Holt Castle
| Holt Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Remains of Holt Castle |
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| Creation time : | 1277-1311 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg spur location | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | English royal family, English nobility | |
| Construction: | Sandstone | |
| Place: | Get | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 4 '40.4 " N , 2 ° 52' 48.9" W | |
| Height: | 16 m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference | |
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Holt Castle is the ruin of a Spur castle in the town of Holt in the Welsh management unit Wrexham . Work on the castle began during the Anglo-Welsh War in the 13th century. The castle was on the English-Welsh border on the banks of the Dee .
In the Middle Ages, the five-tower fortress was called Castrum Leonis or Castle Lyons because a lion was carved into the masonry above the main entrance. Almost all of the masonry was removed from the site in the 17th century. Today only the sandstone foundations are essentially preserved.
architecture
The castle, which was built between 1277 and 1311, was built from local sandstone on a 12 meter high rock ledge. It was pentagonal in plan and had a tower at each corner.
The castle had a stepped ramp to the main entrance, a barbican , a core castle , a side gate and a curtain wall .
It was surrounded by a water-filled ditch , the water of which came from the Dee.
The castle also had towers built against the rocks outside the curtain wall, similar to those of the inner castle of Ruthin Castle and Conwy Castle .
history
The construction of Holt Castle was started by King Edward I of England on a sandstone foundation near the Dee soon after the Welsh invasion of North Wales in 1277. In 1282 the King lent the Welsh lands on which Holt Castle was located to the local Lord John de Warenne , who was also given the task of completing the castle. In 1311 construction was finished and a settlement next to it was created for the English settlers.
A century later, during the 1400 uprising led by Owain Glyndŵr , Welsh forces burned the settlement but were unable to take the castle. Until the 16th century, Holt Castle was no longer used and fell into disrepair. The English cartographer from Elizabethan times "John Norden" reported about the castle that it was "now in a bad state of decay".
For most of the English Civil War , Holt Castle was occupied by royalist troops. It was captured by the Roundheads in 1643 , but recaptured by the royalists in the spring of 1644. After the parliamentarians surrendered, 13 of them were beheaded and their bodies thrown into the moat . In January 1647 , after a nine-month siege, the royalist governor, Sir Richard Lloyd , surrendered to Thomas Mytton , the commander of the besieging parliamentarians. After Holt Castle was abandoned , Harlech Castle was the only fortress in Wales still occupied by the royalists; it fell to Mytton in March 1647 . After the handover, Colonel Roger Pope was appointed Parliamentary Governor of Holt Castle. By order of Parliament, Holt Castle was razed later that year .
Between 1675 and 1693, Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet of Eaton , had a large part of the castle demolished and the building blocks were transported downriver by boat to rebuild Eaton Hall after the Civil War .
In the 18th century, all that was left of Holt Castle was part of a tower and a rectangular building.
today
Today only the sandstone foundations of the castle remain. In addition, you can only see a few small remains of masonry, such as the Aufalltor, a buttress and the foundations of a tower with a square floor plan.
Holt Castle is a Grade II * historic building.
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles Carlton: Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars, 1638-1651 . Routledge. Pp. 258. 1992. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
- ^ A b William Bingley: Excursions in North Wales: including Aberystwith and the Devil's Bridge, intended as a guide to tourists . Longman, Orme. P. 226, 1839. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
- ^ A b Adrian Pettifer: Welsh Castles: A Guide by Countries . Boydell & Brewer. P. 66. 2000. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
- ↑ WR Williams: Parliamentary History of the Principality of Wales, from the earliest times to the present day, 1541-1895 ... . Privately published for the author by E. Davis and Bell. 1895. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
- ^ NN: Eaton Halls . Eaton Estate, 2002. p. 2.
- ↑ Holt Castle . In: British Listed Buildings . Retrieved March 8, 2018.
