Architecture

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katiemac

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Hey everyone,

I'm in need of some assistance in regards to the architecture of a building. My building is completely fictional, and not actually a "castle," but my model is the 1848 structure Cliff Castle at Keighley.

cliffe-castle001.jpg


I like the look and style of this building very much, but I have no idea how to convey it because I'm not familiar with such terminology. Basically, I'd be looking to know about different aspects of the building - (e.g., tower? balcony? arches?) - the kind of materials it may be constructed with.... I believe Cliffe was originally an Elizabethian manor house, then converted into a Tudor castle.

If anyone has ideas, I'd love them! Many thanks.
 
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three seven

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Katie, are you looking specifically for information on the construction of Cliffe Castle (which, you're right, was originally a mansion house)? You've thrown me off with talk of Versailles, which is an entirely different beast!
 

katiemac

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Sorry Three. Yes, Cliffe Castle as a model for that time period's architecture. I'll go edit that first post.
 

Alphabet

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One of the benefits of realising that I know nothing is it prompted me to learn how to find out things fast.

Here is a link but here are the key points

You are going to have a problem, as this is a mish-mash of accumulated changes. I.e. it isn't really anything that would have happened all at one particular time period. Here are some extracts from the link:

http://www.arch.wyjs.org.uk/advsrv/Newsletters/CliffeCastle.pdf
...The first substantial house on this site was called Cliffe Hall....

...With its ornate gables and mullioned windows, Cliffe Hall gave the impression of an Elizabethan manor house...

...the Elizabethan manor house was transformed into a large, rambling 'Tudor Castle'; Henry renamed the house Cliffe Castle in 1878. A comparison of the drawing on the left with the one above it shows that the earlier Hall was incorporated in the new house, and some of its windows were enlarged. The substantial extensions included battlemented towers and a ballroom. Large conservatories were built, among them the Winter Gardens, shown on the right of the drawing

...The far tower was demolished and the nearer one reduced in height; the top storey of the main range was removed, and extensive repairs were carried out. What had been described as I probably the last of the 'Victorian fantasies' became a much plainer structure on the outside...

...The man who built Cliffe Castle, Henry Isaac Butterfield, and his architects drew their inspiration from the Middle Ages. This can be seen not only in the towers and battlements shown overleaf, but also in the detailed designs of individual rooms.
 

Richard White

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I'm glad Alphabet posted that information. I could tell from looking at that building that it had been added to seveal times. The tower in the front just looked completely wrong with the rest of the architecture that was visible in the picture.

That's the problem with a lot of the castles you can find. Unless they're the old border castles (which are pretty run down as you can imagine), they've been updated over the years to the point where they're still castles but not very authentic.

You might find this web site useful, http://www.castlesontheweb.com/search/Castle_Collections/
 

three seven

(Graeme Cameron)
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This is actually a pretty hard question to answer, but I'll give you a start.

From the photos available, its main features are obviously the portcullis and tower, which is what would have been called a gatehouse tower. I suspect that's a battlement of sorts at the very top, albeit with very broad and shallow merlons (the sticky-up bits).

The individual windows in the tower appear to be 11th-Century in style - narrow, and seemingly splayed inwards like arrow slits - although bay windows didn't come into fashion until the 14th, so there's a bit of an anachronous discrepancy there.

The rest of the building is standard Victorian manor house, albeit with UPVC windows. Which is nice...

Beyond that, it gets hazy...
 

katiemac

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Thank you everyone for the help! I had no idea the building was so complicated; perhaps that's why I found a hard time with simple answers on the websites I found.

Alphabet, thanks so much for the link. I actually came across that a long time ago, but then my "favorites" list erased and I never could find it again.

Richard, I've been perusing that link you gave me as well, and it looks as though I'll be able to find some information in there, or maybe a better model.

Three, that information will be able to do me a bit of help -- from your keywords, I can do a little research expansion and look at those ideas in a generality. Thanks a lot!

- Katie
 
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