Chillingham Castle

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Chillingham Castle, south west side as seen from the Italian Garden

Chillingham Castle is an English castle in Chillingham , Northumberland , the origins of which date back to a medieval castle . The facility is on the right side of the till , about a mile from the bank. In its more than 700-year history, the castle saw such high-ranking visitors as the English kings Henry III. and . Edward VIII also Charles I was there as a guest: In 1648 he spent there three days before he was captured by his opponents and executed. And Jacob I.stopped at Chillingham Castle in 1603 en route to his coronation in London .

The castle is just 18 kilometers northwest of Alnwick Castle and 15 kilometers southwest of Bamburgh Castle . It was rated Grade I by English Heritage on September 21, 1951. Its gardens and extensive palace gardens are open to the public. Part of the interior is also open to visitors.

description

building

Facade of the south wing facing the courtyard with an outside staircase

Chillingham Castle is one of only two so-called quadrangular castles in Northumberland, i.e. a closed four-wing complex of the fort type with square corner towers that surrounds a rectangular inner courtyard. The outer dimensions of the core castle are around 40 by 35 meters. Your west and south corner towers have four storeys, while the towers on the east and north corners are only three storeys high. The connecting wings are three-story. All parts of the building are of a castellated proven battlements completed, but do not have the typical for that time machicolations . With the exception of the north wing, the basement floors all have barrel vaults . On the ground floor there are basket arch and rib vaults . On the east side of the main building is a utility wing from the late 19th century.

The portal on the north side of the castle is framed by decorative pairs of Tuscan columns . Whether the main entrance has always been on this side of the complex is a matter of dispute in the literature, some publications state that it was originally on the south side.

The four wings of Chillingham's building encompass an inner courtyard measuring 20 by 17  yards (about 18.3 by 15.5 meters) with narrow stair towers in the corners . The courtyard-facing facade of the south wing has an arcade with Roman columns on the ground floor , which is attributed to Inigo Jones . An outside staircase , which bridged a moat until 1752 , leads from there to the first floor of the south wing.

inside rooms

Two different styles of interior design are present in Chillingham Castle: on the one hand, the Gothic furnishings of the rooms that already existed in the Middle Ages and, on the other hand, the furnishings of the state rooms and apartments from the beginning of the 17th century.

One of the two chimneys in the large ballroom

The medieval rooms include the former ballroom in the east wing, the so-called Minstrels' Hall with its balustraded gallery and two mighty chimneys, as well as the castle chapel on the first floor of the east tower, which was only rediscovered in 1988 during renovation work . It served temporarily as a library. The Edward I room , which owes its name to a visit by the English King Edward I in 1298, is the oldest representation room in the complex . He stayed in the former castle on his way to the battle of Falkirk against the Scottish troops led by William Wallace . The Gothic window on the wall of the room facing the garden was perhaps designed by William of Durham, who also designed the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey . On the wall there hangs the 14th century License to crenellate , the royal permission for the castle owner at the time to fortify his house . In a secret compartment to the right of the window in the north wall, 125 documents from Elizabethan times were found during the recent restoration of the castle .

Some narrow corridors in the thick outer walls of the castle wings also bear witness to the castle's medieval past. Nowadays, however, almost all of them are filled in to make the walls less susceptible to cannon fire in the early modern period .

Many of the rooms in the south-east wing of the palace were furnished on the occasion of a visit by Jacob I. This includes, for example, the great ballroom called Great Hall on the first floor. It has a floor covered with stone tiles and untreated stone walls. The upper end of the room, which could be heated by two monumental chimneys, forms a beamed ceiling. The large lattice windows on the garden side date from the 18th century. Further rooms, the furnishings of which mainly date from the time of Jacob I, are the royal apartments . They consist of three consecutive rooms. In the salon called James I Room , visitors can see a gilded stucco ceiling decorated with geometric patterns . Its walls are covered with patterned silk wallpaper that was originally made for Chatsworth House . The following plaque room now serves as a library. Above his fireplace is a very clear example of elaborate stucco banding from the 17th century, which surrounds the coat of arms of the Gray family . Last rooms in the sequence is the new dining room (English: new dining room ) with its yellow silk wallpaper, which was formerly used as a royal bedroom.

The renaissance garden

Gardens and park

Chillingham Castle is set in a 1500  acre large park ( Chillingham Parc ), which is surrounded since the 13th century by a wall. Large parts of the forest floor are planted with flowers and covered with brightly colored florets according to the seasons. The only surviving herd of wild Chillingham cattle , which includes around 100 animals (as of 2020), has lived on the site for centuries .

To the south and west of the palace are the reconstructed palace gardens. The Italian Renaissance garden on the west side is bounded by a 15-  foot- thick enclosure wall and structured by formal parterres . The urns and statues that adorn it are modern replicas. The southern part of the palace garden is an English landscape garden designed by the famous landscape architect Capability Brown .

history

Beginnings and medieval expansion

Today's castle had a previous building from the 12th century at the same or nearby location. It was a so-called Pele Tower , a mostly three-story tower house , which as a defense and watchtower secured the English border from Northumberland to neighboring Scotland and was owned by the Vescy family. The simple country estate saw the English King Henry III in 1255 . as an overnight guest before he was attacked by Scottish fighters in 1296/97 in the course of the bloody border conflict between Scotland and England. The Vescy family mortgaged the property at the beginning of Edward III's reign . to Sir Thomas Heton of Heton, often also called Sir Thomas de Heton, who became sole owner in 1329. In 1344 he received permission from the king to fortify the existing complex and in the 14th century had it expanded into a square complex with four corner towers and connecting curtains . The renovation was finished in 1348.

