Hornby Castle

Hornby Castle stands on a curve of the River Wenning in the Lune Valley, east of the village of Hornby in Lancashire. It began as a medieval castle built for the Neville family in the 13th century, with a polygonal tower added in the 16th century for Sir Edward Stanley. The castle passed through the hands of the Monteagle and Morley families, and William Parker became famous for warning about the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. After the Civil War it was sold several times, eventually being remodelled in the 18th century by Francis Charteris. In the 19th century Admiral Sandford Tatham commissioned the Lancaster architects Sharpe and Paley to rebuild much of the structure. The house is built of sandstone rubble with slate roofs in Perpendicular style. The entrance front has a symmetrical seven-bay layout with a three-storey porch, canted bay windows and a square tower beside the older polygonal tower. Inside, the porch has a vaulted ceiling with foliated bosses, and the hall contains a sandstone fireplace with a Tudor arch and stained glass moved from elsewhere. The Library is said to contain woodwork by Gillows, and the upper floor includes a billiard room with Gothic decoration and a drawing room with a barrel vault. Outside, a 19th-century terrace with sandstone walls runs along the southwest and southeast sides of the house. Three flights of steps lead down from the terrace to a small semicircular bastion at the north end. To the northeast is an earlier courtyard now surrounded by apartments, entered through a gatehouse with a pointed arch. A lodge with an embattled turret and carved gate piers marks the entrance to the former drive, and the gardens are opened for special events on advertised dates.