New Wardour Castle
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New Wardour Castle( ), is located near Tisbury, Wiltshire and was built for the Arundell family. The house is of a Palladian style built by the architect James Paine with additional pieces from Giacomo Quarenghi who was a principal architect of Russian capital, Saint Petersburg. The building construction began in 1769 and was completed in 1776, with additional buildings being added in the 1970s-1980s.
New Wardour Castle is approximately 1.5 miles from Old Wardour Castle, which was left as a landscape feature of the original parkland. This was formerly the home of the Arundell family before it was destroyed in the Civil War.
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[edit] Building Structure
The building is constructed from limestone ashlar with hipped Welsh slate roofs and comprises a square main block with flanking pavilions. The north front has a rusticated basement below a piano nobile with mezzanine and attic floor over.
The house also includes a spectacular Roman Catholic chapel and a rare and beautiful rotunda staircase. There are also many many painted ceilings and ornate fireplaces, typical of the building period.
[edit] Rotunda Staircase
In total the rotunda staircase is 144ft(43.89m) round and was designed by James Paine.
The ground floor of the rotunda staircase features a black and white marble floor with exits to the north and south and sweeping staircases either side. The stairs can sometimes be fitted with glass uplighter candle lamps and a stair carpet.
The first floor consists of a wooden floor with Roman columns rising to the vaulted ceiling. The surrounding balustrade is made from fine leadwork with Gold leaf gilded flowers and topped by a wooden handrail. Leading off from the 1st floor are four fine alcoves with tall wooden doors.
Also on the first floor, there is a pipe organ in wood, ivory and gold.
The ceiling is a high circular dome with a central window decorated with reliefs of musical instuments.
[edit] All Saints Chapel
The Roman Catholic chapel is known as All Saints Chapel, Wardour. It was expanded by John Soane in 1788 on instruction from the 8th Lord Arundell or Wardour. It still has regular Sunday services and is sometimes used for musical events.
[edit] Garden & Parkland
The current garden includes a Ha-ha (garden), a walled garden with a swimming pool(Not sure if this still exists) and a Camelia House. There is a long driveway, which passes the Hexagon cottage and leads up to the rear of the building and the chapel.
There is also a Temple folly located in a separate garden area referred to as the Temple Garden.
[edit] Recent History
After the last Lord Arundell (John Francis) died in 1944 the building was sold and became the home of Cranbourne Chase School. The school built classrooms, studio dormatories and a dining-room extension on the South-Eastern side along with three staff houses to the west.
The school eventually closed in 1990 and the building was sold along with 5 cottages, 6 tennis courts, a swimming pool in a walled garden and it was converted into luxury apartments. It is understood that the extenstion and housing added by the school has now been demolished.
The building was used in the filming of the TV Mini-series First Born shown in 1998.
The building was used in the filming of Billy Elliot which was released in 2000.
