Castles,
Home and Fortress.
Guest post by Brian Kitchen
Since childhood I have enjoyed
visiting castles. There wasn’t one in the town that I was brought up in, but there
was one a few miles away from where I lived.
This was Tutbury Castle whose history goes back to at least Anglo-Saxon
times. Following the Norman Conquest, a motte and bailey type of castle was
built and the castle was given to the Ferrers family. From 1266 until the
present day the castle has been the property of the Earls and Dukes of Lancaster
and their descendants, the Kings and Queens of England in right of the Duchy of
Lancaster.
Today, most of the surviving
buildings date from the 15th century, although the gateway at the
north end is early 14th century. The house which is still inhabited
today, is mid-18th century and incorporates some 17th
century features. Over the years the castle has had some distinguished
visitors, albeit some reluctant ones. Mary Queen of Scots was held prisoner at
Tutbury Castle for a time and a brewer at nearby Burton upon Trent was a
go-between for Mary and those plotting on her behalf.
King James 1, Mary’s son later visited
on several occasions, the castle accommodation being improved by the
replacement of an old medieval range of buildings, with new ones which became
to be known as the King’s Lodging. James’ son, King Charles 1 also visited the
castle several times and used the King’s Lodging when he stayed there and during
the Civil War, the castle was held for him.
A short,
but unsuccessful siege of the castle in 1643 however, was followed by a
successful one in the Spring of 1646, leading to the Castle’s surrender. One of
the conditions of the surrender was that the castle should be rendered
untenable and local men were employed to pull down the buildings. After the
Restoration in 1662, some of the rooms of the Castle were repaired, but its days
as a fortress were over.
In 1751, a visitor to Tutbury described
how he had witnessed the demolition of “an apartment of about three grand
rooms, a floor with handsome window-cases and doors of modern Roman
architecture.” Around about this time the artificial ruin on the motte was
erected, so that Lord Vernon who now leased the castle, would have the view
from his mansion at Sudbury improved. In 1832 the Duchy of Lancaster turned
down a proposal to turn part of the castle into a local prison. Money was spent
on repairs and the castle became a visitor attraction which it remains to
today.
Tamworth
Castle is also local to where I live and is today one of the best-preserved
motte and bailey castles in England. The site of the castle served as a residence
of the Mercian Kings in Anglo-Saxon times. Offa of the famous dyke (which
formed the border between Mercia and Wales) built a palace there. After the Viking attack in 874ad,
contemporary accounts recorded that Tamworth was left “for nearly forty years a
mass of blackened ruins”. In 913ad, King Alfred’s daughter, Athelflaed, Lady of
the Mercians, is known to have had Tamworth refortified and it was one of the
Burghs.
It was the Normans though, who built the Castle
and the Marmion family, hereditary Champions of the Duke of Normandy held the
Castle for six generations until 1294. It then passed to the Freville family
upon Philip Marmion’s death and they held it until 1423. The Ferrers family were the next family to
hold the castle. Over the centuries additions were made to the Castle,
including the pictured 17th century, Jacobean three storey south
range. Although the Castle came under siege in 1643 by Parliamentary forces
during the English Civil War, it survived and fortunately didn’t suffer the fate
of Tutbury Castle, being instead garrisoned by Parliament.
In 1715, upon the marriage of Elizabeth
Ferrers to the 5th Earl of Northampton, the Castle passed to the
Compton family. For most of the 19th
century the castle was let out to tenants, until in 1891 the castle was
purchased by the then Tamworth Corporation. Today the successors of the
corporation, the Tamworth Borough Council still own the castle and it is open
to the public between April and September.
It
wasn’t until later in my life that I toured the castles of North Wales, which were
built to ring the coast, following the successful campaign of Edward 1 to
conquer the Welsh. Beaumaris Castle, on
the Isle of Anglesey, the last of the royal castles to be built is one of my
favourites. Building was commenced in April 1295. Castles are generally
designed as fortified residences and this is certainly true in the case of
Beaumaris Castle.
At
Beaumaris, all the residential accommodation was either in the Inner Ward, or
in towers attached to it. Beaumaris also had more accommodation than one would
normally find in a castle. This is because when work was first started on the
castle it was expected that the castle would need to accommodate the Royal
Court, but alas this never came to pass. Unfortunately, the money ran out and
in 1331, work on the castle was halted. The front of the Llanfraes Gate was
left unfinished, the great towers of the Inner Ward only reached a little above
the floor level of their top storeys and the turrets were never begun.
Over
the years that followed the castle fell into disrepair. In 1534, it was
reported “there was scarcely a single chamber in Beaumaris castle where a man
could lie dry.” Four years later all
four of the castles in North Wales were reported to be, (to quote in the
language of the time) “much ruynous and ferre in decay for lacke of tymely
reparacons.” In 1609, Beaumaris Castle
was officially classified as “utterlie decayed.” Buildings were dismantled at
Beaumaris Castle sometime around the time of the Restoration in 1660.
The
castle experienced one more Royal occasion when in 1832 a Royal Eisteddfod was
held there and her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and her 13-year-old
daughter, the future Queen Victoria attended. Today the castle is in the care
of Cadw, Welsh Historic Monuments and is open to the public. I still love
visiting there today and indeed all the other castles I have visited over the
years. A symbol of our islands’ martial past, or someone’s home, they all have
their own magic and mystery.
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About the author
Brian
Kitchen lives in Burton upon Trent, England and
enjoys walking in the countryside, photography, reading, writing, visiting
museums and historic sites & buildings and supporting Burton Albion. He
first became interested in the history of Roman Britain as a child and loved
the Eagle of the Ninth trilogy of novels by Rosemary Sutcliff.
The first of the Flavius Vitulasius novels, Divided Empire is
his first published novel.
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Such an interesting post, Brian. Thank you for sharing it with my readers!
ReplyDeleteI loved visiting the castles of North Wales. Beaumaris is particularly pastoral, and it's so hard to imagine the military purpose now in such a peaceful countryside. We spent hours in Caernarvon castle, investigating up and down every corridor and stairway. That one definitely looks more military today, but still so peaceful. Thanks for your post, Brian!
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