Tong Castle

Tong Castle was a very large mostly Gothic country house in Shropshire, set within a park landscaped by Capability Brown. [Wolverhampton's Listed Buildings] While there was originally a 12th century castle on the site this was demolished in 1765 after the estate had been purchases by George Durant [George Durant 1734-1780, the son of a country rector was in interesting character who was shipped abroad following an affair with Lady Lyttelton, of Hagley Hall - while away from England in the West Indies he made his fortune in the slave trade - returning a wealthy man, he subsequently build Tong castle. Ref:BBC.CO.UK] who built the house illustrated. The building has been described both: as an "architectural mongrel" [Wolverhampton's Listed Buildings] , and more flatteringly as "the first real gothic building in Shropshire" [BBC.CO.UK] while at first glance there appear some anomalies of design, such as the ogee domes which though Gothic in shape are more redolent of the English Renaissance style, the house was actually in the Strawberry Hill Gothic popularized by Horace Walpole.

Walpole's Gothic house at Strawberry Hill was begun in 1749, expanded in 1760, and completed in 1776. Thus the comparatively early date of 1765 for Tong castle to be erected in this fairly rare style would today have made Tong of the highest architectural grading class. The battlemented towers and pediments coupled with the paned, rather than traditional Gothic leaded, windows crowned by Ogee curves are typical of this style, as too are the generous bay windows with circular windows and cruciform motifs in the upper levels. The later 19th century Gothic tended to be more ecclesiastical and sombre in mood, with dark rooms lit by lancet windows while the earlier Gothic had larger windows and a "joie de vivre" of design not found in later versions of the style

The house passed from the Durant family in 1854 to the Earl of Bradford, the Earl had no wish to live at Tong but expand his estate in the area and let the house [Jefferey, chap 5] . In 1911 the house was damaged by fire and remained unrestored until demolished in 1954 [Worsley, somewhere near the beginning!] to make way for the M54 motorway.

Notes

References

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2007/03/02/slavery__george_durant_feature.shtml BBC.CO.UK] retrieved 23 March 2007
*cite book
last = Jeffery
first = Robert
year = 2007
title = Discovering Tong, Its History, Myths and Curiosities.
publisher = Privatly Published
location =
id = ISBN-13 978-0-9555089-0-5
* [http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/listed/tong.htm Wolverhampton's Listed Buildings] retrieved 23 March 2007
*cite book
last = Worsley
first = Giles
year = 2002
title = England's lost Houses
publisher = Aurum Press
location = London
id = ISBN 1 85410 820 4