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Castles – English

‘Build Date’ refers to the oldest surviving significant elements In column 1; B ≡ Bedfordshire, BU ≡ , D ≡ , LC ≡ , NR ≡ , NT ≡ Nottinghamshire, O ≡ , R ≡ , ST ≡ WA ≡ , WO ≡ Worcestershire Occupation B Location Configuration Build Date Current Remains Status

1 Someries TL 119 201 Fortified house c1450 Empty, early-18th C Ruined & chapel BU 1 SP 623 142 Fortified house 1312 Demolished, 1777 Gatehouse occupied as residence D 1 Bolsover SK 471 707 Enclosure + Early-12th C Occupied 17th C buildings, some ruined 2 SK 434 500 Enclosure 14th C Empty, 17th C Scattered ruins of walls & a chamber block 3 Haddon SK 235 664 Fortified house 1190s Occupied Entire, largely unmodified 4. Horston SK 376 432 Tower 12th C Empty, 15th C Fragmentary ruins 5 Mackworth SK 311 378 Fortified house 15th C Empty, 17th C Nothing but high ruin of gatehouse 6 Peveril SK 149 826 Enclosure Late-11th C Empty, c1400 Ruined keep, walls, foundations 7 SK 374 547 Fortified house 1439 Empty, 17th C Extensive ruins, especially inner court LC 1 Ashby SK 361 166 Fortified house c1150 Empty, 17th C High ruins of towers 2 SK 524 026 Enclosure 1480 Empty, 17th C High ruins, tower & gatehouse 3 SK 583 041 Motte & 1068 Part occupied Motte, , in some form NR 1 Barnwell TL 049 852 Enclosure c1266 Empty, 17th C High ruins of walls, towers, & gatehouse 2 TL 062 930 Motte & bailey Late-11th C Empty, 17th C Earthworks, masonry fragments 3 Rockingham SP 867 913 Motte & bailey 11/16th C Occupied Ruins of , Tudor house 4 Thorpe Waterville TL 022 814 Fortified House 1301 Part occupied Great hall + as barn NT 1 Halloughton SK 690 517 Tower Mid-14th C Occupied Entire, modern roof 2 Newark (1) SK 796 541 Enclosure 12th C Empty, 17th C Fine west & north facades 3 Newark (2) SK 791 531 Civil War Fort 1644 Surrendered, 1646 Earthworks complete 4 Nottingham SK 568 395 Motte & bailey Mid-12th C Sleighted, 17th C Gateway, 17th C mansion O 1 Broughton SP 418 382 Fortified house 14th/15th C Occupied Entire 2 SP 472 318 Enclosure 1160 Empty, 13th C Earthworks only 3 Grey’s Court SU 726 834 Fortified house 1347 Occupied 14th C ruins, 16th C house 4 SP 509 062 Motte & bailey 12th C Empty Tower, motte 6 SU 697 960 Fortified house 1377 Occupied Entire, moated quadrangle 7 Wallingford SU 610 896 Motte & bailey 11th C Sleighted, 1652 Earthworks, ruined wall R 1 SK 862 088 Motte & bailey 11th C Occupied Hall entire, walls, earthworks ST 1 Caverswell SJ 951 428 Enclosure Late-13th C Occupied Mansion added, 17th C 2 Chartley SK 010 285 Motte & bailey 13th C Empty, 16th C Ruins of keep, towers, & curtain wall 3 Dudley SO 946 907 Enclosure + keep c1310 Empty, 1750 Extensive ruins 4 SJ 902 222 Motte & bailey 1070 Demolished, 17th C 19th C rebuild, low ruins, earthworks

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Occupation ST Castle Configuration Build Date Current Remains Location Status

5 Tamworth SK 207 039 Motte & Bailey Early 12th C Occupied Shell keep, tower, hall 6 SK 209 291 Motte & bailey Late-11th C Sleighted 17th C Towers, gatehouse, wall ruins WA 1 Astley SP 313 894 Fortified house 13th C Empty, 20th C High ruins of house, bridge 2 Brinklow SP 439 797 Motte & bailey 11th C Empty, 13th C Impressive earthworks, never any masonry 3 Caludon SP 374 802 Fortified House 14th C Empty, 17th C High wall of hall, 4 Kenilworth SP 279 723 Enclosure 1120s Sleighted, 1649 Ruins of keep, , service 5 Maxstoke SP 224 892 Enclosure 1340s Occupied Complete, occasionally open 6 Warwick SP 284 646 Enclosure 1170s Occupied Entire, but modified & refurbished 7 Weoley SP 022 827 Fortified house 1200 Empty, 18th C? Low walls and footings WO 1 Hartlebury SO 836 713 Fortified house 1250 Occupied Entire without defences, now a museum 2 Holt SO 831 626 Fortified house 14th C Occupied Entire, though modified since 14th C

1. A total of 43 have been identified in the English Midlands, the 11 of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. My selection philosophy has been to include the great majority of those I have already visited and such others as I think, and interesting, though survival of masonry is a pre- requisite; I have tended to exclude those which have benefitted from a modern reconstruction which could be described as a rebuild. There are remains of many more castles in the counties concerned, which I do not consider, usually because they are too fragmentary. So, my gazetteer is best regarded as a sample, albeit quite a large one, and the tentative conclusions I draw need to be seen in that light.

2. To-date, I have visited 33 of the 43 castles on my list.

3. There are 12 motte and bailey types, mostly built by the mid-12th century, there are 11 enclosure castles in which the castle buildings are part of the outer defences, again mostly built before the end of the 12th century. The enclosure design, if adopted seems to coincide with the move to stone buildings. There are 14 fortified houses, many built late in the medieval period.

4. The desertion and decay of castles rarely began early in this region, and 16 are still occupied. The Civil War was an important factor in this region, with sleighting contributing to the fact that 14 were deserted in the 17th century.

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B1. Someries Castle is immediately south of Luton Airport, itself on the south-west edge of the town. A fortified house with a high tower may have stood here in 1221, but there are no remains above ground. The brick gatehouse dates from the 15th century, and was probably completed by Bishop Rotherham of Lincoln. Eventually the house passed to a family called Napier in 1724, and they living elsewhere dismantled most of it, though the gatehouse, viewed from the east in the photograph, survived though ruined. Facing north-west it had 2 octagonal flanking a stone archway. There was a chapel, in the foreground of the photograph. The brick walls, an unusual building material given the time and place were relatively thin, casting doubt on the description as a fortified manor, but it was moated and had some defensive capability.

