Tilsworth Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tilsworth Castle is both a medieval moth , also called the Warren Knoll moth , and a mansion , also called Tilsworth Manor . Both structures are in the parish of Tilsworth in the English county of Bedfordshire .

Warren Knoll Moth

The first "Tilsworth Castle" was a moth built before the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Originally there was an Anglo-Saxon fortress on the site , which was held by Levric , the son of Osmund . It was a wooden castle that presumably had external fortifications to the east and north.

In the Domesday Book of 1086, a "Tilsworth Manor" is mentioned, which then belonged to William Peverel . In the middle of the 13th century the castle fell to the Morteyn family ; it was held by seven members of this family before it passed into the hands of a Morteyn cousin, Richard Chamberlain , in 1362 . The manor was in the hands of the Chamberlain family and passed to Richard's son Richard († August 24, 1396) and then to Richard's grandson Richard (1390–1439), who was under the age of majority at the beginning of his inheritance. In his youth, his mother Margaret Chamberlain (née Lovaine , † April 18, 1408) administered the manor along with the young Richard's stepfather, Philip St Clair . After the death of his mother in 1408 and the death of his brother Richard in the same year, the younger brother William Chamberlain took over the property.

Sometime around the time of Richard's death, in the 15th century, a new mansion was built next to the church. The old castle then fell into disrepair. Today only vegetation marks and earthworks are preserved. Excavations were carried out on the site in 1972 and it is considered a Scheduled Monument .

Tilsworth Manor

Situated next to Warren Knoll second "Tilsworth Castle", a fortified and built in the 15th century ditch provided mansion. The manor was included by the parliamentary law of 1767. The house around 1800 was demolished and a new mansion was built on the same site.

Presumably Richard Chamberlain († 1496), the son of the aforementioned William Chamberlain, had it built. The manorial rule then fell to Richard's son Edward Chamberlain (* 1479), who passed it on to his maternal grandfather, Richard Fowler , in 1528 . The house remained in the Fowler family for only three generations when Richard Fowler sold it to Sir Anthony Chester in 1606 . The sale of the property followed an incident in 1600 during which Richard Fowler was imprisoned in the Tower of London for a forged letter showing him involved in a conspiracy to poison Queen Elizabeth I. Richard's young wife, her lover and her brother were later convicted of this forgery .

The property then passed through the hands of eight members of the Chester family , and Charles Chester sold it in 1838 to Sir Gregory Osborn Page-Turner , son of Gregory Page-Turner, 3rd Baronet . The property then remained in the hands of this family; the owners were Mr. FA Page-Turner and Sir EH Page-Turner . The latter died in 1898 and the house passed into the hands of his trustees.

The third mansion of the same name, which a member of the Chester family built in the 19th century, currently stands on the property. This still includes the gate tower from the 15th century and the moat. Today Tilsworth Manor is a private residence, but the Tilsworth Public Fête is held every June .

This area is also considered a Scheduled Monument .

Web links and sources

Coordinates: 51 ° 54 ′ 31.3 "  N , 0 ° 35 ′ 2.8"  W.