Description

WILTON WILTON
NZ 51 NE
7/108 Wilton Castle
14.6.52
G.V. II

Country house, c.1810 by Sir Robert Smirke for Sir John Lowther. North
porch, east wing and pavilion, and extension to west pavilion, c.1886. On
site of C14 castle of Bulmer family. Now offices of I.C.I. Plc.
Margin-tooled dressed sandstone; Welsh slate roofs. Symmetrical. Gothick
style. 2 and 3 storeys with attics and basement. 15-bay north entrance
front with 5-bay centre and 2-storey, 5-bay wings. Slightly-projecting
4-storey, one-bay central tower has 2-storey projecting porch with diagonal
buttresses. 8-panel double doors in Tudor-arched moulded surround under
hoodmould and blank tablet in panel above. Centre has projecting gabled end
bays with 2-storey canted bay windows, flanked by embattled octagonal stair
turrets. Chamfered mullioned-and-transomed windows, pointed on first floor,
some with hoodmoulds: sashes with glazing bars, casements in end bays.
Wings have buttresses between bays and similar windows with casements. Left
wing has similar turret at end. Right wing has blocked 2-centred carriage
arch in end bay and similar turret, between 4th and end bays, linked to
projecting screen wall. All turrets: 3 stages with lancets, and strings
between stages. Embattled parapets; corniced ridge and end stacks. Short
turret rises from middle of right-wing roof. Embattled 2-bay screen wall,
with turrets defining the bays, has pointed doorway and mock window, under
hoodmoulds, at left, and chamfered Tudor-arched carriage opening under
carved Lowther arms, at right. Blind cross arrowloops in spandrels. Rear
garden front: similar, but with gable over centre bay; one-storey, 3-bay
right wing, 2-storey, 5 bay left wing, and one-bay end pavilions with
diagonal buttresses. Altered central doorway; porch missing. Pointed
doorways, in inner returns of end bays of centre, give access to stair
turrets. 2-storey one-bay extension adjoins west end of left pavilion.
Interior: central entrance hall has oak panelling, fluted frieze and dentil
cornice; quasi-Ionic chimney piece. Dining room, ballroom and entrance hall
have Jacobean-style panelled ceilings. Dogleg staircase, at east end, has
turned balusters, moulded handrail, key-moulded string and newel post with
ball finial.

Listing NGR: NZ5818919674

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wilton Castle at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q8023366

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]