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BU1. Boarstall Tower is 13½km north- east of Oxford. According to legend, King Edward the Confessor gave the land to one of his men in return for slaying a wild boar that had infested a nearby forest, and the successful hunter named his house for the animal. The gatehouse or tower dates from 1312 when it was built as part of a fortified, moated mansion; the house was in the middle of the moated platform which was palisaded rather than walled. It was owned by many families in the succeeding 3 centuries, before in the Civil War, it was occupied by both sides. The Royalists fought off 2 attacks in 1645, before surrendering in 1646 to Sir . It eventually passed to the Aubreys, and after a family tragedy they moved out and had the mansion demolished, save for the gatehouse, in 1777. The property was given to the National Trust in 1943, and the gatehouse is occupied by a tenant. The view in the photograph is from the south-east; the moat bridge dates from 1736 and replaced a . The gatehouse has dimensions 12.6 X 8m, with walls 1m thick; the corner turrets are hexagonal with stairs in the inner ones. The rooms on the lower 2 floors are small, but there is one large room on the top floor, and the balustrade dates to the 17th century.

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D1. is on the west side of the town of that name, 8km east of Chesterfield, high on the east side of the M1. The castle was founded in the early 12th century by William Peveril, but was forfeited to the crown shortly afterwards. From the early 13th century onwards the castle had a number of custodians who did not live there, and in consequence, maintenance was sporadic at best, and decay set in. The fortunes of the castle were transformed in 1608, when a long lease was given to the Cavendish family who acquired the dukedom of Newcastle later in the century. Almost everything visible on the site is the result of their rebuilding operations. Their first step was to knock down the medieval keep, and replace it with the ‘Little Castle’ in the left foreground of the aerial view from the north below. Next came the new suite of domestic buildings along the west side of the outer court, to be seen in the centre-right below, and the riding academy building which divided the outer court, south of the other buildings, and is visible along the top of the photograph below. The castle was lost during the Civil War, demilitarised in its aftermath, and damaged considerably, but after the Restoration, the Cavendishes returned and made good the damage. However, in ensuing years the castle passed through various hands and few of its owners lived there; although the Little Castle was kept in good order, the domestic west wing was de-roofed and the south wing was not well maintained. Eventually the building was transferred to state guardianship in 1945, and it is now open to the public, with the Little Castle marketed as a wedding venue. It must be emphasized that none of the original castle with its keep, and inner and outer courts surrounded by curtain walls is visible, all were swept away in the 17th century, though the present configuration does owe a considerable amount to its medieval predecessor.

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D2. is beside Castle Lane, on the east side of the town of Codnor, and just north of Heanor. The de Grey family acquired the estate in the early 13th century, but the present remains probably date from a century later. In 1496 the castle and manor passed into the hands of the Zouche family, but their disputes soon led to its purchase by King Henry VII. The Zouches eventually obtained the property in the 1540’s, and resided there until they sold it to Archbishop Sir Richard Neile of York in 1634, because of serious financial problems. This meant the demise of the property as an entity because it was leased in packets, and the castle masonry was quarried and sold. Thereafter there were various owners, and the castle decayed, though now there is a trust which aims to preserve the scant remains. It was an enclosure castle surrounded by a moat, and with inner and outer courts. The survivals are of the west and north curtain wall of the latter with traces of mural towers, and twin towers of a gatehouse at the north end which gave access to the inner court. Of the latter there is one substantial remnant, a chamber block of dimensions 19 X 12m at the north-east corner. Access is decidedly difficult along a road in dreadful condition; I was only willing to take my car so far along it, and sustained a pulled muscle in walking the rest of the way, so my view was from a considerable distance and I have had to obtain a photograph from the internet. It is a view north from the outer court, looking past the gateway towers towards the inner court and the surviving chamber block.

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D3. is 15½km south-west of Chesterfield, just to the north of the A6. In the , the manor of Haddon was owned by the Peverels, direct descendants of , but the Vernon family acquired it in 1170, and shortly afterwards built a wall around the which still survives in part. They held the property for over 3 centuries, and as can be seen from the dates on the schematic, built most of the hall which stands now. Their tenure was ended when Dorothy Vernon who had married John Manners, scion of a Northumberland family inherited the estate in 1567. A story grew up that the marriage began with an elopement, with Dorothy escaping the family home by way of an old bridge which bears her name. The Manners family prospered, gaining the titles of Earl and in 1703, , and they acquired which became their main residence. However, Haddon Hall was subjected to minimal alteration but well-maintained and is now open to the public. Although classed as fortified with a castellated outer wall, the hall was not really defensible; it comprised near-square upper and lower courts, separated after c1350, by a hall block, with a surprisingly small hall, and service buildings. The photograph is of the entrance.

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D4. Horston or Horsley Castle is on a wooded hilltop east of the A38, and 8km north of . It was in existence by the end of the 12th century, and King John acquired it and spent money to improve the pentagonal tower, and in the 13th century it is recorded as having a gate and , hall and chapel. Its later owners included Hugh Despenser, john Holland, , Jasper Tudor, and Earls of Chesterfield until 1817. However it was probably ruinous by the 15th century, and in the 18th century quarrying on the site was probably responsible for the fragmentary nature of the remains. The photograph shows a piece of the wall of the keep or tower; it has been suggested that it might have been a hunting lodge, but its form and location above an important route seems to make this unlikely.

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D5. Mackworth Castle is beside the A52, in a hamlet of that name on the north- western outskirts of Derby. The Mackworth family were recorded in the area in the 13th century, but the remains of the gatehouse which goes by the name of a castle date from the mid-15th century. There was undoubtedly some kind of fortified manor on the property then but no trace of it remains. There are suggestions that the house was destroyed in the Civil War, but if so it is curious that the gatehouse still stands to full-height. At any rate the property was sold on shortly afterwards and the Mackworths moved to Rutland. The gatehouse is embattled with on the 2 outer corners of the roof; it may be that the rooms in the gatehouse were used as a residence for a period after the manor house was destroyed, and this would be part of an explanation for why it has survived to the extent it has.

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D6. is set high on a bluff to the south of the village of Castleton which is 8km east of Chapel-en-le-Frith. It dates to the late 11th century when it was in the hands of William Peveril, an illegitimate son of King William I. It was lost to the crown in the middle of the 12th century, and essentially remained in Royal hands until granted to , . It reverted to the crown when the Duke’s son usurped the throne as King Henry IV, and retained that status until placed in state guardianship in 1932.

