Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire

It is thought that the castle's three state rooms were once splendidly fitted out and the chambers were heated by immense Gothic fireplaces with decorated chimney pieces and tapestries.

Lord Curzon of Kedleston stepped in at the eleventh hour to buy the castle and was determined to get the fireplaces back.

[1][3] It was gifted to the National Trust, on his death, in 1925[1] and remains today one of the three most important surviving brick castles of the mid-15th-century in the United Kingdom.

[5] The experience of Tattershall led Lord Curzon to push for heritage protection law in Britain; this was enacted as the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act 1913.

[7] The design was extremely simple, with four floors, slightly increasing in size at each level by reductions in wall thickness.

A brick vaulted corridor led to a small waiting room, before the great hall of the Audience Chamber, which today houses Flemish tapestries bought by Lord Curzon.

[1] Above these are the roof gallery and battlements, which provide good views across the Lincolnshire landscape, as far as Boston to the south, and Lincoln to the north.

[1] The brick foundations to the south of the great tower, projecting into the moat, mark the site of the 15th-century kitchens.

[1] Today, the old guardhouse (about 330 feet (100 m) north-east of the tower) is the gift shop, and the grounds are home to a number of peacocks.