Highcliffe Castle

At Highcliffe Castle in Highcliffe near Christchurch, Dorset.

 

The Castle burnt down in the late 1960s. And since the late 1970s has been owned by Christchurch Borough Council, who have since restored it.

 

Approaching the "castle" (former stately home) by car (on way to car park).

 

Highcliffe Castle is a Grade I listed building.

 

The following listing text dates to 1953. (so doesn't take into account the fire of 1967) and the restoration of 1977-1998.

 

Highcliffe Castle, Christchurch

 

ROTHESAY DRIVE

1.

5187 Highcliffe Castle

(formerly listed under

Lymington Road)

SZ 2093 13/51 14.10.53.

 

I

 

2.

The original house here was built about 1775 for the third Earl of Bute either

by Robert Adam or by Capability Brown, but it did not stand on the excat site of

the present building and was demolished in 1794. It was replaced by a nondescript

building which in its turn was demolished in 1830. The present Highcliffe Castle

was built by Lord Stuart de Rothesay in 1830-34. The architect was W J Donthorne

who collaborated with Lord Stuart de Rothesay. The design incorporated materials

from the Hotel des Andelys near Rouen in Normandy, where Antoine de Bourbon, the

father of Henri IV died in 1562. Lord Stuart de Rothesay when returning to England

on his retirement from the British Embassy in Paris in 1830, saw the house being

demolished, bought it and had it shipped down the Scine and across to this site,

where it was re-erected.

The building forms a large L. It is built of rosy-tinged ashlar and has 2 storeys

and basement. The north or entrance front is dominated by the great Gothic porte

cochere archway at least 30 ft high flanked by ribbed octagonal buttresses with

a gable between surmounted by a pierced parapet. Beneath the archway is a groined

vaulted roof an elaborate carved doorway and a tall 5-light pointed window over

it. The east wing which is to the left of this porte cochere has a terrace over

an enclosed forecourt containing the obtusely-pointed windows of the basement.

The ground floor of the wing has 5 casement windows of 3 tiers of 2 lights each

with depressed heads, the top tier of lights lighting an entresol. Cornice and

parapet above ground floor. The first floor is set back with a flat walk on the

roof of the ground floor in front of it, terminating at the east end in a rectangular

tower of 1 window with rectangular or octagonal buttress at the angles and parapet

between. Beyond the tower the ground floor only, without basement, projects and

has 6 more windows, the 3 easternmost ones in a canted bay. The west front is

made up of the hall at the north end. This has 4 buttresses and a narrow half-octagonal

oriel window at the north end, 4 lancet windows at first floor level, and a pierced

parapet surmounted by finials. At the south end of the front is a rectangular

projection at right angles, with one window on each front and parapet over with

octagonal corbel cupolas at the angles. Its west face has projecting oriel window

on ground floor and elaborate window of 2 tiers of 4 lights above. At the south

end of the south wing is an L-shaped projection on the ground floor only which

was a garden-room, or conservatory and chapel combined, Its south front is entirely

made up of windows with a huge bay in the centre approached by 7 steps. The south-east

side of the Castle shows its L-plan but the angle is partly filled in so that this

front gives somewhat the impression of 3 sides of octagon. The centre has 3 windows

with flat heads on both floors. Pierced parapet over containing the words "Suave

mari magno turbantibus aequora ventise terra magnum alterius spectare laborem"

in it. On each side of this is a tower at a slight angle to centre portion. The

east one is of 3 storeys flanked by octagmml buttresses with a 4-light window

on each floor. The west one has 2 storeys only, a round-headed archway forms a

porch on the ground floor and above the elaborate carved oriel window from the

Manoir d' Andelys in which Henri IV stood while he waited for his father Antoine

de Bourbon die. On each side of the oriel is tracery buttresses. On each side

of these east and south towers are wings of ground floor height only which are

again at an angle to the towers. These wings are alike and have 3 windows of 2

tiers of 2 lights. Pierced parapet over surmounted by finials above the angles

of the bays. All the windows in the Castle are casement windows with stone mullions

and transom. The interior contains French C18 panelling marble chimney-pieces.

The chief feature of the interior is the hall (the double staircase has now been

removed). This formerly led from the hall to the principal bedroom, in which the

Emperor William II of Germany slept when he rented the house during his "rest-cure"

in 1907.

 

 

Listing NGR: SZ2030693208

Done