Shirburn Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Shirburn Castle stands at the foot of the Chilterns, in south Oxfordshire, at the heart of a landscape park. Built from 1377 by Warin de Lisle, it adopts the quadrangular plan characteristic of late 14th-century English castles, comparable to Bodiam: four ranges around a courtyard, a round tower at each corner and a gatehouse tower in the centre of the west front, all encircled by wide moats fed by springs. Its distinctiveness lies in its material: Historic England regards it as the oldest brick building in Oxfordshire. Stone and clunch are used only in the centre of the west front. The castle retains its gatehouse tower, its west and south outer walls and probably two towers, while the rest was largely reworked after 1716 in a Georgian and then Gothic taste. Owned since 1716 by the Parker family, Earls of Macclesfield, Shirburn became a centre of learning in the 18th century: its library held incunabula, two Caxtons and letters by Isaac Newton, and an observatory was founded there in 1739. Listed Grade I, the building remains a private residence.