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 TOAL was from the grass verge and there is a layby just behind for parking 1 car. There is a tarmac pull-in opposite the Gatehouse and a 5 bar gate, but it was a bit too close for my liking.
TIXALL GATEHOUSE, STAFFORDSHIRE
Tixall Gatehouse was built around 1580, and is one of the earliest examples of the of Greek revival architecture in England. Its builder, Sir Walter Aston, was so besotted with this fashionable structure, that he had it constructed in a position close to the house blocking the views across the picturesque valley beyond. The back of the Gatehouse mirrors the front, and was separated from the house by a wall, all of which formed a courtyard. There are three storeys, topped by an open balustrade and at each of the four corners there is an octagonal tower topped with a stylish cupola and gilded weather vane that takes the structure up to approximately sixty feet in height. At the centre of the building there is an open archway that allowed carriages entrance to the enclosed courtyard and on either side were porters’ rooms with the servants’ apartments above accessed by a spiral stone staircase in one of the towers. The large windows are flanked by coupled columns, Doric on the ground floor, Ionic on the second, and Corinthian on the third.
Tixall Estate
Tixall Estate was purchased in 1825 by Viscount Ingestre, heir to the Earl of Shrewsbury, whose seat was the nearby Ingestre Hall. Tixall Hall fell into disuse after the 1st World War and apart from its fine Georgian crescent stables and the gatehouse it was demolished by the estate in 1927.
Over time, Tixall Hall had been renovated, knocked-down, rebuilt and finally demolished, yet as all around it had changed and fell, the Gatehouse survived. However, it too had come dangerously close to dereliction at the point it was purchased by the Landmark Trust in 1968 as an Elizabethan ruin, without roof, floors or windows and was being used as a shelter for cattle. It took years for the Trust to raise funds to pay for the restoration, and to draw up plans and have them agreed by the relevant authorities; but the restoration work finally began in 1975 taking 2 yrs to complete.
View and discuss this location in more detail on Grey Arrows.
Co-ordinates: 52.80408, -2.032449 • what3words: ///minority.chap.twinkling
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