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Record Details

MonUID:MST28
HER Number:00028
Type of record:Building
Name:Tixall Gatehouse, Tixall Park

Summary

A listed (and formerly Scheduled) grand and ornate late 16th century stone gatehouse to the former Tixall Hall. The gatehouse was restored by the Landmark Trust in the 1970s and is now used as a holiday let.

Grid Reference:SJ 9791 2294
Map Sheet:SJ92SE
Parish:Tixall, Stafford Borough
Map:Show location on Streetmap

Monument Type(s):

  • GATEHOUSE (Built, Elizabethan - 1575 AD to 1589 AD)

Associated Events:

  • EST539 - A site visit to Tixall Gatehouse by an Ordnance Survey Field Inspector.

Protected Status:

  • Listed Building (I) 1258142: The Gatehouse

Full description

Gatehouse: The gatehouse, built in circa 1575 for Sir Walter Aston, may well be called the most ambitious gatehouse in the county. Sampson Erdeswick in 1598 went further and called it 'one of the finest pieces of work made of late times that I have seen in all these countries'. The gatehouse is of three bays and three storeys with four polygonal angle turrets with ogee caps. The windows are of four lights and transomed and they are framed by pairs of columns, Roman Doric below, then Ionic, the Corinthian. The spandrels of the archway have soldiers on one side, winged females on the other. Above the archway the windows become shallowly canted bays. It is all a relentless grid and the fact that it is now roofless reinforces the sense of a dark grid and light interstices. <1>

The gatehouse is renaissance work, seemingly about 1580. It is now a mere shell. (SB, 06-Nov-2018) <2>

Tixall Gatehouse is believed to be the largest and most costly work of its kind and period in the kingdom connected with a private house. The interior has been gutted but it is still roofed and is built of local stone. Internal dimensions are 45 ft by 22 ½ ft with an octagonal stair turret at each angle nearly 60 ft high. The walls are 2 ½ ft thick. (SB, 06-Nov-2018) <3>

Scheduled as an Ancient Monument. (SB, 06-Nov-2018) <4>

A fine Elizabethan gatehouse built by Sit Walter Aston, who died in 1589. (SB, 06-Nov-2018) <5>

It is now in fairly poor condition and partly de-roofed. (SB, 07-Nov-2006) <6>

A Renaissance style gatehouse built by Sir Walter Aston in 1589. (SB, 07-Nov-2006) <7> <8>

Black and white photographs from 1960s show the gatehouse windowless with some scrub encroachment on the roof. (SB, 13-Jul-2010) <9> <10>

The gatehouse was restored by the Landmark Trust in 1977 and is now used as a holiday let by them. (SB, 06-Nov-2018) <11>

Sources and further reading

<1>SST2433 - Published Book: Nikolaus Pevsner. 1974. The Buildings of England: Staffordshire. Page 283.
<2>SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12.1 ('Staffordshire' by C. Masefield, 1930, page 237 and photo (frontispiece)).
<3>SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12.1 ('Old Staffordshire Houses' by W. Niven, 1882, page 4 plus Illustration and Plan).
<4>SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12.1 ('A.M. England and Wales' by Ministry of Works, 1953, page 90).
<5>SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12.1 ('Domestic Architecture in England (Part 2)' by Turner, 1859, page 235).
<6>SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12.1 (V.J. Burton (Ordnance Survey Field Inspector) 24-Feb-1958).
<7>SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12.1 (Staffordshire by C. Masefield, 1930, page 237 - photo).
<8>SST390 - Index: Ordnance Survey. See cards. Ordnance Survey Card Index. SJ 92 SE - 12.1 (Domestic Architecture in England part 2, 1859, page 235 by Turner).
<9>SST172 - Photographic: J. B. Lambert. Unknown. Tixall Gatehouse, Tixall Hall, Tixall - Black and White Photographs. Digital Photography.
<10>SST1963 - Photographic: Staffordshire County Council. 1960s onward. Staffordshire County Council Photographic Collection. various. 18/60 (Scanned).
<11>SST954 - Written: Dr. Anne Andrews. 2018. Correspondence relating to Tixall Hall and Gatehouse, November 2018.
<12>SST270 - Published Book: Timothy Mowl and Dianne Barr. 2009. The Historic Gardens of England: Staffordshire. Page 26-28 and Plates 9 and 10.
<13>SST1963 - Photographic: Staffordshire County Council. 1960s onward. Staffordshire County Council Photographic Collection. various. 17:60 / 18:60 (Scanned) / 19:60.
<14>SST1963 - Photographic: Staffordshire County Council. 1960s onward. Staffordshire County Council Photographic Collection. various. 461-463:66.
<15>SST144 - Aerial Photograph: National Monument Record. 1970s-1980s. National Monument Record Aerial Photograph Collection. Black and White. Oblique. AA62:2425-6.
<16>SST77 - Article in serial: Express and Star. 1984. 'Welcome for plan to preserve village' Article in the Express and Star, September 1984. Newspaper.

Related records

20736Part of: Tixall Park (Monument)

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