However, it was probably deserted in c1400, and as a result decayed to the present ruined state. The schematic shows that the castle court is triangular; it was protected on the long south-east side, and the west side by sheer drops; the more vulnerable north side was given a curtain wall over 5m high, and 1.5m thick, and herringbone masonry which survives, suggests that the present wall was built when the castle was founded. The keep was 11.7m square, with walls upwards of 2.6m thick. Footings remain of an old hall, probably dating to c1100, to the east of the keep, but a new hall was built at the west end of the north wall in c1250. The photograph, taken from the south shows the strength of its position, and the steep climb required to get to it from the village of Castleton to its north, emphasises that it was difficult to approach from that direction too, without considering the stout high wall that would have to be negotiated.

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D7. Wingfield Manor is a fortified house,

9½km south-east of Matlock. There was a stone-built castle here in the 12th century, but it has left no remains above ground; the present building dates to the years after 1439, when Lord Cromwell, erected the buildings in the inner court, shown in the schematic. The castle was sold to the 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury in 1455, a century later, the 6th Earl was responsible for confining Mary, Queen of Scots there. In the Civil War it was held first by Royalists and then Parliament, and damaged so severely that only parts were inhabited in future. In the 18th century it was leased to a farmer and an appropriate house was built between the courts, which is lived in today, though the property as a whole has been in state care since 1960. In its final form, as shown, it is a double courtyard great house comprising an inner court to the north and a larger outer court to the south. The buildings of the outer court were 2-storeyed and provided accommodation and offices. The east and west building ranges are ruinous but the former includes a gatehouse. Access to the inner court was by a second gateway, which was 3- storeyed and of similar design. In the inner court the west range and south range are occupied by lodgings and include, at the south west corner, a five-storey residential tower. The north range includes the great hall and Cromwell's private accommodation, while underneath the great hall is a vaulted undercroft. The photograph is taken from the west, and contrasts the stately ruins on the left to a working yard, with farmhouse, barns, etc. on the right.

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LC1. Ashby-de-la Zouch Castle is south- west of the town centre, 17½km west of Loughborough. The first castle was a rebuilding in stone of a wooden manor house in c1150. The Zouch family, held the castle until 1399, but thereafter it passed through many hands before being granted to William, Lord Hastings, in 1464 and he made major changes, which included a new . His execution in 1483 did not affect the family’s possession, and they acquired the Earldom of Huntingdon from King Henry VIII. The Civil War proved the castle’s undoing because it was a royalist stronghold until 1646 and sleighted as a result. Thereafter, decay set in, roofs disappeared shortly after 1730; it is now in the hands of English Heritage. There were 3 phases of building, identified in the schematic, beginning with a hall and service rooms along the north side in c1150; then in c1350 these buildings were rebuilt with the kitchen tower added to the west and a solar to the east, while a curtain wall was built round the court to the south of these buildings. Finally, Lord Hastings added the more defensible Hastings Tower in the late 15th century. The Kitchen Tower has dimensions of 19 X 13.5m, and walls up to 3m thick, but does not otherwise incorporate features to make it defensible. The Hastings Tower, of dimensions 14.2 X 12.4m with walls 2.5m thick seems more designed for defence, with a at its entrance, but the overall impression is that although the castle seemed sufficiently a possible threat to a nervous king, but it needed the Civil War to make it defensible. The view is from the south, showing the Hastings Tower in the right-centre, the Kitchen Tower to the left, with the hall and service buildings extending towards the centre; the modern building at the top of the photograph is a school.

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LC2. is on the north- east edge of the village of that name, 7km west of Leicester and just to the west of the M1. The Hastings family acquired the property in the mid-14th century, and built a manor house there shortly afterwards. However, the ruined building to be seen now was the part-completed conception of William, Lord Hastings more than a century. Although the main family seat was at Ashby-de-la- Zouch, he received permission from King Edward IV in 1474, to convert his manor house at Kirby Muxloe into a castle. Work got underway in 1480, but 3 years later King Edward died, and Lord Hastings fell foul of his would-be successor, Richard, , and was executed. As a result the castle was never completed, though parts may have been made habitable in the 17th century. Otherwise, it was a story of decay until the ruined buildings were handed over to state care in 1911. The upper photograph is a view from the south, and shows the platform of dimensions 70 X 53m, bounded by a wide moat created by diverting a stream, on which the quadrangular, enclosure castle took shape. There were 4 large corner towers, of which only that to the west, on the left in the photograph survives. Built of brick, as was the whole castle, they were 8m square and had 3 floors with 2 turrets above. There were smaller towers in the middle of 3 sides, while a large gatehouse of dimensions 14.5 X 8.5m, with octagonal towers at each corner, was at the centre of the 4th, north- west, side; its ruins are on the right of the photograph. A curtain wall completed the defensive perimeter, and there other features like gun-ports and a portcullis to suggest that the site was intended to be defensible. The original manor house with its hall had occupied a central position in the enclosed area; it was demolished during the remodelling, but domestic and service rooms were accommodated in ranges attached to the north-west and north-east curtain walls. The lower photograph is a view of the outside of the gatehouse from the west.

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LC3. is in the centre of the city, with the scattered surviving elements in Castle Park, on the right bank of the River Soar, as indicated by the schematic. A motte and bailey castle, with timber buildings was founded in 1068, but the stone castle probably dates from the early 12th century, by which time it was in the possession of Robert de Beaumont, ; the church of St. Mary de Castro began life as the castle chapel at this time, as did the great hall. Leicester Castle followed the common medieval pattern of revolt by a noble owner, followed by capture by the king, and then bestowal on another family, when the cycle began again. Simon de Montford was one famous owner between 1239 and 1265, when after ruling the kingdom for a year he was killed at the battle of Evesham, and John of Gaunt another in the 14th century, before his son, King Henry IV took it back into royal possession. Thereafter, the castle as an entity decayed, though its hall was maintained as a courthouse, though ruined, externally at least, as a medieval monument by its encasement in a late- 17th century shell and the chapel became a collegiate church before reverting to parish status at the Reformation. The motte survives as shown in the middle photograph, albeit truncated and without visible evidence of the shell keep which presumably stood there once. A number of gateways still stand, including the gate shown in the lowest photograph which probably dates to the 15th century when the bailey was expanded to the east, and there are surviving sections of the curtain wall, which once surrounded the bailey.

