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Hornby Castle is a
country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
, developed from a medieval
castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
, standing to the east of the village of
Hornby Hornby may refer to: Places In England * Hornby, Lancashire * Hornby, Hambleton, village in North Yorkshire * Hornby, Richmondshire, village in North Yorkshire Elsewhere * Hornby, Ontario, community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canad ...
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 ...
, Lancashire, England. It occupies a position overlooking the village in a curve of the River Wenning. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.


History

It is thought that the castle was originally built for the Neville family in the 13th century; this is the most likely date of the base of the tower at the back of the castle. In 1285,
Margaret de Neville Margaret de Neville, also Margaret de Longvillers and domina Margareta de Nevill (c. 1252 – February 1318/1319) was an English landowner in Yorkshire and Lancashire during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Her inheritance helped to consol ...
was the owner and "had writ for livery" at Hornby Castle. The polygonal tower rising from this base dates from the 16th century, and was probably built for Sir Edward Stanley, 1st Baron Monteagle. His son, the second Baron Monteagle, took part in suppressing the Rising of the North in 1536. The third Baron Monteagle sold off a lot of the land and on his death in 1581 was succeeded by an only daughter, Elizabeth, who married Edward Parker, 12th Baron Morley. Their son William was made the fourth Baron Monteagle and became famous as the peer who was forewarned about the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. His son Henry was a zealous Royalist at the start of the Civil War and his estates were afterwards declared forfeit and sold. During the war itself, the castle was captured by Colonel Assheton in 1643 and occupied in 1648 by the Duke of Hamilton and his Scottish army. Although the castle was afterwards recovered by the family, Henry's son Thomas was forced by straitened financial circumstances to sell the castle to Robert Brudenell, 2nd Earl of Cardigan in 1663. Brudenell's grandson sold it in 1713 to the infamous Colonel Charteris. His daughter Janet married
James Wemyss, 5th Earl of Wemyss James Wemyss, 5th Earl of Wemyss (30 August 169921 March 1756) was the son of David Wemyss, 4th Earl of Wemyss. On 17 September 1720, he married Janet Charteris, heiress of the great Colonel Francis Charteris, and they had four children: * Dav ...
and gave the castle to their second son Francis (who took the surname of Charteris) and remodelled the castle in about 1720. In 1789, Charteris sold Hornby to John Marsden, known as "Silly Marsden", of
Wennington Hall Wennington Hall is a former country house in Wennington, a village in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. The house is a Grade II listed building and was occupied by Wennington Hall School until 31st of August 2022, the ...
, who was under the control of his aunt and her husband, the ambitious George Wright. Marsden sold Wennington to pay for Hornby. After a long legal battle over Marsden's will (he had died in 1826), Admiral Sandford Tatham regained control of the property in 1838 from George Wright's family. He died in 1840, leaving it to his nephew Pudsey Dawson the younger,
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 Lanca ...
for 1845. Dawson commissioned the Lancaster architects Sharpe and Paley to rebuild much of the structure; this was carried out between 1847 and 1850. The architects retained the older parts, including the polygonal tower, but demolished or remodelled the section constructed for Charteris. This included rebuilding the front of the castle, adding wings and a
portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
, and replacing the round tower with a square one. The cost was at least £1,300 (). In 1859, the castle was inherited by Pudsey's nephew, Richard Pudsey Dawson, who sold it to John Foster, a Bradford mill owner. Under his ownership, the successors in the architectural practice,
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 ...
, made additions in 1879–82 on the west side of the building, and further alterations were made in 1890 by W. and R. Mawson of
Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
. The castle then descended via his son William Foster (1821–1884) to William's son Colonel William Henry Foster, High Sheriff for 1891 and MP for Lancaster from 1895 to 1900. In the middle of the 20th century, some of the rooms in the east parts of the house were removed to create a courtyard. At the same time, the main internal staircase was removed.


Architecture


Exterior

The house is constructed in sandstone rubble and it has
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
roofs. Its architectural style is Perpendicular. The plan is irregular. The building is mainly in two storeys, and much of it has a battlemented parapet. The entrance front faces southwest and is almost symmetrical, with seven
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
. The lateral bays project forward, as does the central three-storey porch. All the windows are mullioned, or mullioned and transomed. The lateral bays have bay windows, the upper floors of which are
canted Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to: Language * Cant (language), a secret language * Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers * Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers * Shelta or the Cant, a lan ...
. The left bay has an additional pair of windows above the bay window. On each side of the porch are two bays containing varying types of windows. The porch has an octagonal
turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...
on the left and a diagonal buttress on the right. In the middle storey is an
oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...
, above which is a three-light window. Behind the porch, and slightly off-set to the left, is a square tower, and to its left is the taller, narrower, polygonal tower. The windows in the square tower include a partly blocked Venetian window. The courtyard created in the 20th century is behind the three right bays.


Interior

The porch has a vaulted ceiling with foliated bosses. The hall is entered through a
Tudor arch A four-centered arch is a low, wide type of arch with a pointed apex. Its structure is achieved by drafting two arcs which rise steeply from each springing point on a small radius, and then turning into two arches with a wide radius and much lower ...
containing a
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
-style glazed timber screen. The hall contains a sandstone fireplace with a Tudor arch. Its windows contain stained glass dating from the late 19th century and moved here in the 20th century. To the left of the hall is the Library containing woodwork said to be by Gillows. The upper floor includes a billiard room with Gothic decoration. Also on the upper floor is a drawing room with a
barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
and pendents.


External features

To the northeast of the main building is the earlier courtyard, now surrounded by apartments. It is entered by a gatehouse with a pointed arch. On the southwest and southeast sides of the house is a terrace with sandstone walls dating from the 19th century. Three flights of steps lead down from the terrace, and at the north end is a small semicircular building acting as a
bastion A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...
. The walls are listed at Grade II. At the entrance to the drive formerly leading to the castle is a lodge and gate
piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
. The lodge has a canted front, a steep slated roof, and an embattled turret. The gate piers are carved with roundels containing
green men The Green Man is a legendary being primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of new growth that occurs every spring. The Green Man is most commonly depicted in a sculpture, or other representation of a face which is ...
and the
crest Crest or CREST may refer to: Buildings *The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York *"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York *Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...
of Pudsey Dawson. The lodge, gate piers and adjoining wall are also listed at Grade II.


Present day

Hornby Castle is privately owned. The gardens are opened for special events on advertised dates.


See also

*
Grade I listed buildings in Lancashire This is a list of Grade I listed buildings in Lancashire, England. In the United Kingdom, the term "listed building" refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural signifi ...
*
Listed buildings in Hornby-with-Farleton Hornby-with-Farleton is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish in City of Lancaster, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. It contains 37 Listed building#England and Wales, listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England ...


References


External links


Hornby Castle Official Website
{{City of Lancaster buildings Castles in Lancashire Country houses in Lancashire Grade I listed buildings in Lancashire Grade I listed houses English Gothic architecture in Lancashire Gothic Revival architecture in Lancashire Sharpe and Paley buildings Paley, Austin and Paley buildings Buildings and structures in the City of Lancaster