould on the ground and first floors—three and 4-light ones. The second floor windows have cusped heads of a more Perpendicular type, while the top (Allom) floor has cusped headed lights without dripmoulds, 2 + 2 + 2 facing south and 2 + 2 facing east, both with king mullions. The corbelled and castellated parapet has gargoyles and arrow-loops, with a taller turret behind. The west face is broader and has ranges of single and 2-light windows on each floor and a massive corbelled stack.

The curtain continues to the projecting Dining Hall, which has a small stair turret beside it. Built over a basement with two tall storeys, the Dining Hall is canted with 1 + 2 + 1 windows. These are large 2-light mullion-and-transom with quatrefoil heads to the Dining Hall and with sunk spandrel heads to the Library above. The basement storey is battered with small single light windows. On the north return there is a massive chimney stack for the Dining Hall, and behind rises the largely hidden but taller Gibbet Tower.

The curtain continues high on a steep bank to the North Tower, which is square with a strongly projecting top and parapet with murder holes. It then passes through the service yard with a 1920s doorway through to the North Court, and the final section of medieval wall is the north gable wall of the Medical Block. This has two 2-light windows on the ground floor, two arrow-loops above, and a crow-stepped gable with central arrow-loop—all these features likely early 20th century, although the Medical Block itself was built in the late 16th century. This building abuts directly onto the Outer Gatehouse.

The Outer Court

The Outer Court, once continuous between the Inner and Outer Curtains, is now in three parts due to the interruptions of the 16th-century Medical Block and Long Gallery and the 1920s Bradenstoke Hall and Dining Hall. The court is presumably on the line of the 12th-century ditch.

East Court

The East Court, entered through the Outer Gatehouse, stretches from the Medical Block to the Bradenstoke Hall. Beginning clockwise from the inner face of the Outer Gatehouse, the entrance arch has a double-chamfered 3-centred head with a quatrefoil above; there is a visible change in the stonework between the two features. Slit windows to the right light the stair to the Guardroom. This section rises higher to a guard turret.

Directly abutting the gate tower is the late 16th-century Brewhouse, which has three plain rectangular windows on the ground floor arranged 1 + 2 with a 4-centred arch doorway between. The upper floor has two gables each with a 2-light stone mullioned window and coped main gables. There is a stair to the wall-walk. The inner face of the Outer Curtain is plain, with wall-walk and castellations with arrow-loops above.

A secondary segmental arch with parapet and inset iron overthrow stands between the outer wall and the Mansell Tower. The outer wall continues to a break at the corner of Bradenstoke Hall where steps descend into the gardens. The Hall east gable has a 5-stepped-light window.

The South-east Tower next to it has an early 14th-century rendered face with lancets and arrow-loops; the castellated parapet is later. Then comes the Inner Gatehouse with adjacent Mansell Tower. The east face of the Inner Gatehouse has a plain 3-centred arch with a sandstone roundel with an indecipherable inscription probably added by Dr. Nicholl-Carne. This is set above the corbel table and between flanking loops with single light window with dripmould over.

Finally comes the early 16th-century Medical Block. This has two 3-light Tudor windows on the ground floor with, to the right, a single light one and a 4-centred doorway. Above are three 3-light windows as before.

Inner Courtyard

The Inner Courtyard buildings are mostly two storeys with attics of different construction dates. The buildings have stone walls of different heights, all with castellated parapets above corbel tables with the attic dormers hidden behind the parapets. The circuit proceeds clockwise from the entrance gate.

The west side of the Inner Gatehouse has a roundel with Berkerolles arms and an otherwise plain wall rising to a castellated parapet.

The west side of the Mansell Tower has a possibly 16th-century terracotta roundel of the Emperor Caligula (said to be a copy of the one at Hampton Court). This tower is three storeys with a battered base, and the base of the walls are now known to incorporate the remains of the 12th-century Keep, rising through the first floor on the west face. The ground floor has a plain 2-light window, above is a more elaborate Tudor one, then Caligula, and above him is a plain flat-headed 2-light window and finally the castellated parapet; the top features are 19th century. Surviving 12th-century features include dressed Sutton stone doorways, windows, arch responds and similar.

The South-east Block is of early 16th-century date and abuts onto the Great Hall; windows mostly renewed. It has 2-light mullioned windows to the ground floor, transomed and mullioned first floor windows—two 2-light and one 4-light—and the return with a smaller 3-light one. Above, behind the parapet, there are five idiosyncratic 3-light dormers which must also be by Garner, with a range of four stone stacks above.

The 15th-century Great Hall (or Stradling Hall) has the Stradling entrance at its east end. The Stradling entrance or porch has a probably original 4-centred doorway with restored 3-light oriel window over (re-instated by Atlantic College in the 1960s), lateral stone benches behind the entrance, and a moulded rear doorway to the Great Hall. There is an early 20th-century 4-light transomed window by Thomas Garner to the hall and, in the west projection, a restored 3-light Perpendicular window. To the west of the Great Hall, a higher corner bay has an early 20th-century 4-centred doorway on the ground floor and 4-light transomed window above.

