New Wardour Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Despite its name of “castle”, New Wardour Castle is a vast Palladian mansion built in the 1770s south-west of Tisbury, a little over a kilometre north-west of the medieval ruins of Old Wardour Castle. The Arundells, a Catholic family loyal to the royal cause, had lost the use of their fortress during the sieges of the Civil War; it was the 8th Baron Arundell who entrusted James Paine with giving them a residence worthy of their rank. The result is often presented as one of the finest Palladian houses in Wiltshire: a square block of limestone ashlar, flanked by two pavilions linked by curving galleries. The interior is organised around a spectacular rotunda where two curved staircases soar beneath a coffered dome lit by a lantern. The Catholic chapel built into the west wing, enlarged by John Soane at the end of the 18th century, still hosts services. After the Arundell line died out in 1944, the house enjoyed a second, institutional life: owned by the Jesuits, then home to Cranborne Chase School, a girls' school, until 1990. Bought in 1992 by a private individual, it has been divided into private apartments. The landscape park laid out by Richard Woods is itself protected.