Tong Castle | |
---|---|
General information | |
Architectural style | Gothic architecture |
Town or city | Shropshire |
Country | England |
Coordinates | 52°39′50.4″N2°18′10.8″W / 52.664000°N 2.303000°W |
Demolished | 1954 |
Designations | Grade II |
Tong Castle was a very large mostly Gothic country house in Shropshire whose site is between Wolverhampton and Telford, set within a park landscaped by Capability Brown, [1] on the site of a medieval castle of the same name.
The original castle was built in the 12th century. During the Civil War it was defended for the King by William Careless, [2] and afterwards by George Mainwaring. The original structure was demolished in 1765 after the estate had been purchased by George Durant from the Duke of Kingston [3] who built the house illustrated.
The building has been described both as an "architectural mongrel" [1] and more flatteringly as "the first real gothic building in Shropshire". [4] While at first glance there appear some anomalies of design, such as the ogee domes which, though Gothic in shape, are more redolent of the English Renaissance style, the house was actually in the Strawberry Hill Gothic style popularised by Horace Walpole.
George Durant bought the estate at Tong in 1764 and commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown to provide plans for rebuilding the castle and to improve the landscape around the castle in 1765. [5] [6] Brown's account book shows a charge to Durant in 1765 for "Various Plans for the alterations of Tong Castle. My Journeys there several times" [7] [8] covering both the house and grounds, and making it Brown's first commission in Shropshire. [6] Water features north and south of the castle were altered to create Church or North Pool and the serpentine South Pool and two larger lakes were added built following Capability Brown's plans. The kitchen garden was moved further from the house and it is suggested that Brown was responsible for installing an ice house. [9] The Tudor Tong Castle was remodelled in the Gothic style, only retaining the main block of the 16th Century red-brick castle. Some of the stone from the college that had stood near Tong church was reused in the new building. [5]
Walpole's Gothic house at Strawberry Hill was begun in 1749, expanded in 1760, and completed in 1776. Thus the comparatively early date of 1765 for Tong Castle to be erected in this fairly rare style would today have made Tong of the highest architectural grading class. The crenellated towers and pediments coupled with the paned, rather than traditional Gothic leaded, windows crowned by ogee curves are typical of this style, as too are the generous bay windows with circular windows and cruciform motifs in the upper levels. The later 19th-century Gothic tended to be more ecclesiastical and sombre in mood, with dark rooms lit by lancet windows while the earlier Gothic had larger windows and a "joie de vivre" of design not found in later versions of the style.
In 1756, Maria Fitzherbert (born Mary Ann Smythe) was born in Tong Castle, reputedly in the Red Room, [10] when it was still owned by the Duke of Kingston; she may have been his illegitimate daughter.[ citation needed ] Mrs Fitzherbert eventually married George IV (when he was the Prince of Wales) after being twice widowed. She died in Brighton in 1837 without being formally recognised as George IV's wife due to her Catholic lineage and that official sanction to the marriage had not been given by George's father, King George III. [11]
The house passed from the Durant family in 1854 to the Earl of Bradford. The Earl had no wish to live at Tong but expanded his estate in the area and let the house, [12] chiefly to the Hartley family of Wolverhampton who leased it between 1856 and 1909. [13]
In 1911 the house was damaged by fire and remained unrestored and increasingly structurally unstable until demolished in 1954, [12] [14] and the site is currently part of the route of the M54 motorway. [15] Features of Capability Brown's work can still be seen at Tong, including foundations of the castle, Church Pool and clumps of oak and beech trees. [5]
Flagstones from Tong Castle were used for paving at the outdoor war memorial built in 1920 at the nearby village of Albrighton. [16]
Tong Castle is a Grade II Listed site for its special architectural or historic interest and its Historic England List Entry Number is 1176612. Tong Castle was first listed on 29 August 1984. [15]
Lancelot "Capability" Brown was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style.
Montacute House is a late Elizabethan mansion in Montacute, South Somerset, England. An example of English architecture created during a period that was moving from the medieval Gothic to the more classically-inspired Renaissance style, Montacute is one of the few prodigy houses to have survived almost unchanged from the Elizabethan era. The house has been designated as a Grade I listed building, and its gardens are also listed at the highest grade on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.
