Bletchingley Castle

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Bletchingley Castle is a ruined castle in the village of Bletchingley in the English county of Surrey . There are three buildings on the site that are considered Scheduled Monuments . A tower that stood on the site from about 1170 to 1264 provided a panorama of one of the narrower parts of Greensand Ridge , which stretched from central Kent to south-west Surrey.

history

At the end of the 12th century, Richard FitzGilbert , founder of the Clare family , had a rectangular tower built on top of an older earthwork enclosure . In 1170 the four knights who were to murder Thomas Becket in Canterbury stopped here. Such a tower provided a complete overview of the Greensand Ridge, which in turn provided a relatively reliable, dry, but easy-going east-west route.

In the 1260s the castle was besieged and taken by royal troops. The tower was destroyed.

The remains of the masonry defenses point to the 12th century and indicate a brick castle from the time of King Stephen , a time when many fortresses were built. The Surrey branch of the noble Clare family lived in the village and sided with the barons in the first barons' war in the 13th century. As far as documented, the castle was involved in military conflict for the first and only time between 1263 and 1264. Simon de Montfort , accompanied by Gilbert de Clare , marched past this coast on his way to attack the royal troops. Though the barons won the Battle of Lewes , the royal troops who had captured the Clare family's Tonbridge Castle pounced on their London troops, which had been swept from the battlefield and retreated the same route they had come and Had taken and demolished Bletchingley Castle, an operation that would have been fatal to the barons had they lost the Battle of Lewes. HE Malden writes: “It is possible that the castle was not completely destroyed by the relatively small troop, but that, because it had been demolished, it was neglected and slowly fell into ruin. John Aubrey , who wrote about 1697, mentions 'a piece of wall five feet thick' as still in existence. Owen Manning says at the beginning of the 19th century that the foundations are still visible. "

owner

Because of its official castle status (with battlements), the possession of the remains of Blechingley Castle (in the old spelling without t ) brought fame and inspiration to the later owners.

The area on which the castle had stood was separated from the manor (in the north) and seems to have belonged to a certain Cholmeley in the 16th century , who also owned the land called Unwins (a name that appears in certain later place names in the parish can find), which was near the castle grounds down on the hill, belonged. According to Manning, the property later belonged to the Drake family , who took the name Brockman in the late 18th century . In 1793 James Drake Brockman sold it to John Kenrick , whose brothers Matthew and Jarvis later owned it. The estate belonged to this family when Edward Wedlake Brayley wrote about the county. After Mr James Norris , of the Victorian House Castle Hill was built around 1860, the property was owned by a Mr Partridge .

As such, the castle became part of the Castle Hill estate which was the home of Mr. AP Brandt in 1911 .

ruins

The property has been overgrown for many years, but the vegetation does not cover the few structural elements that remain, such as walls, passageways and arches.

One of the outer moats in particular was partially filled in and the site was partially filled in with the laying of foundations, water and sewer pipes, electrical cables and the construction of an access road to the construction of the Castle Hill house in the 19th century and the stables and garden house that are now in other hands affected in the center of the great mound . The ring work and the outer bailey are well preserved to this day and “large areas, especially the ring work, are obviously undamaged”. The preservation of part of a Norman dwelling house is a rarity and one of the many attractions of the castle. It is likely that more evidence of its construction time and type of use will be discovered in the future. Archaeological documentation has been compiled as a result of the excavations that have not been extensive so far.

An excerpt from the description of the Scheduled Monument mentions the following:

“The monument includes a castle from Norman times, which consists of an almost circular enclosure or ringwork, as well as an outer enclosure or outer bailey. The ring work is defined by a massive trench on the north and east sides, which is still over 6 meters deep today. At its inner edge there is an earth wall, which rises 1.4 to 2.4 meters above the terrain inside. The moat is spanned on the northeast side by a 3 meter wide dam, which is the original entrance to the inner parts of the castle. The rampart and moat of the ring mill give way to a steep slope of the hill on the south side, while they have been partially leveled on the west side to make way for a large, Victorian house. The main building within the ring works was a house with a floor area of ​​about 24 m². Its substructure has been preserved up to a height of 2.5 meters under the rubble of the collapsed house. The house had living rooms on the upper floor, which were accessible via stairs in the northwest and southeast corner. The house has been partially excavated, but the northeast half has not yet been examined. The outer defenses consist of a rampart and a moat, which surround the ringwork on all sides with the exception of the south side, even if they have been leveled on the west side. In the north and east the wall is preserved up to a height of 1.6 meters and has an average width of 7 meters. The outer bailey was located between the inner and outer defenses, where outbuildings such as stables and barns were located. "

To the northwest, a small mound has been preserved, which presumably indicates the location of a barbican .

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ Bletchingley Castle . CastleUK. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b Plantagenet Somerset Fry: The David & Charles Book of Castles . David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1980. ISBN 0-7153-7976-3
  3. ^ Roger de Clare Roger of Clare . Spartacus Educational. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ Bletchingley castle (ring work and bailey) . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  5. ↑ a b c d e H.E. Malden (Editor): Parishes: Blechingley . In: A History of the County of Surrey. Volume 4 . Institute of Historical Research. 1912. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  6. ^ Edward Wedlake Brayley: History of Surrey . 5 volumes, 1841–1848.

Coordinates: 51 ° 14 ′ 18.2 "  N , 0 ° 6 ′ 27.4"  W.