Brownsea Castle
BROWNSEA CASTLE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1120277
- Date first listed:
- 13-Dec-1984
- List Entry Name:
- Brownsea Castle
- Statutory Address:
- BROWNSEA CASTLE
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2002-06-18
- Reference:
- IOE01/07282/21
- Rights:
- © Mr JE Leeson. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1120277
- Date first listed:
- 13-Dec-1984
- List Entry Name:
- Brownsea Castle
- Statutory Address 1:
- BROWNSEA CASTLE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- BROWNSEA CASTLE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Dorset (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Studland
- National Grid Reference:
- SZ 03048 87646
Details
SZ 08 NW STUDLAND BROWNSEA ISLAND
1/63 Brownsea Castle
GV II
Country House, used as holiday centre, incorporating a blockhouse and gun platform of 1548. This raised and extended c1765. Further extensions early and mid C19. Gutted by fire and part rebuilt 1897 - architect Philip Brown of Southampton (Pevsner). Walls part coursed and squared rough ashlar stone, part brick with stone dressings. Flat roofs with battlemented parapets. Exterior mostly in Victorian Tudor style. Irregular plan and profile, dominated by tower built off original blockhouse. Main building part 2-storeys, part 3-storeys. Tower rises a further 2 storeys. South-west front, facing sea, has a 2-storey building of c1850 in front of the tower. This has angle buttresses with octagonal pinnacles and cornice with carved lion heads. Canted central bay with mullioned and transomed windows. On each side of bay, on ground floor, a pointed arched doorway, and above this a mullioned and transomed window. Tower of brick, with stone mullioned and transomed windows - lower lights blocked. Left of tower a 2-storeyed brick range with moulded parapet and string course. Angle buttress. Mullioned windows on each floor. Right of tower a 3-storeyed stone range, with battlements and moulded string courses. Octagonal turret at right end, with transomed windows. At rear, a single-storey range added on north-east in mid C19, incorporating one circular and one octagonal turret. Internally, walls of original blockhouse survive on ground floor, some with a slight batter, now plastered - no old features visible. Interior largely of 1897. Several rooms have good panelling and ornamental ceilings. One first floor room has C16 stone fireplace surround, reset, with lion head and foot consoles. In another first floor room a fireplace with carved stone cartouches including lion of S. Mark. All this probably from Venice. A National Trust Property. RCHM Monument 3 (Dorset Vol II). (Pevsner - Buildings of England - Dorset, and Brownsea Island - a History (National Trust)).
Listing NGR: SZ0304887646
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 109073
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Brownsea Island a History, ()
Inventory of Dorset, (1970)
Pevsner, N, Newman, J, The Buildings of England: Dorset, (1972)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 04-Jun-2026 at 12:55:21.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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