New Wardour Castle

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Building information
New Wardour Castle
New Wardour Castle, taken from the old castle
Shown within Wiltshire
Town	Tisbury, Wiltshire
Country	England
Coordinates	51°02′16″N 2°05′38″W / 51.0378, -2.0940Coordinates: 51°02′16″N 2°05′38″W / 51.0378, -2.0940
Architect	James Paine
Client	Arundell family
Construction start date	1769
Completion date	1776
Style	Palladian

New Wardour Castle( 51°02′29″N, 2°06′16″W), 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 (2 km) 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.

1 Building Structure
2 Rotunda Staircase
3 All Saints Chapel
4 Garden & Parkland
5 Recent History
6 Gallery
7 References
8 External links

[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 Roman Catholic chapel and a rare 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 144 feet (44 m) 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 instruments.

[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.^[1] It still has regular Sunday services and is sometimes used for musical events.

[edit] Garden & Parkland

The original plans for the grounds were suggested by Richard Woods in 1764, however these proved too expensive and revised by George Ingham in 1773 before Capability Brown was brought in and undertook extensive earth moving and tree planting between 1775 and 1783.

The current garden includes a Ha-ha (garden), a walled garden with a swimming pool and a Camelia House.^[2] 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.^[3]

[edit] Recent History

After the last Lord Arundell (John Francis) died in 1944 the building was rented and became the home of Cranbourne Chase School. The school built classrooms, studio dormitories 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 five cottages, six tennis courts, a swimming pool in a walled garden and it was converted into luxury apartments. It is understood that the extension 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.

It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.^[4]