Description

KEIGHLEY SKIPTON ROAD
SE 04 SE (east side)
5/252 Keighley

Cliffe Castle (Museum)

GV II

Large house, now museum. 1875-8, top storey removed 1950s. By George Smith of
Bradford for a local manufacturer. Ashlar. High Victorian style. 2 storeys.
Windows are mullioned and transomed or single-light and have sashes and quoined
surrounds. Entrance front: 4-storey tower has in front of it a round-arched
embattled porte cochere with off-set angle buttresses and corbelled parapet, the
whole decorated with relief sculpture and tracery. Tower has decorated oriel
windows to 2nd floor, and is flanked by 2-storey bay windows. To far left is
conservatory with glass doors, bay window and parapet. Rear: to right tall,
single-storey, gabled music room projects, with canted end containing 3-light
Pointed-arch window with transoms and plate tracery under hoodmould with floreated
terminals which continues as stringcourse. Above window is shaped pediment with
traceried wheel-window under hoodmould. Coping. Dragon finial holding iron
weather-vane. Returns of music room have embattled parapets and, to right return,
lateral stacks. C20 gallery to left not of interest. Right return: 4 stepped
bays with 2-storeyed bay windows. Formerly gabled, but top storey removed.
Interior: porch has tesselleted floor, stained-glass windows and coffered ceiling
with painting and plasterwork. Entrance hall has moulded and panelled arches.
Ornamented staircase with iron and wood balusters, stained-glass window, painted
wood ceiling with hammerbeams and Gothic ornament. Octagonal stairwell has upper
gallery on octagonal piers, iron rail, and central lantern. Breakfast room and
conservatory to left of porch, the latter with pointed-arch arcades and iron ties
to glass roof. To right of porch is range of music-, drawing-, dining- and
drawing-rooms which retain original decor with Adam -style motifs, painted
ceilings, roundels, panelling and fireplaces. Music room to rear left has parapet
floor, decorative frieze, corbelled beams and coffered ceiling. Drawings in the
museum show that before the alterations of the 1950s there was a castellated tower
to rear, a round, steepled tower, and a round tower with cupola (base remains).
Of the Dutch gables to the top storey only one now remains.

Listing NGR: SE0577442109

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q99662794

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)