Albrighton is a large village and civil parish in Shropshire, England, 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Wolverhampton and 11 miles (18 km) northeast of Bridgnorth.
Weston Park is a country house in Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire, England, set in more than 1,000 acres (400 ha) of park landscaped by Capability Brown. The park is located 10 miles (16 km) north-west of Wolverhampton, and 8 miles (13 km) east of Telford, close to the border with Shropshire. The 17th-century Hall is a Grade I listed building and several other features of the estate, such as the Orangery and the Stable block, are separately listed as Grade II.
Thomas Harrison was an English architect and bridge engineer who trained in Rome, where he studied classical architecture. Returning to England, he won the competition in 1782 for the design of Skerton Bridge in Lancaster. After moving to Lancaster he worked on local buildings, received commissions for further bridges, and designed country houses in Scotland. In 1786 Harrison was asked to design new buildings within the grounds of Lancaster and Chester castles, projects that occupied him, together with other works, until 1815. On both sites he created accommodation for prisoners, law courts, and a shire hall, while working on various other public buildings, gentlemen's clubs, churches, houses, and monuments elsewhere. His final major commission was for the design of Grosvenor Bridge in Chester.
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Tong is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, also bordering Staffordshire in England. It is located between the towns of Shifnal, Newport and Brewood. It is near junction 3 of the M54 motorway and A41 road. The population of the village which was included in the civil parish at the 2011 census was 243. The village is also near to Weston Park and the village of Weston-under-Lizard.
Allerton Castle, also known as Allerton Park, is a Grade I listed nineteenth-century Gothic or Victorian Gothic house at Allerton Mauleverer in North Yorkshire, England. It was rebuilt by architect George Martin, of Baker Street, London in 1843–53.
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden, is a style of "landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical French formal garden which had emerged in the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe. The English garden presented an idealized view of nature. Created and pioneered by William Kent and others, the "informal" garden style originated as a revolt against the architectural garden and drew inspiration from landscape paintings by Salvator Rosa, Claude Lorrain, and Nicolas Poussin, as well as from the classic Chinese gardens of the East, which had recently been described by European travellers and were realized in the Anglo-Chinese garden.
Moor Park is a Neo-Palladian mansion set within several hundred acres of parkland to the south-east of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. It is called Moor Park Mansion because it is in the old park of the Manor of More. It now serves as the clubhouse of Moor Park Golf Club.
Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. Together with its adjacent formal gardens, it is surrounded by parkland. The site of the house has been a seat of the Cholmondeley family since the 12th century. The present house replaced a timber-framed hall nearby. It was built at the start of the 19th century for George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, who designed most of it himself in the form of a crenellated castle. After the death of the Marquess, the house was extended to designs by Robert Smirke to produce the building in its present form. The house is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.
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Speedwell Castle is a mid-18th-century house at the centre of Brewood, Staffordshire, between Wolverhampton and Stafford. Described by Pevsner as a "peach" and a "delectable folly", it stands beside the village market place, at the head of a T-junction on Bargate Street, facing onto Stafford Street.
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Albrighton Hall near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, is a house which is Grade II* listed on the National Heritage List for England. It was built in 1630 for the Ireland family and remained in this family for the next five generations until 1804. It was then the home of several notable people until 1953. In the 1990s it was converted into a hotel.
Tong is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. It contains 48 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, two are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish includes the village of Tong, and is otherwise rural. The M54 motorway passes through the parish, going through the site of Tong Castle, of which there are few remains on each side of the motorway, and which are listed. The most important building in the parish is the 13th-century St Bartholomew's Church, which is listed at Grade I; items in the churchyard are also listed. Most of the parish, including the village, is to the north of the motorway, and most of the listed buildings are houses, cottages, farmhouses, and farm buildings, the earliest of which are timber framed. South of the motorway is Ruckley Grange, a country house designed by Ernest George and Yeates in 1904. This, together with a number of associated structures, is listed. The other listed buildings include two milestones and a boundary marker.
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