Sleaford Castle
Encyclopedia
Sleaford Castle is a medieval castle in Sleaford
Sleaford
Sleaford is a town in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is located thirteen miles northeast of Grantham, seventeen miles west of Boston, and nineteen miles south of Lincoln, and had a total resident population of around 14,500 in 6,167 households at the time...

, Lincolnshire, England. Built by the Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...

 in the early 1120s it was inhabitable as late as 1555 but fell into disrepair during the latter half of the 16th-century. Two English monarchs are known to have stayed at the castle, King John and Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...


Medieval era

The castle was built between 1123 and 1139 by Alexander de Blois
Alexander of Lincoln
Alexander of Lincoln was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln, a member of an important administrative and ecclesiastical family. He was the nephew of Roger of Salisbury, a Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England under King Henry I, and he was also related to Nigel, Bishop of Ely...

, Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...

 from 1123-1147. Alexander built a quadrilateral castle, akin to his construction at Newark
Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire
Newark Castle, in Newark, in the English county of Nottinghamshire was built by Alexander, consecrated Bishop of Lincoln in 1123, who established it as a mint. His rebuild here was probably the model for that at Sleaford Castle, also built by Alexander....

, with square towers and massive keep. He sited it on flat fen rather than on high ground, perhaps even replacing an earlier moated manor house on the site. This shows he intended it for a manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

 (for storing the produce from episcopal land, administering episcopal estates and providing accommodation for the bishop and his entourage when he visited the area) rather than for defence, though the fen site would make it very hard for an enemy to approach unseen.

It fulfilled the manor house function for most of its life, never withstanding an armed attack or siege but becoming one of the chief episcopal strongholds and an agricultural focus for the Bishop’s estates in Sleaford and elsewhere. An outline of a 40 by 15 metre tithe barn
Tithe barn
A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing the tithes - a tenth of the farm's produce which had to be given to the church....

 (said to be the largest in Lincolnshire, and with a cattle shed and hay loft attached) can still be seen in the southern half of the castle - local inhabitants would pay their tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...

 (or rent for farming the land) to the bishop, either by time working for the bishop (either on his land or serving in his army or castle garrison), a share of their crop, or a cash sum.

A dam was placed across the river Slea
River Slea
The River Slea is an 18-mile long tributary of the River Witham, in Lincolnshire, England. In 1872 the river was described as "a never-ending source of pure water", and was a trout river renowned throughout the East coast of England...

 at the end of Westgate, with a two-wheeled watermill behind it, producing a large pond to provide fresh fish for episcopal celebrations (an orchard just outside the castle provided fruit, and a dovecote to the east of the barn meat) along with rushes and thatch for roofing.

The nearest the castle came to a siege were two occasions when the bishop was forced to hand over his keys to the king when his loyalties were doutbtful - specifically, to king Stephen
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...

 during the Anarchy
The Anarchy
The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...

 (by Alexander himself, to buy his release after Stephen's successful siege of Newark Castle) and to Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...

 in the 1320s.

King John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...

 spent a night in the castle in October 1216 just after his disastrous crossing of the Wash
The Wash
The Wash is the square-mouthed bay and estuary on the northwest margin of East Anglia on the east coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire. It is among the largest estuaries in the United Kingdom...

 and just before his death, and in 1430 Bishop Richard Fleming
Richard Fleming
Richard Fleming , Bishop of Lincoln and founder of Lincoln College, Oxford, was born at Crofton in Yorkshire....

 died here.

Early modern period

Henry VIII stayed at Sleaford twice (once in 1541 with his queen Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard , also spelled Katherine, Katheryn or Kathryn, was the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, and sometimes known by his reference to her as his "rose without a thorn"....

) and held a State Council at the Castle. The castle passed into the hands of the Duke of Somerset in 1544, from whom it was confiscated by the crown in 1546. On both occasions, and in 1555, it was still said to be defensible and inhabitable. John Leland described it at this time as well maintained with a gatehouse, which housed two portcullises, and a high central tower, 'but not sette upon a hille of raised yerth'.

Decline

However, it soon began to fall into disrepair during the second half of the 16th century, starting with the timber and lead roof being taken. These were reused in buildings in the town such as the 'Manor House', some of which survive to the present day. The process of decline continued under the ownership of the Carre family. In 1604 it was described as ‘the late fair castle’, suggesting it had been largely or even fully dismantled before 1600. An early 18th-century engraving of the castle shows a ruin, but with a considerable amount of stonework still visible.

Present

The visible remains are now only a moat, a scrap of masonry (one small, toppled portion of a wall in the north-east corner of the inner bailey) and associated earthworks. It is now a scheduled monument and a Grade II listed building protected by law. It is also cultivated for wildlife.

Websites


Books

  • Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern) p59
  • Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p179
  • Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p148 [slight]
  • Roffe, David, 1993, 'Castles' in Bennett, S. and Bennett, N. (eds), An Historical Atlas of Lincolnshire (University of Hull Press) p40-1
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p262
  • Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p298
  • Roffe, D.R.,1979, 'Origins', in Mahany, C.M., Roffe D.R. (eds) Sleaford (Stamford) p11-16
  • Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
  • Beresford, M., 1967, New Towns of the Middle Ages (London) p466
  • Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
  • Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol1 p439-40
  • Arnold, T. (ed), 1879, Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum (London) p266
  • Trollope, E., 1872, Sleaford and Wapentakes of Flaxwell and Aswardhurn in the County of Lincoln (London) p107-21

Journal Articles

  • Brown, R, Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' English Historical Review Vol74 [Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p249-280]

Antiquarian

  • William Camden
    William Camden
    William Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer of arms. He wrote the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.- Early years :Camden was born in London...

    , 1607, Britannia http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/lincseng.html#lincs11
  • Toulmin Smith, Lucy
    Lucy Toulmin Smith
    Lucy Toulmin Smith was an Anglo-American antiquarian and librarian, known for her first publication of the York Mystery Plays and other early works.- Life :...

    (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol1 p26-7 and Vol5 p32
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK