Causey Park House

Description

Tower (built c.1586) at Causey Park (Hadcock 1939).
The house was built in 1589 by James Ogle, as appears by a stone tablet bearing the date and his shield. It was formerly in the outer wall of the east wing of the house which fell down about five years ago. The house consisted of a considerable suite of apartments fronting the south with east and west wings, besides various contiguous offices, all of which are verging on ruin. Within the house are two circular staircases, one near the middle, the other to the west (Hodgson 1832).
Causey Park was fully restored c.1870 and it was then that the two circular staircases were removed. The building originally consisted of a central tower with living quarters on each side and projecting wings to the east and west. The present house incorporates many of the main walls of the original structure (Oral Mr J L Hogg, 10.1.57 Owner, Causey Park).
The present stucco-faced building shows no external traces of antiquity. The main building is a two-storied rectangular structure with a projecting west wing and with plain sash windows. The walls are up to 1.2m thick and are doubtless those of the original structure. The very thick cross walls in the centre of the main building represent the remains of the central tower. No trace of the east wing remains.
In the east gable wall of the main building is a stone tablet with two weathered shields. Of the date mentioned by Hodgson only the figure '8' is now legible. In the east wall of the projecting west wing is another tablet bearing a shield inside a circular motif.
The building is in excellent condition and is used as a residence (F1 EG 10-JAN-1957).
Causey Park House, Grade II. East part of main block incorporates tower house built 1589 for James Ogle. Extended and remodelled later 18th century, restored 1870. Heraldic panel on right return badly eroded. Interior has 1.2m thick walls in 16th century part. Much altered elsewhere (Listed Building Report 30-Jan-1986)
The house consists of a six-bay main block c.21m by 7m externally, with a central stair projection at the rear (north). At the west end is a cross wing, 19.5m by 7m, and there are various rooms infilling the gap between the north part of the cross wing and the stair projection. The walls of the main block, the southern part of the cross wing (except for its rebuilt south end) and the stair projection, are a metre or more in thickness, as is a cross wall in the main block.
The external walls of the house are now rendered with the exception of the north wall of the main block to the east of the stair projection, which has been recently stripped and shows a variety of features. Massive squared stone in the lower courses is clearly medieval (14th or 15th century?). Large, roughly squared and roughly coursed stone further up the wall looks more of 16th century character. There are blocked openings in the wall at three levels: at ground floor level a central opening that may not be of any great age, with a chamfered medieval loop to the west, above this is another central opening of uncertain age with a larger square-headed chamfered window (medieval?) a little below and to the west, and near the top of the wall an odd broad opening near the centre with more square-headed windows of medieval character on either side, a small loop on the east and a larger opening on the west.
The only pre-18th century feature currently visible internally is a large segmental-arched fireplace on the north side of the ground floor room in the southern section of the cross-wing. This has been exposed and restored, its arch being taken down and reset, relatively recently.
A former owner made notes on the development of the house in 1987 and 1990. He recorded a variety of features seen during repairs and alterations and which are no longer visible. These include two arches in the east wall of the western tower/wing and a circular stone stair in its north east corner. In the eastern tower he refers to a high window in the east wall with a tall arched fireplace further south (see report for details). Two episodes of remodelling occurred, one in the 16th century (see report for details); another in the early 18th century. In the early 19th century the house fell into poor repair and the east wing collapsed c.1824. Later in the 19th century and in the 20th century, repairs and extensions were built.
SUMMARY: the central portion of the medieval house was probably a hall block rather than a walled yard. Whilst the eastern part of the medieval building was clearly of three storeys and can be classed as a tower, it is unclear what evidence there is for the western part being a tower rather than a stone built two storeyed cross wing. The eastern tower may well have contained a solar, whilst the west tower/wing housed the services. The blocked arches referred to in the east wall of the wing sound like the conventional service doorways from a cross passage at the west end of the hall.
The rendered elevations of Causey Park conceal a great number of structural features. It is a building of considerable complexity, demonstrating remodelling from a medieval house to a Tudor mansion and then to a Georgian country house. Full archaeological recording is highly desirable in the event of any further stripping or repair. The Ogle family owned Causey Park from the 16th century to the 1850s. The Hogg family bought Causey Park from the Court of Chancery in 1854 and have owned it ever since (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)