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NR1. Barnwell Castle is to the north of a village of that name, 3km south of . The first castle on the property was built by the de Moyne family in 1130, but the enclosure castle shown in the aerial photograph taken from the south-east, was built in c1266 by Berengar de Moyne. However he seems to have omitted to ask for Royal permission, and as a result was compelled to sell the property to Ramsay Abbey. They held it until the Dissolution, when it was sold to Sir Edward Montagu, but he built a new house to the south of the castle which is now the residence of the Duke of Gloucester, albeit expanded and modernised. The castle courtyard has dimensions 40 X 27m and is surrounded by a curtain wall 3.6m thick and 9m high which mostly survives. There were mural towers at each corner, and in the south-east corner, also a twin-towered gatehouse. Curiously, there seem never to have been any free-standing buildings, but there were lean-to buildings against each wall, presumably containing the hall, a chapel, and service premises like a kitchen. Perhaps the private accommodation was in one of the towers, though the largest were 8.5m in diameter, so it cannot have been spacious. These internal buildings are said to have been destroyed by the Montagu owner, by then a duke, in 1704. The lower photograph is also taken from the south-east, showing the twin-towered gateway.

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NR2. lies at the south-eastern end of the present village close to the , 11km north of Oundle. The motte and bailey castle was built in the late 11th century by Simon de St Liz, Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton, husband of Judith, a niece of William the Conqueror. It became a possession of the Balliols but was forfeited when King John Balliol of Scotland finally tried to stand up to King Edward I in 1294. In 1341 a polygonal stone keep stood on the motte, and within the rectangular , of dimensions 65 X 50m, were two chapels, a great hall, chambers and a kitchen. A gatehouse stood beside a drawbridge over the inner bailey . A further gatehouse existed in the north-west corner of the , and a group of buildings known as The Manor lay north west of the motte on the site of Castle Farm; all these features are shown on the schematic. The castle was enlarged and rebuilt in the late 14th century by Edmund of Langley, son of Edward III, and it is thought that the outer bailey, to the north-west dates from this period. Fotheringhay castle is notorious as the last prison of Mary, by then for long the ex-Queen of Scots, from 1586, and the venue for her judicial murder in 1587. The castle was abandoned in the 17th century and by the early 18th century had been comprehensively demolished. The remains comprise only the motte, earthworks around it, and the masonry fragment shown in the photograph.

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NR3. Rockingham Castle is on top of a north-facing slope above Rockingham village, on the north-western edge of Corby. William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a wooden motte and bailey castle shortly after the Norman Invasion of . Within 3 decades, King William II added a stone shell keep on the large motte and the outer bailey was enclosed by a curtain wall. The castle was then used regularly by Kings throughout the Norman and Plantagenet periods, with hunting in Rockingham Forest a common reason for the visits. It was besieged and captured in 1220 when King Henry II was being established on the throne, and at the end of his reign in 1270, his son Prince Edward, (later King Edward I) strengthened the castle by adding the twin D-tower gatehouse, which is prominent in the photograph, a view from the east. By the late 15th century, Rockingham Castle had fallen into disrepair, but Sir Edward Watson acquired the lease in 1553, and erected a Tudor house within the walls. In the 1640s, the castle was garrisoned by Royalist troops, but it was captured by the Parliamentarians and sleighted in 1646. The castle has remained in the possession of the Watson family until the present day, though breaks in the line of direct descent mean that owners have somewhat confusingly been named Watson-Wentworth, and Saunders Watson. It has been altered considerably during the past few centuries but now combines roles as a private residence and a wedding/events venue. I have visited the castle once long ago and I remember too little, except that glimpses obtained in the village below, were somehow more impressive than the close-up view. The most notable modern-day owner was Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquis of Rockingham, who was Prime Minister twice in the 18th century. The photograph is a view from the north-east.

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NR4.Thorpe Waterville Castle is in a small village of the same name, near the right bank of the River Nene, 7km south of Oundle. It was built by Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, who held the manor from 1300 to 1307 and had a licence to crenelate his house there in 1301. In 1461 it was held for the Lancastrians against King Edward IV, besieged using cannons and probably seriously damaged. Leland refers to the ruins of the outer wall of the castle in the 1540s. The castle was apparently a fortified manor house; the 14th century great hall and solar survive, in use as a barn. It is now a single-storey building, though there were originally rooms above, and has dimensions, 21 X 7.5m, with malls just less than 1m thick. There is a gable at each end, and at the north end, corbelled out, is a chimney, the upper part of which, above the gable, is octagonal and battlemented. There is said to have been a similarly constructed chimney at the south end. My own photographic efforts to see into private property were much obstructed by trees so I have used a photograph from the castlesuk website, a view from the north-east.

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NT1. Halloughton Tower is in a village of that name, 2km south of Southwell and 9km west of Newark. It is arguable whether it should appear here as it was the solar tower of the residence occupied by one of 16 prebends of Southwell Cathedral. However, there are what appear to be gun- loops in the basement of the mid-14th century building which is of dimensions7.5 X 5.2m, and has a and bedroom in the upper 2 storeys. To the south-west there was a hall block which was rebuilt in c1580, and again later in brick; the whole building is now a private residence. The photograph was taken from the north on a public road.

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NT2. Newark Castle is on the right bank of the north-east flowing , near the centre of the Nottinghamshire town. Much of the enclosure castle, shown in the schematic, including the gatehouse, which contained a chapel, the curtain wall and the north west tower were built for Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, c1133-1148; the south- west tower followed later that century. Thereafter the castle was augmented and modified by many bishops, until it came into the hands of the Earl of Rutland in 1581. Because of its strategic situation at the crossing of the Trent by the north road, possession of Newark castle had been seen as vital by a number of English kings, and as a result they took control for much of the time. So, King Stephen acquired it in 1135, and it was only restored to the bishops in 1218, two years after King John had died there; Edward II took control of it in 1322, and it passed into the hands of Henry VIII in 1547. The castle was held for Charles I during the Civil War, and besieged in 1644 and 1646, and after the latter event it was sleighted and left as a roofless ruin, taken over by the state in 1979. The photograph is a view from the north, but the impressive view is of a hollow façade as indicated by the schematic; little remains of domestic or service buildings.

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NT3. Newark Queen’s was constructed by the Royalist forces defending the town of Newark in March 1644, during the Civil War. It is situated within a park on the right bank of the River Devon, just upstream of its junction with the River Trent, south-west of the town centre. There was a similar fort on the north-east side of the town called the King’s Sconce, but it was demolished in the 1880s. The artefact consists of earthworks covering an area approximately 120 X 133m, with deep ditches, ramparts up to 9m in height, and parapets protecting an area 75m square in which men and guns were deployed. Angle projecting from the northern, north-eastern, southern and south-western corners of the ramparts were platforms for mounting artillery pieces. The town and its were surrendered on the King’s orders in 1646.

