CAVERSWALL CASTLE

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DESCRIPTION

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House, built into the remains of a 13th century castle, granted a licence to crenellate in 1275. The remains comprise a roughly oblong enclosure with four polygonal angle towers, which, with the walls, do not stand to full height. A gatehouse on the east side leads on to a bridge across the moat. The house was built into the castle circa 1615 and was extended and altered circa 1890. The moat has been landscaped to form an ornamental feature.

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MORE INFORMATION & SOURCES

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SJ 95084281 Castle (NR) Moat (NR). (1)

There was a manor at Caverswall mentioned in Domesday, and Walter de Caverswall was bailiff during the reign of Henry I (1100-1135 AD) (2). Licence to crenellate was given in 1275. The castle is a roughly oblong enclosure with four polygonal angle towers which, with the walls, do not stand to full height. The towers were terminated by balustrading, c1615, when Matthew Cradock built a house into the castle. A fine building, high and even, three-storeyed and fully symmetrical. The top balustrade was replaced in the 19th century by crenellation (3).

It is not possible to say how much of the present dry moat belongs to the original castle. The moat was entirely sunk from the natural surface of the land and its sections have in recent years been moulded for the formation of the pleasure grounds (4).

Occupied by Missionary Sisters in 1951 (5). Published survey (1:2500) revised 1974 (6). Grade I (7). (2-7)

Listed by Cathcart King. (8)

Castle, later country house. C13 foundation to superstructure of circa 1615, enlarged, altered and refitted circa 1890. The work of 1615 has been attributed to Robert and John Smythson. Red sandstone ashlar; flat roofs largely invisible behind crenellated parapets with multishafted C19 side stacks; the gatehouse and angle towers have tiled roofs and balustraded parapets. Built in a castellar, supra-vernacular style with a foretaste of Bolsover and echoes of Longleat (and strangely reminiscent of Castle Drogo by Lutyens). House: the single-fronted house is a truncated rendition of the Slingsby plan and facade with symmetry upset by the lack of an eastern stair tower, the vacuum part filled by the additions of 1890 leading on to the gatehouse. Listed Grade I. (9)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" Prov 1922-38

( 2) The North Staffordshire Field Club transactions

(J D Johnstone) 84 - 1950 Page(s)121

( 3) Nikolaus Pevsner 1974 Staffordshire

The buildings of England 1974 Page(s)95

( 4) edited by William Page 1908 The Victoria history of the county of Stafford: volume one

The Victoria history of the counties of England 1908 Page(s)352-3

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 AC 09-AUG-51

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F2 DJC 03-DEC-74

( 7) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

DOE (HHR) Cheadle RD Staf Jan 1962 9

( 8) David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume II : Norfolk-Yorkshire and the islands

2 Page(s)449

(9) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

District of Staffordshire Moorlands, 08-Aug-1986

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