The Castle

Details

TL 1075
22/69

LEIGHTON BROMSWOLD,
CHURCH LANE (North-east side),
The Castle

21.7.51

GV II*

House, formerly a vicarage and originally a gatehouse. 1616 by Sir Gervaise
Clifton to designs by John Thorpe (Soane Museum). Altered as a dwelling mid
C17 and later perhaps c.1700, with modifications and additions c.1904 by the
Church Commissioners, reusing material from Stow Longa Manor House,
Cambridgeshire. Walls of red brick coursed in English bond with stone
dressings; plain tiled roofs and leaded flats with internal chimney stacks.
Original gatehouse plan a rectangular block with central carriageway flanked
by two rooms with chambers above, and four square towers at each angle of
three storeys; C17 alterations include the blocking of the archway, the
enlargement of the flanking rooms (foundations of original walls discovered in
1904) with baking oven and hearth built to north-east, since demolished. A
porch added to south-west elevation in 1904, and service rooms to the
north-west. South-west elevation: Blocked round arch to carriageay with
faceted key block and moulded imposts flanked by Doric columns on pedestals
supporting an entablature with triglyphs and rosettes on the frieze, enriched
pilasters above capped by ball finials with a stone balustrade between, and
with either missing balusters or stone crests (VCH). Enlarged inserted first
floor mullioned windows, the central ovolo mullioned window c.1904. Towers
with stone quoins to the first floor and moulded plinth and string courses at
each floor level. Ground and first floor windows with hollow-chamfered
mullions and transomes, and similar second floor windows without transomes;
pyramidal roofs perhaps originally with weather-vane finials. North-west
elevation: Similar to south-west without balustrade and with inserted bow
window into blocked carriageway, (a stone cill of a former C17 window lies
nearby). Interior: Altered in 1904 by the insertion of chimney stacks and
stone chimney pieces, stone door heads, and rebuilt oak staircase from Stow
Longa Manor House. A finely carved beam inserted above the bow window is said
to have come from the building (possibly from the projecting south-east bay
when raised in 1904 to two storeys). At first floor a number of c.1700
two-panelled doors with original hinges. The gatehouse was part of an
original plan to build a large house within the rectangular moated site to the
north-east, whether this was achieved or not is uncertain. The plans for both
the house and the gatehouse by John Thorpe survive. It is possible that the
gatehouse was converted to a dwelling shortly after the death of Sir Gervaise
Clifton.

RCHM Huntingdonshire p130
VCH Huntingdonshire p86
Pevsner Buildings of England p282
Thomas Norton's map 1660 RO
John Thorpe Collection: Soane Museum


Listing NGR: TL1166875210

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

54788

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Inventory of Huntingdonshire, (1926), 130
Page, W, Proby, G, The Victoria History of the County of Huntingdon, (1936), 86
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough, (1968), 282

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 5 Cambridgeshire,

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