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NT4. is on a rocky promontory, 40m high, in the west-centre of the city which was an important Danish stronghold during their occupation of large parts of England in the 9th century. A motte and bailey castle was erected in the late- 1060s by William Peveril, whose family held it until 1155, when King Henry II took it from them, and provided the inner and middle baileys with stone buildings, including a keep in the former, and stone walls. In the aerial photograph, the large building in the centre-right is where the inner bailey was, the middle bailey occupied the D shaped space to its left, and the outer bailey was above both of the other baileys, with its access gateway in the top-centre. The castle remained in royal hands thereafter, often acting as a principle residence; in 1330 after the death of King Edward II, Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer were residing there when a party led by King Edward III entered by a and captured them, ending their ruling regime. By the early 17th century, the castle had decayed but it was contested during the Civil War before being sleighted and fairly comprehensively demolished in 1651. After the Restoration, William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle obtained the site, and built the large mansion referred to earlier, which has survived albeit in modified form to become a museum. The lower photograph shows the main medieval survivals, namely the lower parts of the outer gatehouse, and the arches beneath the entry causeway; they date from the 13th century save for the left- hand arch which replaced a drawbridge in the 16th century. The upper parts of the gateway were added in the early 20th century.

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O1. is to the south-west of a village of that name, itself 4½km south- west of . Sir John de Broughton built a moated manor house here in the early 14th century, and it was fortified after it passed into the hands of Sir Thomas Wykeham in 1404. It passed by marriage to the Lords Saye and Sele later that century and is still occupied by them now. It featured in the Civil War, being captured by the Royalists, but suffered no damage, but by the early 19th century had fallen into disrepair. However it was sensitively restored later that century. As shown in the aerial photograph taken from the south-west, the castle is on a platform of dimensions, 120 X 100m, surrounded by a wide moat, bridged in the north where there is a 2-storey gatehouse of the 14th and 15th centuries, next to stables. The domestic buildings which mainly date from the same period lie east to west in the centre east of the platform, and include the 4-bay hall of dimensions 16.3 X 8.4m, a chapel, a solar, and a kitchen. The view below is from the north.

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O2. Deddington Castle is located to the south-east of the village of that name, which is 9½km south of Banbury. A motte and bailey castle was founded by Bishop Odo of Bayeux (who is thought to have been responsible for the famous tapestry), possibly on the site of a previous Saxon settlement in c1080. Excavations have revealed that an earlier timber building was replaced in about 1160 by a stone-built structure to the west of the mound. An inner bailey was then constructed around this building, and by the end of the 12th century the motte had been levelled and a curtain wall erected, with stone towers and a gatehouse that led to the outer bailey, so creating the enclosure castle shown in the schematic. The remains of a 13th century chapel have been discovered, with those of a slightly earlier one buried beneath them. From the end of the 13th century the castle fell into disrepair, and became a quarry for local building stone, though the site was sufficiently defensible to have played a part in the Civil War. No stonework has survived above ground, and the contrast between the busy schematic and the photograph of the site today, in which all that can be seen is some of the high around the enclosure is total.

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O3. is a fortified house in an estate 4km west of Henley-on-Thames. Licence was granted to Sir John Grey in 1347, to crenelate, a house on the estate which had been in the hands of his family since the 11th century. They held it until the 15th century, when ownership passed to the Yorkist , Francis Lovell, and after his attainder, to the Knollys family. They held the house until the late 17th century when it was sold and acquired by the Stapletons who lived there until 1935, when it became a National Trust property. The house sat in a large courtyard which is still defined by towers in the south-east, south-west and on the east wall; they are visible in the representation which is viewed from the east. The first two of these are octagonal, and they and the buildings to which they are attached, most likely date to the 16th century. The prominent tower affixed to lengths of curtain wall is 6m square, above walls 1.5m thick, and is a 14th century structure, as is a ruined tower further north which can just be seen. The house was probably centred just west of here when built, and there would have been a hall, private apartments and service buildings, in an inner court accessed through a gateway. They are all vanished, and the main house, again probably dating to the 16th century but with many modifications, is on the west side of the courtyard, once the outer court. The house was never involved in military action, but the walls and mural towers make it clear that it was fortified. The photograph is a view of the square 14th century tower from the east.

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O4. Oxford Castle is in the west-centre of the city. It was founded in 1071 by Robert D’Oilly, but soon became crown property and was held by a succession of constables. It is likely that the first keep built soon afterwards was the tower of St. George, which has dimensions 11 X 10m over walls 2.7m thick, and has 4 storeys. However, it was replaced early in the 12th century by a decagonal shell keep on top of a motte 19m high. Thereafter, the St. George tower was associated with the castle chapel which was for a period raised to the status of a collegiate church. The bailey was given defences including a curtain wall with towers, and a moat later in the 12th century, in the arrangement shown in the schematic. The castle seems to have been very unstable, and a succession of repairs had been undertaken before the end of the 14th century when it was pronounced ruinous, at least as regards its defences. The castle was refurbished to a degree and utilised by the Royalists during the Civil War, but the end result was further destruction after they lost in 1651. Buildings in the bailey had housed court sittings, and prisoners from medieval times, and this continued; additional buildings were added in the 18th and 19th centuries. In recent years these activities have ceased and the site has become a tourist venue, but with little of the castle surviving the focus has been on the Victorian prison. The photograph is a view from the north showing St. George’s Tower, with the castle motte rising to the right; these are the main survivals.

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O5. Shirburn Castle is in an estate, 21½km south-east of Oxford. There was probably a castle here in the early 12th century, but the present building dates to 1377. The castle was built mainly of brick, but the centre of the west front was of dressed stone and chalk, and its quadrangular plan, surrounded by a moat became popular in the late-14th century, another example is . There were 4 ranges of buildings, with a round tower at each corner, and a in the middle of the west side. The living quarters would have been contained in the 4 ranges, with the hall on the east side. Of the original building there survive the gate tower, the west outer wall, the south outer wall (now encased in later buildings), and probably the southwest and south- east towers; the other two towers may have been rebuilt at the time of extensive alterations in the 18th century. It had many owners before the Chamberlains, lived there from the 15th to the 17th century. They were Royalists, but the castle escaped sleighting after the Civil War. In 1716, the castle was sold to the Parker family who were responsible for many alterations, though the lay-out remains the same; it remains with them, and they have become Earls of Macclesfield. The photograph is a view from the north-west, note the raised drawbridge, a replacement for its medieval predecessor.

