Thurland Castle is a country house in Lancashire, England which has been converted into apartments. Surrounded by a moat, and located in parkland, it was originally a defensive structure, one of a number of castles in the

Lune Valley The River Lune (archaically sometimes Loyne) is a river in length in Cumbria and Lancashire, England. Etymology Several elucidations for the origin of the name ''Lune'' exist. Firstly, it may be that the name is Brittonic in genesis and deriv ...

. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Situated between the villages of Cantsfield and Tunstall the castle stands on a low mound on a flat plain, with the River Greta on the south side and the Cant beck to the north. A deep circular moat surrounds it.

History

The earliest existing fabric dates from the 14th century. In 1402 Sir Thomas Tunstall (d. 05 Nov 1415),Richardson, D. (2011). "Joan Mowbray," in Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd ed, pp. 254-255
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was licensed to

crenellate A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

the building."Membrane 23," (1402, October 23). Calendar of Patent Rolls. sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu. PD

/ref>Hartwell, C. & Pevsner, N., (2009). Lancashire: North, pp. 673. Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. . The castle passed through successive generations of the family and was eventually inherited by Tunstall's great-grandson, Sir Brian Tunstall, a knightly hero who died at the

Battle of Flodden The Battle of Flodden, Flodden Field, or occasionally Branxton, (Brainston Moor) was a battle fought on 9 September 1513 during the War of the League of Cambrai between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, resulting in an English ...

in 1513.Gastrell, F. (1850). Notitia Cestriensis, or Historic Notices of the Diocese of Chester, 3, pp. 491. Chetham Soc
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Sir Brian was a younger son of Thomas Tunstall III and the heir of his brother Thomas IV.Flower, W. (1881). "Tunstall," in The Visitation of Yorkshire in the Years 1563 and 1564. Charles Best Norcliffe, Ed. The Harleian Society, 16, pp. 327. London
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Dubbed the "Stainless Knight" by the king, he was immortalized in the poem '' Marmion - A Tale of Flodden Field'' by

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

. His son Marmaduke was

High Sheriff of Lancashire The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient officer, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales. The High Sheriff of Lanc ...

in 1544. The castle stayed in the family for two or three more generations until it was sold to John Girlington in 1605. It passed to his grandson Sir John Girlington, a Royalist major-general during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. Parliamentarian forces besieged the castle in 1643. The damage was described as "ruinous." Sir John's son, also John, was

for 1663. Work was done on the building to convert it to a country house in 1810 by

Jeffry Wyattville Sir Jeffry Wyatville (3 August 1766 – 18 February 1840) was an English architect and garden designer. Born Jeffry Wyatt into an established dynasty of architects, in 1824 he was allowed by King George IV to change his surname to Wyatvill ...

, and in 1826–29 by George Webster, but in 1876 it was gutted by fire.Brandwood, G., Austin, T., Hughes, J. & Price, J. (2012). The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin. Swindon: English Heritage, pp. 131, 231. . The owner, Mr North North, commissioned the Lancaster architects

Paley and Austin Sharpe, Paley and Austin are the surnames of architects who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1835 and 1946, working either alone or in partnership. The full names of the principals in their practice, which went under vario ...

to rebuild it, and what is now present is mainly their work. Work began in 1879, over 100 men were employed, and it was not completed until 1885. From 1885 until the early twentieth century, Thurland Castle was owned by the coal-mining Lees family, formerly of Clarksfield, near

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...

, Lancashire, from a junior branch of which came the writer

James Lees-Milne (George) James Henry Lees-Milne (6 August 1908 – 28 December 1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses, who worked for the National Trust from 1936 to 1973. He was an architectural historian, novelist and biographer. His extensi ...

. The house and stables have since been converted into several luxury apartments.

Architecture

The building is constructed in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

, with slate roofs. It consists mainly of two ranges on the north and west sides of a courtyard. Its architectural style is a mixture of Elizabethan Revival and Gothic Revival. It is approached by an arched bridge crossing the moat. Its windows are either

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed or mullioned and transomed, and there are two towers, one of which has two storeys, the other three. Many of the

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

s are embattled. Around the building are terraces with bastions.

References

{{City of Lancaster buildings Grade II* listed buildings in Lancashire Buildings and structures in the City of Lancaster Country houses in Lancashire Paley and Austin buildings Tudor Revival architecture Gothic Revival architecture in Lancashire

History

Architecture

See also

References