Carlton Towers

The Carlton Towers we see today has a stately Victorian appearance. But peel back the layers of history and you find a much older house.

The three-storey block to the left is the original Jacobean Carlton Hall of 1614 which was completely rebuilt then by Elizabeth, the energetic widow of Brian Stapleton. It may even retain some of the masonry of the medieval house of the Stapleton family who had inherited the estate in 1301. The Stapletons became heirs to the barony of Beaumont by marriage in about 1476, yet the barony was not re-claimed for over 300 years.

The long wing on the right was added circa 1777, which is the date recorded on the clock, by Thomas Stapleton probably to the design of Thomas Atkinson of York.

In 1842 Miles Thomas Stapleton was allowed the claim to the barony of Beaumont and, to celebrate his ennoblement as 8th Lord Beaumont, he incorporated the long wing into the house, converting the chapel into a suite of state rooms with new rooms behind. We have his son Henry, 9th Lord Beaumont, to thank for the impressive Victorian façade.

It was the 9th Lord Beaumont’s dream to create the greatest of all Victorian country houses; this he achieved with his two architects: Edward Welby Pugin, whose father, Augustus Pugin, designed the interior of the Houses of Parliament, and Sir John Francis Bentley who designed Westminster Cathedral. Pugin re-faced the house in grand style, adding the turrets, gargoyles, battlements and coat of arms – and so Carlton Hall was reborn as Carlton Towers. Bentley brought a scholarly design and master craftsmanship to his work of remodeling the interior of the house. Today, Carlton Towers is an example of one of the best preserved of Gothic Revival interiors.