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O6. is close to the right bank of the , on the north-east side of the village of Wallingford, 9km south-east of Oxford. Earthworks date from the Saxon period, but the fragmentary remains of a motte and bailey castle, date from 1067-71. By marriage it came into the hands of Brien Fitz-Count who held it during the ‘Anarchy’ for the , against all attempts to capture it. His lack of issue brought it into the hands of King Henry II, and thereafter it remained either in royal hands or was bestowed on family or close associates. In the 14th century it was held by Piers Gaveston, Hugh Despencer, the Black Prince and his widow, Joan, and in the early 15th century by King Henry VI in his youth. It appears to have needed very regular repair and by the time Leland saw it in the 1540s it was in decay. Probably strengthened A 1912 plan of Wallingford Castle: A – at the outset of the Civil War, it was captured by a Wallingford Bridge and ford; B – River Thames; Parliamentary force in 1646, and was sleighted 1652. As C – city defences; D – bailey; E – motte shown in the plan, the motte was in the south-east corner of the area protected by Saxon earthworks and the River Thames, with an inner bailey immediately to its north, and an outer bailey further to the west and north. A shell keep on top of the court has left no trace above ground, and the only masonry remnant is a wall in the inner bailey, shown in the photograph.

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R1. Oakham Castle occupies a central position in the town of Rutland, 16km west of Stamford. The castle complex probably predates the , but the motte was probably raised in the 1080s and the stone-built hall which survives today was built by Walkelin de Ferrers between 1180 and 1190. The castle seems to have no military history but had a long list of owners through the medieval and Tudor period, many of whom met violent deaths, concluding with Thomas Cromwell. Thereafter the family of Cromwell sold it in the 1590s, and it passed to the Duke of Buckingham, and then the Finch, Earls of Nottingham who held it until 1848. It is now owned by the local council and open to the public. It comprises the standing great hall and the remains of a modestly sized motte inside a square inner bailey of side 115m. The great hall is situated close to the western boundary, and is an aisled building measuring 20 x 13m internally, built of ironstone rubble with cut stone dressings. The inner bailey is delimited by a curtain wall dating to the 13th century. On the inside, a bank, consisting of grassed-over collapsed stone and rubble, slopes up to the wall and the remains of two towers or bastions can be identified on the western side. In the south east corner is the castle motte adjoining the enclosure wall at its highest point. It stands to a height of about 6m and has a surrounding ditch. The ground surface of the bailey is uneven, signifying the foundations of buildings, many of which are known from documentary evidence. The gateway to the south is still in use, although it has been rebuilt many times; the present version may date to the early 17th century. To the north, the outer bailey known as Cutts Close contains earthworks of gardens and fishponds, and is surrounded by a substantial bank, up to 2m high. The photographs are external and internal views of the great hall, the latter showing the large collection of horseshoes gifted by visiting peers from 1470 onwards. The building owes its excellent preservation mainly to the fact that courts have sat here on a regular basis since 1229.

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ST1. Caverswall Castle is in a village, 8km south-east of the centre of Stoke-on-Trent. The first phase of its development comprised a moated enclosure castle, built by the family from which it takes its name in the years following 1275. The courtyard was 50m square with octagonal towers at each corner, and forming a twin-towered gatehouse on the east side. The accommodation block was on the west of the courtyard, and there were no doubt other service and domestic structures. This structure survives only in the moat, and the lower walls and towers to be seen in the photograph. The castle was in a decayed state by the end of the 16th century, but was purchased in 1615, by a merchant, Matthew Craddock, who was responsible for the second phase of its development. To him, is owed the impressive Jacobean mansion of 3 storeys and with 5 bays on the north side of the courtyard; he also rebuilt the walls and towers, and provided the present access bridge leading to the gatehouse. The family retained the property through the Civil War, during which the house was captured by Royalists in 1645, but their line failed a decade later. Since then the property has been occupied by a number of religious institutions, and by private owners. It was refurbished at the end of the 19th century; a wing was added and the buildings were embattled. The present owner rents it out for holidays involving large parties (it has 11 bedrooms, and it is from that literature that the photograph taken from the south-west; my own taken from outside the entrance convey much less about the appearance of the castle.

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ST2. is 10km north-east of Stafford, and north of the A518 from which it is visible, as in the lower photograph. The upper aerial photograph taken from the north-west gives a better idea of the lay-out. The original castle belonging to the Earls of Chester comprised a motte and two baileys; it was built in the late-11th century. The first stone castle was built in the early-13th century and largely reproduced the form of its predecessor. There was a round keep on the motte of diameter 10.7m with walls 3.7m thick, ( to the extreme left on the upper photograph) and the bailey had dimensions, 70 X 50m, surrounded by a curtain wall reinforced by towers of diameter c12m, and with outer walls 4.2m thick. If there were domestic and service buildings, a matter, it seems of doubt, they have left no remains so must have been of wood. The Ferrers family had been constables for the Earls of Chester from an early date, and they held the castle until the end of the 15th century, but lived latterly in Chartley Hall, a moated mansion to its west. The house was one of the places of imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots, for almost a year until late 1586. Leland reported the castle as ruined in the 1540s. By marriage, the property had by then gone to the Devereux family, and they became Earls of Essex, but never lived at Chartley Hall which finally burnt down in 1781.

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ST3. Dudley Castle is on a hillside overlooking the centre of the town from the north, and now it is surrounded by zoological gardens. The castle began as timber and earthwork structure in the late 11th century, which was destroyed by King Henry II in 1175, after its owner Gervase Paganel rebelled alongside the King’s sons. Although some masonry dates from the century after that, the main structure, including the keep, which has dimensions 22 X 15m, and gatehouse, dates from c1310, as indicated by the schematic. Domestic buildings were built by owners called Sutton in the mid-14th century, but the castle passed to the Dudley family in the late 15th century. John Dudley obtained the castle in the 1530s, and became and Duke of Northumberland in the years following; he built the surviving buildings along the east curtain wall, but was executed in 1553 after his attempt to place his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Another branch of the Dudley family acquired the castle and held it until the line failed in 1643, when it passed to the Wards. It was held for the Royalists in the Civil War and withstood a , but its fortifications were demolished in 1647, though it remained habitable until gutted by fire in 1750. It is visible from the town but closer inspection requires entry to the aforementioned zoo. Both photographs are taken from Wikipedia; the upper shows the 14th century keep, with apartments built in 1690 to its left, and the lower shows the east range of domestic buildings, largely built in the 16th century.

