Listed Building: PENNSYLVANIA CASTLE HOTEL WITH ATTACHED WALLS (381996)

PORTLAND SY6871 PENNSYLVANIA ROAD, Easton 969-1/4/46 (East side) 16/01/51 Pennsylvania Castle Hotel with attached walls GV II Large country house, now hotel. Built 1800 for John Penn (grandson of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania USA) to designs of James Wyatt. Squared and coursed Portland stone, slate roofs with crenellated parapets. Compact long two-storey rectangle with small projecting corner turrets rising above centre; to the east (garden) side a large cylindrical tower, and a one-storey octagonal bay extension, and to S a crenellated one-storey extension and late C20 flat-roofed block in two storeys. Various additions on W (road) side. Gothic-style garden front has set-back 3-bay centre portion with small square 2-light casements with bars to interlaced heads above narrow single lancets above paired french doors with bars and interlacing as over. Late C20 glazed conservatory full-width between ends conceals ground-floor glazing. To right a small single light in canted wall connecting to round tower with 4 windows; 2-light casements in plat surrounds above paired French doors in similar surrounds. Plinth, moulded cornice at level of parapet to centre unit. Left is 2-light casement with bars and interlacing to upper part, above 3 arched lights in octagonal projection, as those in round tower. South front has single-storey unit with arched French doors to E and S, then one and 2-storey late C20 additions. West, road front with various additions includes at first floor seven 2-light casements with bars as to E front. Plan is long corridor to E, with circular room, tight open-well wooden staircase, and extended dining room to left, and main entrance hall with secondary rooms to right. Stone 4-centred arch fireplace in entrance hall, circular room (bar) has original cornice and 2 blank semi-circular flat recesses, good panelled door in architrave to hall. Dining room has good original cornice, later extended into octagonal bay, an inserted double pilaster fireplace, and moulded arch to corridor door. Various original panelled doors at both levels. An unusual plan form, with no 'grand' staircase, which has survived well the conversion to modern hotel use. Subsidiary features: on the north side a plain coped boundary wall c 2m high extends c 20m north, and is canted in to the square turret, with a gate opening; from the SW corner a rubble wall to c 2m curves round to enclose the garden, extending c 45m to the site boundary, with one simple opening near the N end. The building is set on a platform facing out to sea, and immediately above the ruins of the former St. Andrew's Church (qv). The original owner was Governor of Portland. The castle also appears, as 'Sylvania Castle' in Hardy's 'The Well-Beloved'. (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments: Dorset: London: 1970-: 253; Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Newman J: Dorset: London: 1972-1989: 342). Listing NGR: SY6956471094

Record last edited

May 10 2010 11:41AM