Buxton Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Old Hall Hotel; St Anne's Well

In the civil parish of Buxton.
In the historic county of Derbyshire.
Modern Authority of Derbyshire.
1974 county of Derbyshire.
Medieval County of Derbyshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK0575473477
Latitude 53.25803° Longitude -1.91525°

Buxton Tower has been described as a probable Tower House.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.

Description

The earl of Shrewsbury constructed a tower house by 1572 beside the newly fashionable springs at Buxton. A smaller version of this structure also built by the earl in 1574, still survives at Sheffield Manor in Yorkshire. (Goodall, p. 459)

Town house, now hotel. 1572, altered 1672, rebuilt 1725-35, extended mid C18 and 1795-1805, with late C19 refenestration and C20 alterations. Originally built for the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury. Ashlar gritstone and render with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate hipped roofs and stone stacks. INTERIOR: shows sections of original C16 building survive encased within later additions. Surviving features include 3 ft. thick original walling, exposed wall studding to basement, doorways with depressed arched lintels and chamfered and stopped surrounds, some re-used, concealed mullion windows; original plasterwork to first floor principal room with encased beam with rolled mouldings. Second floor has blocked 4-light mullioned and transomed windows (concealed). HISTORY: until recently it was believed that the 1572 building was demolished in 1670. The original building reputed to have been one of many houses belonging to the Earl of Shrewsbury used to imprison Mary Queen of Scots. (Listed Building Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1257847
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 540097.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2875.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Hall Hotel
  Wikipedia entry
Books
- Goodall, John, 2011, The English Castle 1066-1650 (Yale University Press) p. 459, 461, 470
  Pevsner, N., 1979 (2edn), The Buildings of England: Derbyshire p. 114-15
  Pevsner, N., 1953, The Buildings of England: Derbyshire p. 115
Periodical Articles
- Thornes, R. and Leach, J., 1991, 'Buxton Old Hall: The Earl of Shrewsbury's Tower House rediscovered' Archaeological Journal Vol. 148 p. 256-268
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Celia Fiennes, 1888, Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press) Vision of Britain online transcription
  Speed, J., 1610, Map of Darbieshire online scan
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dave Barrett, Gill Stroud, 2009, Extensive Urban Survey - Derbyshire (English Heritage) Download copy
  Thornes, R., 1989, The Old Hall Hotel, The Crescent, Buxton (RCHME Historic Building Report)

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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