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ST4. Stafford Castle is on the west side of Stafford, to the east of the M6. A motte and bailey castle is thought to have been erected in 1070, but the first masonry on top of the motte is thought to have been added a century later in c1180. This building was probably demolished around 1348 by Ralph, Lord Stafford, and a new tower house was erected in its place, a rectangular block of dimensions, 34 X 15m with walls 2.7m thick, of 2 storeys and with corner towers of diameter 9m, and 4 storeys. The family prospered at first when they married into the Buckingham family and acquired a dukedom, but successive Dukes were executed by Richard III and Henry VIII, respectively, and the family became impoverished. As a result the castle condition deteriorated, though it was still able to mount a defence when held by the Royalists in the Civil War, albeit ending in failure; it was demolished soon afterwards. In the 1820s, a descendant, Sir George Jerningham was moved to rebuild the tower house on the understanding that this would aid his quest for a peerage. The resulting Gothic pastiche seems to have been faithful to the medieval plan, but when the peerage was granted, it was unfinished, and the motivation to complete it vanished. As a result it was never occupied and fell into ruins which have recently been stabilised and opened to the public. The fundamental strength of the location conferred by height is obvious at first sight, and from the photograph, and the schematic shows baileys, which would normally have been protected by thick curtain walls and ditches, but there may have been no more than a .

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ST5. Tamworth Castle is near the centre of the town, on the right bank of the River Tame where it is joined by the River Anker. Although it is likely that there was a Saxon fortification here given its status as a royal seat for , the standing complex of buildings originated as a motte and bailey castle, founded by the Marmion family in the early 12th century. It passed by marriage to the Ferrers family in1423, and it remained with them until the early 18th century. Leland recorded it as in some decay in the 1540s, but it was defensible enough to be garrisoned for the Royalists in the Civil War, though they failed to defend it; it was fortunate to avoid being sleighted. The story thereafter is of absentee owners, and the castle hall was at one stage rented to Robert Peel, father of the Prime Minister of that name, for use as a factory. It was sold to the town corporation in 1897, and is open to the public. The schematic shows the shell keep on the motte which is octagonal of ‘diameter’ 33m, and with walls up to 12m high and 3m thick. The buildings within are a mix of medieval (heavily shaded) and more recent. The motte was in the north-west corner of a large bailey stretching to the rivers, but none of the buildings there-in have left any trace, though excavations have revealed the presence once of an outer palisade. The photograph is taken from the south-east in the fine gardens which now surround the castle.

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ST6. is on the north-west corner of the village of that name, near the right bank of the River Dove, and 5½km north-west of . In the years after 1071, Henry, Lord of Ferriers and Chambrais, built a motte and bailey castle here. The wooden structures were dismantled after the then earl rebelled in 1174, but stone structures replaced them by the end of the century. The castle was lost to the Ferrers family in 1265, after they had supported Simon de Montford, and it came into royal possession. It passed then to Edmund, , and after a couple of executions, and his own marriage to the heiress, John of Gaunt added it to his massive portfolio. After that, his son Henry’s usurpation of the throne made it a royal castle again. It was held by Queen Margaret of Anjou in the mid-15th century, and then served as a prison for an even more troubled queen, Mary, Queen of Scots in 1569/70 and 1585. The Civil War saw its demise, as after its capture by a Parliamentary force, it was sleighted in 1646. The site was occupied intermittently thereafter, and a house in the bailey and a folly on the motte were erected during the 18th century, by tenants called Vernon. Now it is a historic site open to visitors, and for events. Apart from the general configuration, with the D-shaped inner bailey (outer baileys were once to the north), and the motte in the south-west corner, as shown in the aerial view from the south-west, nothing remains from the 11th and 12th century versions except the low ruins of the chapel near the centre of the bailey. Some of the gateway at the north end of the bailey dates to the 14th century, while surviving parts of the curtain wall with the north and south towers were built a century later. The view in the lower photograph is of the south tower on the left, with remnants of the hall next to it; the building on the right is modern, and the flower borders in front are a rather insensitive addition.

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WA1. Astley Castle dominates the village of Astley, 6km south-west of Nuneaton. The castle dates back to the 13th century, and was associated through its history with a number of families, namely the Astleys who first built it as a fortress, the Greys, later Marquises of Dorset, and the Chamberlains, who converted it into a Tudor Mansion. Its earliest military manifestation had a moat, curtain wall, gatehouse and towers, of which the survivor to the west can be seen on the left of the upper photograph of the southern aspect. The lower photograph showing the eastern aspect is of a high class residence which did not have to be defended. Two controversial Queens of England, namely , consort of the Yorkist King Edward IV, and Lady Jane Grey, the 9-day Queen, lived in the castle. The building survived in reasonable condition until the 1970s when it was a hotel for a short time, but thereafter it decayed rapidly into a total ruin. In recent years, the Landmark Trust has carried out an innovative project whereby a dwelling of modern design has been built within the stabilised ruins; part of it is visible in the upper photograph. Their building has won prizes, rightly in my view, as the site has been brought back to life at the same time as the remains of the ancient building have been preserved.

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WA2. Brinklow Castle is on the east side of the village of the same name, 10km east of . The castle is associated with the northern campaign of William the Conqueror, and in the next century belonged to the Mowbray family, but no military action is recorded as taking place here. It was a timber and earthwork, motte and bailey castle, with the bailey divided in two at some stage. The fact that there seems never to have been a masonry successor suggests that it was abandoned before the 13th century. The motte is 12m above the surrounding land, and the ditch, which surrounds it, is 12m wide and 6m deep; the total area occupied by the baileys is 0.78ha. Ditches and earth ramparts surround the baileys, and a ditch divides them. The upper photograph is my view of the motte from the inner bailey to its west, while the aerial view was taken from the east; the church and part of the village is in the background.

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WA3. Caludon Castle is in a park on the east side of Coventry. The site is unusual in that there are two moated platforms within 200m of each other. That to the south was probably the first occupied, before the Norman Conquest, but the Segrave family, who had acquired the property from the Earls of Chester, built a fortified house on the northern platform in the early-14th century. In c1350, a large hall block was built and the surviving masonry shows that it had at least 4 very large windows in its northern wall, picked out with red sandstone. Thereafter, the house passed through the hands of a number of distinguished families, the Mowbrays, Dukes of Norfolk, the Berkeleys who rebuilt it in c1580, the Morgans, and the Cliffords, but the owners ceased to live there in the early 17th century. In the mid-18th century, the decaying mansion was demolished save for the standing wall, and a new farmhouse was built on the site. Eventually in 1939, Coventry Corporation purchased the estate, which had been much reduced in size as the expanding city encroached with housing estates, and opened it as a public park. The farmhouse was demolished in the mid-1960s. The photograph is a view of the sandstone ruin from the south-east, and part of a medieval moat is immediately behind (north of) it.

