Witton Castle, Sloshes Lane, Evenwood & Barony; Listed building (Witton-le-Wear)

EVENWOOD AND BARONY SLOSHES LANE NZ 13 SE (North side) 2/27 (inset) Witton Castle 7/1/52

GV II*

Castle, now caravan site and leisure complex administration and club buildings. Probably late C14; licence to crenellate 1410; partial demolition late C17; extensive late C18 and C19 alterations and additions. Coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and some quoins; roofs not visible. Main north range of medieval castle with west extensions and additions forming enclosure to service courtyard. Main front of north range 2 storeys, 8 bays, with stair turret projection in second bay and full-height porch with projecting porte-cochere in fifth bay. Port-cochere has double-chamfered flat-2-centred arches; wide angle buttresses; front corbel table and battlemented parapet. Tudor-arched surround to boarded door in porch, which has Decorated tracery in 4-light windows, and battlemented parapet with stone figures of buck and doe. Polygonal stair turret has 3 set-back stages with small chamfered lights, and heraldic panels and date and initials HC 1881, below corbelled battlements. Varied windows in other bays in medieval and Tudor styles, some with dripmoulds, are all C19. Bays flanking porch project slightly, the right under tower with figures on battlements. Corbelled external chimney stack from ground floor between 2 right bays, which have set-back stages; right end angle turret has similar set- backs, as has corresponding turret at left end which is abutted by west forecourt wall (q.v.). Square stone chimneys on corbelled stack and to left of entrance bay; octagonal stone chimney on front of tower behind porch with bronze fox. weather-vane.

West extensions have some Gothic-style openings, some of mid-C19 character, and probably incorporate early north curtain wall. Interior of main range shows principal first-floor rooms with Gothic panelling and window reveals; barrel- vaulted ground floor.

Listing NGR: NZ1537230431