Astwell Castle

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Astwell Castle around 1913

Astwell Castle is a manor house about 1.5 miles southwest of the village of Wappenham in the English county of Northamptonshire . The house belongs to the parish of Helmdon , about 600 meters west. English Heritage has it as a historical building II *. Grade listed.

history

The De Wauncy family was among the earliest owners of this manorial estate, the Norman conquest of England . Later the manor fell to the Brookes . On April 24, 1471, Thomas Lovett II acquired Astwell in exchange for his inherited lands as part of a family arrangement with his mother's cousin, Dowse Billing , and her husband, William Brooke . Lovett let the construction of the house begin.

George Shirley , Esq. (Made baronet by King James I in 1611 ), Lovett's grandson, was the next owner. He had the manor house completely or partially rebuilt. From him the property fell to Washington Shirley, 5th Earl Ferrers , who sold it in 1763 to Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple . This was followed by his nephew, George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham , whose son, Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos , also had ties to the manor. The Biddlesden Abbey also had possessions on the basic rule. In 1874 the mansion was largely demolished; some of the outbuildings were converted into a farm and a “wide, crenellated tower” remained.

Architecture and furnishings

The crenellated gatehouse with the lower annex on the left is from Lovett's time. To the west of it, a large house with an inner courtyard and over 40 rooms was built by the later owners of the Lovett and Shirley families in the 16th and 17th centuries , only fragments of which are still preserved today. They still have Ajimez windows and arched passageways, so they are more dated to the 16th than the 17th century. Inside there is an open fireplace with a wide frieze with simple, geometric motifs above the arch with four central parts. Drawings from the early 18th century show that wings had been added to the west and south sides of the house that reached up to or even over the moat. This may have to do with backfilling the trench and creating a garden with formal terraces on the south and east sides of the house.

The south wing of the building was modified in the 19th century and then again in 1957 when the house was rebuilt and the roof structure was replaced.

tower

In 1918 Evans described the tower. At that time, the coat of arms of Sir George Shirley († 1622) appeared above the entrance. It was the gate tower of an earlier house. The original doorway was bricked up and another was opened next to it. There is a ground floor with a gatekeeper to the right of the entrance and two upper floors. The floors were well preserved, but the inside became a pigeon house. In the room on the first floor there are coats of arms under the white wall paint and there is another, walled-up doorway on this level, which possibly gave access to an outside gallery. Both this room and the one above it have lavatory dungeons. From the roof you can see the property well.

estate

A deer park was created in 1547.

On November 30, 1943, a B-17 “Flying Fortress” bomber, No. 42-3048, crashed from US Air Force Station 109 Podington of the 327th Bomb Squadron, 92nd Bomber Group, 8th Bomber Command, nearby of the farms. He had started together with the rest of the squadron to bomb an industrial complex in Solingen . All 10 crew members were killed. On November 9, 2008, Lieutenant-Colonel `` Terry Hayes '', Deputy Commander of the American 422nd Base Group at RAF Croughton laid a special wreath and read the names of the American Air Force soldiers who fell there. These men were also mentioned in the 2008 memorial service in the parish church of Helmdon.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Astwell Castle, Helmdon . British listed buildings. Retrieved November 27, 2015.
  2. ^ Robert Edmond Chester Waters: Genealogical memoirs of the extinct family of Chester of Chicheley: their ancestors and descendants . Robson & sons. Pp. 44 ff. 1878. Retrieved November 27, 2015.
  3. ^ Nikolaus Pevsner, Bridget Cherry: The Buildings of England . Chapter: Northamptonshire . Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1961. ISBN 978-0-300-09632-3 . P. 96.
  4. ↑ Whellan Francis: History, topography, and directory of Northamptonshire . Francis Whellan and Co .. pp. 501 ff. 1874. Retrieved November 27, 2015.
  5. ^ Herbert Arthur Evans: Highways and byways in Northamptonshire and Rutland . Macmillan. Pp. 310 ff. 1918. Accessed November 30, 2015.
  6. ↑ 30th November - a Memorable Date in 1943. . Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  7. ↑ This incident is remembered by Derek Ratledge, who lived with his parents on the farm near Astwell Castle from 1935 to 1948.

swell

  • Heward & Taylor: The country houses of Northamptonshire . 1996, pp. 69-72

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 5 ′ 30 ″  N , 1 ° 6 ′ 51 ″  W.