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Description: Dobroyd Castle

Address: Dobroyd Castle Dobroyd Road Todmorden West Yorkshire OL14 7JJ

Grade: IISTAR

Group detail: Dobroyd Road

Full description:
Mansion house, now school. 1865 by John Gibson for John Fielden. Pitch faced stone with ashlar dressings, bitumen roof (formerly lead). Castle style. 2 storeys with 4-storey entrance tower, embellished with numerous turrets and bay windows. The ground floor projections are battered in many cases, producing a rugged effect, but the windows are uniformly large and practical, being mostly of 2 lights with basket arched heads and all sashed. Plinth, strings and tower which has a battered porch of 2 storeys and a corner turret springing from parapet level. The entrance front is of 9 irregular bays, but the garden front to south is of 3 bays with corner turrets and is symmetrical. The house is prolonged to the north by the service accommodation which ends in a glazed court. Interior: Impressive central hall through 2 storeys. Square on plan with triple arcades to each side but open only on the entrance side and to left which leads to staircase hall of similar dimensions. The style is a florid mixture of Romanesque forms with Gothic detail. Devonshire marble columns and pilasters of 3 colours; carved work in Caen stone. Continuous hoodmould with billet moulding. Heavy string course with corbel table separates the storeys and supports an open gallery, the bays of which, corresponding to the arcades below, have each 2 round headed lights, and are separated by engaged columns. These columns carry a continuous octagonal arcade, the spandrels forming the squinches of a shallow glazed dome. From the centre of this dome hangs a massive panelled pendant. All capitals are heavily foliated and carry minute scenes of hunting and rural life in all its forms. 4 of the tympana depict the cotton industry. The initials of John and Ruth Fielden appear below the corbel table, and on fireplace of red marble incorporating clock. The interpenetrating staircase hall has the same details above the corbel table but is largely occupied by an imperial staircase with elaborate cast-iron balustrade. Set into the openings of the blind wall are mirrors of which produce a startling effect of depth. The only alteration to this ensemble would appear to be the removal of decorated glass from the hall dome (but most survives to the staircase), the addition of grills to the upper openings, and a heightened staircase balustrade. The doors have good inlaid panels of walnut. Other rooms have plaster cornices but none are elaborate. Illustrated in D. Linstrum, West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture, (London, 1978), p.86. N. Pevsner, Yorkshire West Riding, (London, 1979), p.522.