Ravensworth Castle Gatehouse

En un regard

Le château en bref

Ravensworth Castle stands in the woods of Lamesley parish, south-west of Gateshead, about 600 m south-east of Trench Hall. Historically within the County Palatine of Durham, the site now lies in Tyne and Wear. It combines three phases: a 14th-century quadrangular castle, an 18th-century house built within its walls, and then a vast 19th-century Gothic Revival residence, almost entirely demolished in 1953. Of the medieval fortress only two corner towers survive, to the north-east and south-east, some ten metres high, along with sections of curtain wall. To the east stands the best-preserved group from the Victorian phase: a "Gothick" gatehouse dated to around 1840, framed by three-storey octagonal towers, which leads into a stable courtyard dominated by a clock tower. The interest of the site lies in this layered reading of an aristocratic estate in the North East, long held by the Liddells, later Barons Ravensworth, who grew rich from coal. The remains, listed on the Heritage at Risk Register, were among the candidates in the BBC programme Restoration.