Building record 3382/0/2 - The Hawking Tower

{1} Lodge. Mid C18. Squared and coursed lias with ashlar dressings. Tower of 3 stages. Wide stone flight to blocked entrance with ogee head in second stage. Ogee headed window openings in second in 3rd stage. Castellated parapet with pinacles. Wrought iron weather vane. Single ashlar gate pier attached to left hand side has panel decoration. Folly built by Second Earl of Strafford and Wentworth. Mentioned in letter from Horace Walpole 1756.

{2} Lodge. Mid 18th century. Squared and coursed lias with ashlar dressings. Tower of three stages. Wide stone flight to blocked entrance with ogee head in second stage. Ogee headed window opeings in second in 3rd stage. Castellated parapet with pinacles. Wrought iron weater vane. Single ashlar gatepier attached to left hand side has panel decoration. Folly built by Second Earl of strafford and Wentworth. Mentioned in letter from Horace Walpole 1756.

{3} Not far from the place where one can enter the park and drive to the house there is a lookout tower.

{4} The Hawking Tower must have been the first piece of improvement undertaken by owners as it is mentioned in 1756 by Walpole. It is a square stone three-storey tower, turned into an eyecatcher church for the house. Ogee windows, flatly banded, big quatrefoils, castellations and pinnacles. The outer stair to the top floor is now blocked.

{5} The Hawking Tower (1755) on the A508 serves as the main entrance to Boughton Hall and is essentially a copy of the Strafford's Steeple Lodge at Wentworth Castle.

{6} The Gate Lodge is also known as The Hawking Tower; it is castellated.

{7} Hawking Tower, three storeys high with ogee-headed and quatrefoil windows, an outer staircase and a tower surmounted by battlements.Tower built sometime between 1739 and 1756. The gate piers of which only one survives orignally bore stone figures of a lion and a griffin, heraldic supporters of the Earls of Strafford, holding shields bearing coats of arms.

{?} Coursed lias rubble with slate roof. Double depth plan. South elevation, 2-storey 4-window range, asymetrical. Second window from left projecting as 2-storey bay with entrance. Casement windows. Pitched roof with 4 gables has crenellated parapet. Right flanking bay C19. Rounded and quatrefoil decoration, datestone above entrance. North elevation has Dioclecian windows throughout. Built as folly by Earl of Strafford and Wentworth to commemorate the Battle of Bunkers Hill 1775. (G.E. Stevenson - Boughton. The Buildings of England : Northamptonshire 1973 p110). [SMR Note 10/08/2009: should probably go with Bunkers Hill Farm building(s).]

{8} Undated photo;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 8/47 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), G01 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN44900.

<3> Jones B., 1974, Follies and Grottoes, (unchecked) (Book). SNN56966.

<4> 1994, Boughton Hall?, p.66 (unchecked) (Article). SNN46237.

<5> NORTHAMPTONSHIRE GARDENS TRUST, Correspondence From NGT, (unchecked) (Correspondence). SNN44216.

<6> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.109 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<7> Scott S., 1995, The Follies of Boughton Park, (unchecked) (Book). SNN44220.

<8> Photographs of buildings in Boughton (Photographs). SNN111893.

Record last edited

Mar 4 2020 2:52PM