Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Walter May, who died in 1823, erected the very ornate "Gothick" building, which he called Walter Hadlow Court Castle. Barton May added the "costly appendages and embellishments" to the building. After his death, the estate was split up and in 1952, the Castle, being impossible for modern living, was sold for demolition. May's 1840 tower has outlived his 1830 Gothic-revival house. Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1767 to 1951

Monument Types

• FOLLY (Post Medieval to Modern - 1767 AD to 2050 AD)
• CASTLE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1820 AD? to 2050 AD)
• STABLE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1820 AD? to 2050 AD)
• WALL (Post Medieval to Modern - 1820 AD? to 2050 AD)
• TOWER (Post Medieval to Modern - 1838 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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(TQ 63434967) Hadlow Castle (NAT) (1) Hadlow Castle. Grade II*. Circa 1820 with later 19th century additions. (2) [For full description see list]. TQ 6349. May's Folly. Hadlow Castle. May's 1840 tower has outlived his 1830 Gothic-revival house. (3) Hadlow Castle. The tower 170 ft high, constructed c.1838-40 by Walter Barton May. May seems to have designed the tower himself, with an octagonal tower, gabled projectons on three of the cardinal sides of the lowest stage, and a four-storeyed main stage with pinnacles. George Ledwell Taylor was employed as engineer. It is built of brick rendered with Roman cement. There remain the entrance gateway and lodges in the village street, and the stable court with two square angle-turreted pavilions, all in a bald and uninteresting castellated Gothic, far less convincing in detail than the tower. J.B. Bunning exhibited a design for the south front in 1821. He was nineteen at the time. Mr Colvin However has found a contemporary statement that acertain J. Dugdale was May's 'principle architect' in designing the house. (4) Hadlow Castle. Walter May, who died in 1823, erected the very ornate "Gothick" building, which he called Hadlow Court Castle. Walter Barton May added the "costly appendages and embellishments" to the building. After his death, the estate was split up and in 1952, the Castle, being impossible for modern living, was sold for demolition. (5) HADLOW HIGH STREET (south side) Hadlow Tower, Hadlow Castle. Tower, part of the remains of Hadlow Castle, a large Gothic House of late C18 origins. Tower begun 1838 (lantern added 1840) for Walter Barton May to the designs of George Ledwell Taylor (Thirsk). [Full architectural description] LISTED GRADE I. Additional historical reference. (a) HADLOW HIGH STREET (south side) Ranges round the stable yard east of Hadlow Tower, Hadlow Castle. Former stables, service building and walls around the stable courtyard north east of Hadlow Tower, the buildings converted to housing. [Full architectural description] LISTED GRADE II*. (6)

Description from record TQ 64 NW 192:
The following text is from the original listed building designation:
HADLOW HIGH STREET (south side) TQ 63 49 7/84 Hadlow Tower, Hadlow Castle 17.4.51
GV I
Tower, part of the remains of Hadlow Castle, a large Gothick house of late C18 origins. Tower begun 1838 (lantern added in 1840) for Walter Barton May to the designs of George Ledwell Taylor (Thirsk); modelled in part on William Beckford's 1812 tower (collapsed 1825) at Fonthill, Wiltshire, designed by James Wyatt. Rendered brick to imitate stone with the finer architectural detail and decoration built up in the Roman cement render. Gothick.
Plan: The tower was added at the south east corner of the original house (built by May's-father) with the stable courtyard to its north east. The main house was dismantled in 1951: what is left today is the stable courtyard, converted to housing, with the tower in the south east corner linked to the courtyard buildings by a freestanding wall, formerly the west wall of the house. Tower octagonal on plan with a circular stair turrett adjoining at the south west and a doorway on the north face. A lower, rectangular tower adjoins at the west. The original function of the main tower, beyond advertising the wealth and architectural ambition of the family, is obscure. The interior is relatively plain, especially when comapred with the lavish Interior of the house. It does not appear to have been heated originally and the smaller tower, between it and the house, was used as accommodation for men servants prior to 1951 (Thirsk).
Exterior: An extraordinary landmark, especially in the flat Hadlow landscape. 170 feet high, plus the lantern and covered with quite delicate Gothick detail in Roman cement, becoming progressively more elaborate on the upper stages. Slender 3-tier gabled projections to each of the cardinal faces with diagonal buttresses, steep gables and tall crocketted pinnacles. The 3-stage stair turret has a pierced parapet and lancet window. The stages of the tower are marked by string courses of various designs, some enriched with fleurons. The faces of the tower are divided by buttresses which rise above the pierced parapet as tall pinnacles with gabled crocketted pinnacles. Tall, buttressed, pinnacled lantern largely obscured by scaffolding at time of survey (1988). Various tall, Gothick windows, matching on each stage. The lower stage windows are 2-light and transomed with flamboyant tracery and moulded architraves with engaged shafts with capitals; incised crosses above the windows and, above them, a string course with a tier of engaged battlementing. The second stage also has 2-light transomed windows with quatrefoil windows above. Similar, narrower windows to the third stage with pairs of lancets above. The fourth stage has smaller transomed windows, each wall face covered in blind arcading in 2 tiers. The fifth stage also has 2 tiers of decoration, the lower tier trefoil-headed arcading, some blind, some glazed, the upper tier decorated with blind tracery and incorporating corbelled projections. Some of the Roman cement detail has fallen away. The gabled projections each have 2 tiers of tall lancet windows with moulded architraves, the embrasures filled with cusped lattice with traceried windows just below the gables. The north projection has a very tall, chamfered 2-centred doorway. The adjoining 4-storey servants' tower is embattled with a rounded projecting stair turret at the north west and various Gothick windows: lancets, 2-centred with cusped Y tracery and timber flamboyant traceried windows in square-headed embrasures. Interior: Plain by comparison with the exterior but preserving some original doors with applied Gothick panelling. A remarkable example of ambitious Gothick design and an outstanding landscape feature. The May family was essentially local and sum of the wealth used on the tower may have derived from hop-growing (Thirsk). Thirsk, Joan. Hadlow Castle: A Short History (1985). Listing NGR: TQ6341649658 (8)

Archive material (9)

<1> OS 1:10000 1974 (OS Card Reference). SKE48159.

<2> MHLG Tonbridge RD Sept 1949 42-3 (OS Card Reference). SKE47182.

<3> Follies 1963 70-1 illus (H Casson) (OS Card Reference). SKE43437.

<4> The Bldgs of Eng W Kent and the Weald 1980 312-3 illus (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE50143.

<5> Trans Battle and Dist Hist Soc 14 1964 24-5 (OS Card Reference). SKE50626.

<6> DOE(HHR)Dist of Tonbridge and Malling Kent, 19th Feb 1990 68-9, 70 (OS Card Reference). SKE41376.

<7> Thirsk J(1985) Hadlow Castle:A Short History (OS Card Reference). SKE50558.

<8> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<9> Historic England archive material associated with Hadlow Castle (Archive). SKE53826.

Sources and further reading