Building record 0031701001 - GATEHOUSE AT BOARSTALL TOWER

Dimensions - Length 14m, Width 7m.
Plan Form - Rectangular.
Grade I. House, once the fortified gatehouse to a house that was demolished late C18. Early C14, for John de Handle who was given licence to crenellate in 1312. Altered late C16-C17. C20 repairs and internal modifications. Coursed rubble stone with ashlar dressings, the N. front with bands of ashlar. Lead roof. Rectangular building with hexagonal corner towers, the rear towers a little taller and containing stone spiral staircases. 3 storeys, the tall top storey with single large room, the lower storeys with one bay to either side of central archway. Towers have carved stone gargoyles, battlemented parapets with C17 copings, and C14 slit windows, those to N. towers cross-shaped, 2 in S.E. tower with trefoil heads. Other irregular C16-C17 windows as in centre block, S. towers have C16-C17 windows as in centre block. S. towers have C16-C17 doorways with chamfered depressed arches and Tudor hoodmoulds. Centre block, except on S. front, has C17 balustraded stone parapets, that to N. with carved frieze below, those to sides canted out over bay windows. Single octagonal stone chimney shafts flanking centre bay are also C17. C16-C17 moulded stone mullion windows, all with leaded lights. N. front has 2-light windows to ground floor and single lights to first floor, the small central light with the sill grooved, possibly by a portcullis chain; central C14 depressed archway of 2 chamfered orders with C17 doors, the doors reversed with moulded panels to inner face. This archway has flanking C17 stone buttresses which rise in a semi-circular arch to support a 2nd floor rectangular bay window of 3 lights. Rear also has C14 arch with flanking single lights, 2-light windows to first floor and 2 cross windows to upper storey. Canted bay windows to sides have moulded corbel bases and transomed upper windows. Single storey range attached to right, of rubble stone and brick, has been much altered C20 but incorporates older building with angled rear corners and chamfered ashlar jambs. Interior: central through passage has been incorporated into a room with the removal of the left side wall. Ground floor room to right has altered fireplace with shallow late C17 stone arch. Upper floors retain C14 2-centred chamfered arches to towers, that from large room to S.E. tower being of oak. First floor rooms still have old doors. Fine upper room has late C16 stone fireplace with moulded 4-centred arch and stopped jambs, and heraldic glass of 1692 in N. window. Some traces of medieval drawing on rear wall of ground floor. Consecration cross and C17 clock in S.W. tower. Infront of the Tower, and attached to it is a bridge of 1736, with 2 brick arches over the moat. House is now owned by The National Trust. RCHM I p. 57-59 Mon. 4. National Trust Guide, by Dr. S. Hall, 1979 (B16).
Only standing Medieval fortified building in Buckinghamshire (B6).
National Trust survey (B18).
The tower and moat were constructed shortly after 1312 by John De Handlo. Inside the moat once stood the dwelling house and the noted 17th century formal garden which featured box hedges, gravel paths and parterre. After 1777 the garden was abandoned and gradually reverted to grazing land. A new garden was created in 1925 by Antonio Pinzani, but today the interior is grassed with various earthworks clearly visible. A watching brief carried out in August 1999 during the installation of a new sub-station and electrical cabling to the north east of the tower, discovered buried foundations cut features, a mortar spread and substantial amounts of medieval pottery. The red brick foundations may relate to a building within the 17th century garden or a greenhouse noted by a National Trust employee as having been since demolished. The nature and extent of the mortar spread at the western end of the trench remains unknown. The cut feature contained relatively large amounts of medieval pottery and animal bone in good condition, the material may have been disturbed and reburied during scouring works to the moat. The deposits seen under the gravelled drive were highly compacted and devoid of finds (B20-21).
Dendro-dating obtains felling date of 1312-13 for timbers from ground floor ceiling joists. A second felling date of 1614-15 for timbers from the roof joists suggests that the top storey of the building was rebuilt when the parapet was raised. See report (filed) for detail (B27).
Notes in Records of Buckinghamshire relating to a 1947 inspection of Boarstall Tower. Lead roof in good condition and mail walls sound but stonework above roof level in dangerous condition (four hexagonal corner towers, four intermediate parapets and four octagonal single-flue stacks of later date). First stage of reconstruction work undertaken using Clipsham stone, with a little re-use of old stone (B29).
Note in Records of Buckingahmshire of a summer excursion to Boarstall Tower in June 1925, containing a description of the Tower (B30).