The West Range dates from circa 1500 to 1525, but now only on this outer face as it was gutted, extended and rebuilt behind in the late 1920s to mid-1930s. It has three full-height rectangular bay windows, the northern one at least, together with other restoration work here, by G F Bodley. The windows all have 4-lights and two transoms; rainwater heads date to 1901. More dormers as before are hidden behind the parapet. Two terracotta roundels between the bay windows, probably by Giovanni de Maiano and said to be Marcus Aurelius and Cleopatra, are part of a set of twelve intended for Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court where the others still are. They have certainly been in-situ since 1804 and possibly from the 16th century. A small door in the north corner has single light windows above and the Gibbet Tower rising behind.

The western part of the North Range dates from circa 1500 to 1525, restored in the early 20th century with windows to the design of T Garner; rainwater heads of 1901. It has transomed and mullioned windows with dripstones, also single light windows, mostly restored or renewed—two of 3-lights to the ground floor and another above, with two 2-light ones to the left and a shorter 2-light one without transom to the right. In the centre is a 3-centred headed doorway with dripmould and roundel with Stradling arms above. More dormers are hidden behind the parapet, but these are of a plain 2-light gabled design and are probably from the 1930s. Two tall stone stacks stand in the centre.

The North-east Block joins the North Range to the Inner Gatehouse. This block incorporates the so-called Below Priest's Room which is of earlier date. It has three storeys with two single light windows with dripstones to each floor and a small 19th-century oriel window also to left hand on first floor, a doorway with large buttress to its left hand, and a 19th-century bellcote on roof. Stone steps rise against the east gable. The North-east Tower is behind, but can only be seen from the North Courtyard.

Interior

The interior contains many spaces and features which are very fine—some medieval, some 16th century, some introduced, and some replica. This is an extremely rich interior with a varied and fascinating history both in architectural terms and in changing social and aesthetic attitudes.

The Outer Gatehouse has a contemporary hooded fireplace of Sutton stone in the Guard Room.

The Mansell Tower is said to have Norman stone features including doorways and staircase, as well as early 14th-century features such as the first floor entry and a fine Hearst period fireplace.

The Great Hall has a 4-bay arch braced collar roof with triple tiers of curved windbraces each side, light collar purlin, and a gallery at the east end. This roof is very restored. Service arrangements survive at the east end. The fireplace is said to be the original Hall fireplace, but it was re-instated from elsewhere by Atlantic College in the 1960s.

Triple moulded arches lead through to a further room at the west end, the Gun Room, which has a large made-up French fireplace with immense lintel and cut-down hood. This area once held Morgan Williams' Armoury, designed by Bodley and Garner, but this was destroyed by Hearst.

The Bradenstoke Hall, built by Hearst and Allom between the Outer and Inner Curtains, contains an early 14th-century arch braced collar beam roof in seven bays brought from the Refectory at Bradenstoke Priory in Wiltshire. This has curved windbraces on the lower tier and upper collars which are also arch-braced, with a crown post against the west gable. Two very large and fine French fireplaces stand here, of which the east one functions and the west one is false and has a false hood done out as ashlar. This hood is flanked by two blind 2-light arched windows with cusped heads and quatrefoils. There is a fine 14th-century north-west door into the Hall.

The Lady Anne Tower has some rich fireplaces and ceilings.

The interior of the West Range was mostly gutted and remodelled in the late 1920s to circa 1935 for Randolph Hearst and was arranged with fittings from other historic buildings, both English and French, which were supplied by Sir Charles Allom's firm, White Allom Ltd.

A 15th-century stone screen with much carving from an unknown Devon church stands at the entrance to the Dining Hall, which has a magnificent ceiling from St. Botolph's Parish Church of Boston in Lincolnshire. This ceiling was found in-situ above a later plaster vault and sold to pay for the restoration of the church. It is a very flat rib vault with painted and gilded ribs and bosses. A fine French hooded fireplace with fleur-de-lys shield came from a chateau near Beauvais but had to have its hood cut down to fit in place.

The Breakfast Room, formerly part of the Morgan Williams Dining Room, has a fireplace from the Prior's Lodging at Bradenstoke Priory of circa 1514. The ceiling was also inserted by Hearst—a ribbed Gothic tierceron vault, also part of the vault from Boston parish church with medieval colouring.

The Library is on the upper floor above the Dining Hall, but was designed by Allom as Hearst's Armoury. The Library has a magnificent 15th-century style 8-bay arch braced collar roof with two tiers of curved windbraces with chamfered purlins, ridge-piece, collar purlin above the collars and curved queen struts, and a 15th-century fireplace. There is a gallery at the north end. A four arch screen leads through to the Inner Library, which has another introduced 15th-century fireplace.

Part of the North Range interior was remodelled as a new bedroom suite in the late 1920s to 1935. These are now known as the William Randolph Hearst Room and the Marion Davies Room and were the magnate's bedroom which inter-connected with his mistress's. Both are lined with late 17th-century panelling, which is supposed to have been re-positioned from within the castle's West Range. Hearst's room has an appropriately designed plaster ceiling with central circle; Davies' room has only a moulded cornice.