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WA4. is near the north-west edge of the town of that name, 8km south-west of Coventry. Founded in the 1120s around a powerful Norman great tower, by the de Clinton family, it was taken over by King Henry II in 1173. The castle was significantly enlarged by King John at the beginning of the 13th century, and extensive water defences were created by damming the local streams; the resulting fortifications withstood assaults by land and water in 1266, when following the de Montford revolt it was besieged by royal forces for more than 6 months before an honourable surrender was negotiated. John of Gaunt spent lavishly in the late 14th century, turning the medieval castle into a palace fortress designed in the latest perpendicular style. The Earl of Leicester then expanded the castle once again, constructing new Tudor buildings and exploiting the medieval heritage of Kenilworth to produce a fashionable Renaissance palace. Kenilworth Castle was not contested during the Civil War but was sleighted by Parliamentary forces in 1649, so that only two of its buildings remain habitable today, and tellingly the surrounding lake was drained. The castle became a tourist destination from the 18th century onwards, not least because of Sir Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth. English Heritage has managed the castle since 1984. There is neither space nor need, given the quantity and quality of information available in guide books and architectural monographs, to attempt to describe the buildings, which enclose the inner court of Kenilworth Castle. The schematic shows the general arrangement, and the photograph, looking west takes in, from left to right the 16th century Leicester building, Gaunt's 14th century Oriel tower and great hall, and Clinton's 12th century great keep.

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WA5. Maxstoke Castle is in open country near Coleshill, 13km north-west of Coventry. The castle was built in the 1340s by the Earl of Huntingdon, and passed to the Duke of Buckingham in c1440. He was killed in battle at Northampton, and both his successors were executed; the castle passed through various hands before the Fetherstone-Dilkes gained possession in the 17th century, and they resided there until the 20th century. It was held for Parliament during the Civil War, and survived without damage. It is a classic enclosure castle with 2m thick curtain walls inside the broad moat, averaging 20m in width; there are towers at each corner, and a large twin-towered gatehouse faces east. The enclosed courtyard has dimensions, 51 X 46m, and the halls built at different times lay along the west wall. The castle remains a private residence though it is opened to the public for a short time each year; unfortunately my visit did not coincide, so I was only able to skulk along the driveway to get a view, and the photographs are taken from a website publicising admission to the gardens. The upper photograph is a view from the east, while that below looks from the south-east. As can be seen Maxstoke castle, built of squared and coursed sandstone, is amongst the most photogenic in the region.

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WA6. is on the right (north) bank of the River Avon. It was founded by King William I in 1068 as a motte-and-bailey castle and he appointed Henry de Beaumont, who later became the 1st Earl of Warwick, as its constable. In 1173, the motte-and-bailey was replaced by a stone enclosure castle. The castle and the earldom remained with the Beaumont family until 1267 when they passed to William de Beauchamp, who became 9th Earl of Warwick, the first of 7 Beauchamp earls, who, over the next 180 years, were responsible for additions made to strengthen the castle, including between 1330 and 1360, the north-east gatehouse, a barbican (a form of fortified gateway), and Caesar's Tower and Guy's Tower on either side; the Watergate Tower also dates from this period. Richard Neville, the Kingmaker, became Earl of Warwick through his wife's inheritance of the title in 1449 and held the castle until he was killed in the Battle of Barnet in 1471, having adopted the Lancastrian cause in the . In the early 1480s, King Richard III, a son-in-law of Richard Neville, instigated the construction of two gun towers, Bear and Clarence Towers. There followed a period of decay, until in 1604, the ruinous castle was given to Sir Fulke Greville by King James I &VI and he converted it into a country house; then in 1642 the defences were re-ordered before the castle, held for Parliament, was targeted unsuccessfully by a Royalist force. Since then its history has not really been of a castle but of a stately home, so need not be considered here save that in 1978, after 374 years in the Greville family, it was sold to the Tussauds Group for £1.3 million; they opened it as a tourist attraction, after performing extensive restorations to the castle and grounds. The schematic shows the castle configuration, and the photograph, a view from the north-east.

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WA7. Weoley Castle is in a park in Birmingham, 6½km south-west of the centre of the city. There was a timbered moated building here in the mid-12th century, and a stone hall was built in c1200 by Ralph de Somery. A curtain wall with mural towers was built when another Somery was licensed to crenelate in 1267. Other buildings were added by owners through the 14th century, and in 1485, it was given to the Dudleys by the new King, Henry VII. A family called Jerveys bought the fortified house in 1536, and held it through the Civil War, in which it was not involved, until the 19th century, but by this time it had decayed almost to ground level. It was acquired by the City in the 20th century and has been excavated, leaving the lay-out open to public view. The City museum department has produced the reconstruction, a view from the south-west and reading clockwise from the gatehouse, the buildings were a guesthouse, a chapel, the great hall, with the solar to its right, and the kitchen to its left, against the north wall, round to a bakehouse, and back to the gatehouse.

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WO1. Hartlebury Castle is 7km south of Kidderminster. Bishops of Worcester had resided in a manor house on the site from before the Norman Conquest. It was moated in the 1250s, and a curtain wall with corner towers, and a gateway on the east side were built round a rectangular courtyard after 1268, with the house occupying the west side. The chapel also comes from that period. There has been much rebuilding since, not least the gatehouse and the hall in the main block in the 15th century, and many windows in the 17th century. During the Civil War it was held for the Royalists but besieged and taken with little difficulty by a Parliamentary force, and as a result walls were taken down and part of the moat was filled in. The Bishops got the castle back at the Restoration, and continued to reside there until 2005, since when the building has become a museum. On the schematic, the black outlines refer to the parts of the building of the original build in the 13th century. The photograph is a view from the north-east of the house which is aligned close to north/south.

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WO2. Holt Castle (Worcestershire) is near the right bank of the River Severn, 8km north of Worcester. The estate passed to the Beauchamps in c1100, and the present manor house was begun in the mid-14th century, as indicated by the schematic, which has north at the top. It was owned by a succession of families until it was sold to Thomas Foley, later Earl od Dudley, and it has remained with that family to the present day. The tower, of dimensions 7.7 X 7m was probably one of 4, originally, at the corners of a rectangular main block; they would have been embattled like the survivor but the walls were thin and the windows large so it was not very defensible. The photograph, a view from the west, shows the tower which now is the entrance.

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