Dobroyd Castle

In the mid 19th century Todmorden was a booming, successful cotton town. It is in this setting that rich industrialist, John Fielden (Junior) fell in love with local worker, Ruth Stansfield and asked her to be his wife. It is often said that her reply was that she would marry him if he built her a castle. John and Ruth Fielden lived in the Castle but the couple became progressively distant and estranged, a Swiss chalet was built in the valley bottom for Ruth and it is said that she became an alcoholic. and there was concern locally for the future of the Castle, especially because the roof was in a state of disrepair and the work required to renovate it was going to cost around £200,000. The Buddhists had secured a grant for £127,000 from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund but this would not necessarily be transferable to the new owners. Robinwood Activity Centre Ltd. acquired the castle and grounds for £2.2 million in 2008 and by March 2009 had transformed the Castle into an activity centre. ==The Building==

Fielden commissioned John Gibson to design the Castle. It was to "Immortalise the name of Fielden" and to be "the most commanding object in the neighbourhood". The total cost of the building came to a total of £71,589 making it more expensive than either Todmorden Town Hall or Todmorden's Unitarian Church, both prestigious and architecturally significant buildings designed by Gibson. The 2 storey building has 4 turrets on its corners, several bay windows and a substantial 4 storey tower. The vast majority of the top of the building is castellated with battlements although of course this is for aesthetic rather than defensive reasons. Inside the castle are large columns of Devonshire Marble, a Rose Pink Marble fireplace, and an imposing Spinkwell Stone staircase. The Saloon (or 'Salon') area is topped by two large glass domes. The building contains four stone Tympana carved from Caen stone. The four carvings depict different images associated with the cotton industry. File:Slaves picking cotton (tympanum at Dobroyd Castle).jpg|alt=Carved stone tympanum showing enslaved African cotton pickers overseen by ominously depicted slave master|The first carving of enslaved African people picking cotton in America. The scene does not romanticise the cotton growing scene but shows a slave master watching over the workers as they toil. File:Slaves loading cargo at port (tympanum at Dobroyd Castle).jpg|alt=Carved stone tympanum showing a bale of cotton and two African slaves overseen by a port official leaning against a desk.|The second tympanum shows a port where a cargo of cotton bales are to be loaded onto a ship, again with the enslaved workers who are tying up the bales whilst a port official looks on from his desk. File:Richard Arkwright (tympanum at Dobroyd Castle).jpg|alt=Carved stone tympanum showing Richard Arkwright apparently making calculations alongside experimental models of the water frame|A third tympanum shows Richard Arkwright"The Father of the Factory System" working on what was to become the Water frame, an important invention allowing cheap yarn and therefore cheap cloth to be manufactured. This sparked the great expansion of the cotton industry. File:Women working looms (tympanum at Dobroyd Castle).jpg|alt= Carved stone tympanum showing mill workers at the loom with a sheet of finished cloth|The fourth and last carving shows women at a weaving loom and the finished cloth. The product that made the Fieldens rich. ==See also==