Alterations and extensions in the 16th and 17th centuries

With the death of William de Heton on September 23, 1400, the property came to his three daughters Margaret, Jane and Elizabeth and from these after 1426 to Sir Ralph Gray of Wark, whose family was the owner for the next 290 years.

In 1536, royal allegiance fled to Chillingham Castle during the Pilgrimage of Grace , whereupon Sir Ingram Percy, the younger son of Henry Percy , the Earl of Northumberland , besieged the castle . The facility was managed at the time by Sir Robert Ellerker on behalf of his underage son, Ralph Gray. He was able to defend it successfully, but it was badly damaged in the course of the fighting. Perhaps the extensions that followed in the same century are also a result of this damage.

From the second quarter of the 16th century, today's south-east wing was built, including the southern curtain wall. At the same time, the large kitchen was set up in the south-west wing, which previously housed the horse stables. Perhaps on the occasion of the visit of King Jacob VI. In 1603 the north facade was redesigned, giving the portal its current appearance. There is evidence that this happened in the first half of the 17th century.

From the 18th century to the present

Chillingham Castle in a painting from about 1880

Other, minor changes followed during the 18th century. The last construction work on the complex took place in the early 19th century, when the east wing was rebuilt under John Paterson, a student of Robert Adams , and a new economic wing was then added. The creation of an English landscape garden based on designs by Capability Brown also took place at that time. The Renaissance palace garden, laid out in 1828, based on Italian models, was based on plans by Sir Jeffry Wyatville , who shortly before worked for the English king at Windsor Castle .

When Ford Gray , the first Earl of Tankerville , died in the early 18th century, the castle and the property belonging to it came to the husband of Ford's heiress Mary Gray. In 1695 she had married Charles Bennet, 2nd Baron Ossulton , who succeeded his father-in-law as Earl of Tankerville.

After the buildings were no longer inhabited from 1933 and were therefore empty, the castle was used as a barracks during the Second World War . At that time, many wooden furnishings and fittings were removed and used by soldiers as firewood. After the war the castle fell into disrepair. Weather damage and bird droppings on the upper floors were a result of the metal shortage caused by the war - the lead roof had been removed. In 1981, the son of Evelyn Baring, 1st Baron Howick of Glendale , Sir Humphry Wakefield, whose wife Kate is of the Grey family, bought the run-down property. Since then, the castle has been gradually restored under his direction.

Todays use

Chillingham Castle now houses a castle museum, which is open from Easter to the end of October. In addition to curiosities and many family memorabilia from the castle owners, a collection of weapons in the entrance hall as well as a torture chamber and a dungeon can still be seen on the walls with the graffiti of the former inmates. The castle gardens and the walking paths on the property belonging to the castle are also open to the public.

Holiday apartments are now housed in the former carriage house and in parts of the castle. Various castle rooms can also be rented for parties and celebrations.

Chillingham is marketed by its owners as a haunted castle, in which various television reports on the subject have been filmed. The castle ghosts include:

  • the blue boy , whose excruciating and anxious screams are said to be heard at midnight and who owes his name to blue clothing that was found on a child's skeleton in 1920
  • Lady Mary Berkley wandering the castle at night in search of her unfaithful husband who ran off with her sister
  • the former guards , whose steps and clattering armor should always be heard when it gets dark.

literature

  • Cadwallader John Bates: The Border Holds of Northumberland. Volume 1 (= Archaeologia aeliana, or, Miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity. Volume 14). Andrew Reid, Sons & Co., London and Newcastle upon Tyne 1891, pp. 297-301 ( digitized ).
  • Anthony Emery: Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500. Volume 1: Northern England. Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-49723-X , pp. 65-67 ( digitized ).
  • Frank Graham: Castles of Northumberland. Self-published, Newcastle upon Tyne 1976, ISBN 0-85983-019-5 , pp. 102-105.
  • Simon Jenkins: England's Thousand Best Houses. Penguin Books, London 2004, ISBN 0-141-00625-0 , pp. 561-563.
  • Aaron Watson: Chillingham Castle . In: Historic Houses of the United Kingdom. Descriptive, historical, pictorial. Cassell & Company, London, Paris, Melbourne 1892, pp. 311-320 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Chillingham Castle  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Entry of the castle in the Historic England database , accessed January 7, 2020.
  2. ^ A b Adrian Pettifer: English Castles. A Guide by Counties. Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge [et al. a.] 2002, ISBN 0-85115-782-3 , p. 179.
  3. ^ A b Cadwallader John Bates: The Border Holds of Northumberland. 1891, p. 301.
  4. ↑ Castle website: Edward 1st Room , accessed January 7, 2020.
  5. ↑ Castle website: King James I Room , accessed January 7, 2020.
  6. ^ Aaron Watson: Historic houses of the United Kingdom. 1892, p. 318 ( digitized version ).
  7. ↑ chillinghamwildcattle.com , accessed January 7, 2020.
  8. ↑ Castle website: Gardens & Grounds , accessed January 7, 2020.
  9. ^ History of the facility on the castle website , accessed on January 7, 2020.
  10. ^ Plantagenet Somerset Fry: Castles of Britain and Ireland. The ultimate reference book. Newton Abbot, 1996, ISBN 0-7892-0278-6 , p. 69.
  11. ^ A b c Anthony Emery: Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500. 1996, p. 65.
  12. ↑ Cadwallader John Bates: The Border Holds of Northumberland. 1891, p. 298.
  13. ^ Anthony Emery: Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500. 1996, p. 66.
  14. ↑ Information according to Anthony Emery: Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500. 1996, p. 65. In his publication, Simon Jenkins states that it was built from 1588 onwards.
  15. ↑ Simon Jenkins: England's Thousand Best Houses. 2004, p. 65.

Coordinates: 55 ° 31 ′ 33 "  N , 1 ° 54 ′ 14.5"  W.