Boarstall Tower

Details

SP 61 SW
5/3

BOARSTALL
MAIN ROAD
Boarstall Tower

GV

I

25.10.51

House, once the fortified gatehouse to a house that was demolished late
C18. Early C14, for John de Handle who was given licence to crenellate
in 1312. Altered late C16-C17. C20 repairs and internal modifications.
Coursed rubble stone with ashlar dressings, the N. front with bands of
ashlar. Lead roof. Rectangular building with hexagonal corner towers,
the rear towers a little taller and containing stone spiral staircases.
3 storeys, the tall top storey with single large room, the lower storeys
with one bay to either side of central archway. Towers have carved stone
gargoyles, battlemented parapets with C17 copings, and C14 slit windows,
those to N. towers cross-shaped, 2 in S.E. tower with trefoil heads. Other
irregular C16-C17 windows as in centre block, S. towers have C16-C17
windows as in centre block. S. towers have C16-C17 doorways with chamfered
depressed arches and Tudor hoodmoulds. Centre block, except on S. front,
has C17 balustraded stone parapets, that to N. with carved frieze below,
those to sides canted out over bay windows. Single octagonal stone
chimney shafts flanking centre bay are also C17. C16-C17 moulded stone
mullion windows, all with leaded lights. N. front has 2-light windows
to ground floor and single lights to first floor, the small central light
with the sill grooved, possibly by a portcullis chain; central C14
depressed archway of 2 chamfered orders with C17 doors, the doors
reversed with moulded panels to inner face. This archway has flanking
C17 stone buttresses which rise in a semi-circular arch to support a
2nd floor rectangular bay window of 3 lights. Rear also has C14 arch with
flanking single lights, 2-light windows to first floor and 2 cross windows
to upper storey. Canted bay windows to sides have moulded corbel bases and
transomed upper windows. Single storey range attached to right, of rubble
stone and brick, has been much altered C20 but incorporates older building
with angled rear corners and chamfered ashlar jambs. Interior: central
through passage has been incorporated into a room with the removal of the
left side wall. Ground floor room to right has altered fireplace with
shallow late C17 stone arch. Upper floors retain C14 2-centred chamfered
arches to towers, that from large room to S.E. tower being of oak. First
floor rooms still have old doors. Fine upper room has late C16 stone
fireplace with moulded 4-centred arch and stopped jambs, and heraldic glass
of 1692 in N. window. Some traces of medieval drawing on rear wall of
ground floor. Consecration cross and C17 clock in S.W. tower.
Infront of the Tower, and attached to it is a bridge of 1736, with 2 brick
arches over the moat. House is now owned by The National Trust.
RCHM I p. 57-59 Mon. 4.
National Trust Guide, by Dr. S. Hall, 1979.


Listing NGR: SP6242514245

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

42384

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hall, S, National Trust Guide to Boarstall Tower, (1979)

Other
An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Buckinghamshire Volume One South, (1912)

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