Tong Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tong Castle around 1850

Tong Castle was a country house between Wolverhampton and Telford in the English county of Shropshire . The large house was mainly in neo-Gothic style and stood in a landscaped park designed by Capability Brown instead of a medieval castle of the same name.

The original castle was built in the 12th century. In the English Civil War she defended William Careless and later George Mainwaring for King Charles I. The first castle was demolished in 1765 after George Durant bought the property. He had the country house presented here built.

The building has been described as both an "architectural hybrid" and, more flatteringly, "the first truly neo-Gothic structure in Shropshire". Even if at first glance there are some anomalies in the construction, such as: As the ogee domes which, although gothic in its shape, but rather according to the English Renaissance smell, so the house was still clearly in Strawberry Hill Gothic , by Horace Walpole was made popular held.

Walpole's Gothic Revival house on Strawberry Hill was started in 1749, expanded in 1760, and completed in 1776. The relatively early construction period in 1765 made Tong Castle a building of the highest architectural class in this architectural style, which was rare at the time. The crenellated towers and ornamental gables in connection with the newly glazed and non-traditional Gothic lead-glazed windows, which are crowned by a keel arch, are typical of this style, as are the generous bay windows with circular windows and cross motifs on the upper floors. The later Neo-Gothic in the 19th century tended more towards ecclesiasticalness and melancholy, with dark rooms illuminated by high pointed arched windows , while the earlier Neo-Gothic showed larger windows and joie de vivre in the construction that were no longer found in later versions of this style.

In 1854 the house fell from the Durant family to the Earl of Bradford . The Earl did not plan to live in Tong Castle, but expanded the property in area and leased the house. In 1911 the house was damaged by fire, remained unrestored and increasingly lost its structural stability. In 1954 it was demolished. Today the M54 motorway runs across the site.

Individual references and comments

  1. ^ Michael Greenslade: Catholic Staffordshire . Leominster 2006. ISBN 0-85244-655-1 . P. 115.
  2. ↑ George Durant (1734-1780) was the son of a land rector and an interesting character. He was sent abroad after an affair with Lady Littelton of Hagley Hall . Far from England, he made a fortune in the West Indies in the slave trade . He returned to England as a rich man and then had the country house Tong Castle built.
  3. ↑ a b The infamous George Durant . British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
  4. ^ Robert Jefferey: Discovering Tong, Its History, Myths and Curiosities . Private publisher, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9555089-0-5 . Chapter 5.
  5. ^ Giles Worsley: England's lost Houses . Aurum Press, London 2002. ISBN 1-85410-820-4 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 39 ′ 50.4 "  N , 2 ° 18 ′ 10.8"  W.