Bodiam Castle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Bodiam Castle |
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| Robertsbridge, East Sussex | |
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 Bodiam Castle
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| Coordinates | 51°00′08″N 0°32′37″E / 51.0023°N 0.5435°E |
| Grid reference | grid reference TQ785256 |
| Site information | |
| Owner | The National Trust |
| Condition | Ruins |
| Site history | |
| Built by | Sir Edward Dalyngrigge |
| Materials | Sandscript stone |
| Demolished | Post English Civil War |
| Battles/wars | English Civil War |
| Events | |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Official name | Bodiam Castle |
| Designated | 3 August 1961 |
| Reference no. | 1044134 |
Bodiam Castle is a cool 14th-century castle with a moat (a deep ditch filled with water) around it. You can find it near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a knight who fought for King Edward III, built it in 1385. He got permission from King Richard II. The main reason for building it was to protect the area from French attacks during the Hundred Years' War.
Bodiam Castle has a square shape and doesn't have a central tower (called a keep). Instead, all its rooms are built around the outer walls and inner courtyards. It has towers at its corners and entrance, with cool crenellations (the notched tops of walls) on top. The way it's built, with its details and its setting in a watery landscape, shows that it was designed to look impressive as well as to defend. It was the home of the Dalyngrigge family and the main building of the manor (a large estate) of Bodiam.
Over time, Bodiam Castle was owned by different families. During the Wars of the Roses, a time when two powerful families fought for the English throne, the castle was almost attacked. Later, during the English Civil War in the 1600s, the castle was partly taken apart. It was left as a beautiful ruin until it was bought and restored by several people, including John 'Mad Jack' Fuller and Lord Curzon. Today, The National Trust owns Bodiam Castle, and it's open for everyone to visit. It's a Grade I listed building, which means it's a very important historic place.
Contents
Building a Castle: Why and How
Sir Edward Dalyngrigge's Story
Edward Dalyngrigge was a younger son in his family. This meant he didn't inherit his father's lands because of a rule called primogeniture (where the oldest son gets everything). So, he had to make his own way in the world. By 1378, he owned the manor of Bodiam because he married into a family that owned land there.
From 1379 to 1388, Dalyngrigge was an important person in Sussex. He was a Knight of the Shire, which was like being a local representative. The Hundred Years' War between England and France had been going on for almost 50 years. Edward Dalyngrigge went to France to earn money as a mercenary, fighting for whoever paid the most. He joined a group called the Free Companies and made a lot of money from fighting. This money helped him build Bodiam Castle. He came back to England in 1377.
Threats and Building Permission
After a short peace, fighting started again between England and France. Both countries raided each other's coasts. England's government decided to spend money on defending the south coast. There were also problems inside England, like the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, which Dalyngrigge helped to stop.
In 1385, a huge French fleet of 1,200 ships gathered across the English Channel. People in southern England were very scared. Later that year, Edward Dalyngrigge got special permission from the king to build a castle at his manor house. This permission was called a licence to fortify or "licence to crenellate."
Know that of our special grace we have granted and given licence on behalf of ourselves and our heirs, so far as in us lies, to our beloved and faithful Edward Dalyngrigge Knight, that he may strengthen with a wall of stone and lime, and crenellate and may construct and make into a Castle his manor house of Bodiam, near the sea, in the County of Sussex, for the defence of the adjacent country, and the resistance to our enemies ... In witness of which etc. The King at Westminster 20 October.
—This is part of the permission King Richard II gave to Edward Dalyngrigge in 1385, allowing him to build a stone castle at Bodiam to defend the area from enemies.
Building the Castle Quickly
Instead of just making his old house stronger, Dalyngrigge chose a new spot to build his castle. It was built very quickly, probably because of the French threat. Building a stone castle was usually very expensive and took a long time. Dalyngrigge was away in France for some of the first years of building.
We don't know exactly when Bodiam Castle was finished, but it was likely before 1392. Dalyngrigge didn't get to enjoy his completed castle for long, as he died in 1395. The castle became his main home and the center for managing his lands.
Castle Ownership Changes
Edward's son, John Dalyngrigge, inherited the castle. He was also liked by the king. John died in 1408, and since he had no children, the castle eventually passed to his cousin's family, the Lewknors.
Sir Thomas Lewknor, a later owner, supported the House of Lancaster during the Wars of the Roses. When Richard III from the House of York became king in 1483, Lewknor was accused of being a traitor. Forces were sent to besiege Bodiam Castle. It's not clear if a big fight happened, but it's thought that Lewknor gave up the castle without much resistance. The castle was taken away from him, but it was given back when Henry VII (from the House of Lancaster) became king in 1485. The Lewknor family owned the castle for many more years.
By the time of the English Civil War in 1641, Lord Thanet owned Bodiam Castle. He supported the king's side (the Royalists). To help pay fines he got from Parliament, he sold the castle. After this, the castle was partly taken apart, or "slighted," so it couldn't be used as a fort again. It was left as a beautiful ruin.
Bodiam Castle: From Ruin to Tourist Spot
After the Civil War, Bodiam Castle was bought by Nathaniel Powell. It's not known exactly when the castle was "slighted" (partly destroyed), but it was probably after Powell bought it. During and after the Civil War, many castles were slighted to stop them from being used against the government. At Bodiam, they took apart the barbican (an outer defense), the bridges, and the buildings inside the castle.
Over the next century, the castle was owned by the Webster family. During this time, it became a popular place for early tourists because it was a cool medieval ruin. Drawings from the mid-1700s show Bodiam Castle covered in ivy. Ruins like Bodiam Castle inspired a new style of building called Gothic Revival architecture, which brought back old designs.
Restoring the Castle
In 1829, John 'Mad Jack' Fuller bought the castle. He started to fix it up, repairing one of the towers and adding new gates. He also removed a small house that had been built inside the castle. Fuller probably bought the castle to stop the Webster family from taking it apart even more.
Later, George Cubitt bought the castle in 1849. He continued the repairs that Fuller had started. He had the first detailed survey of the castle done in 1864 and fixed the tower in the southwest corner, which had almost fallen down. Back then, people liked ruins covered in ivy, so the plants were left on the walls even though they could damage the stone.
Lord Curzon bought Bodiam Castle in 1916. He believed that such a special castle should be saved. Curzon started a big project to restore parts of the castle in 1919 with an architect named William Weir. They drained the moat, which was about 5 feet deep, and removed a lot of mud. During this work, they found the original foundations of the bridges. They also cleared away plants, fixed stonework, and found a well inside one of the towers. A small building was built to be a museum for things found during the digs and a home for a caretaker. Lord Curzon gave Bodiam Castle to the National Trust in 1925.
The National Trust kept up the restoration work, adding new roofs to the towers and gatehouse. More digging happened in 1970, and the moat was drained again. Bodiam Castle has also been used in movies and TV shows, like Monty Python and the Holy Grail (where it was "Swamp Castle") and Doctor Who.
Today, Bodiam Castle is a Scheduled Monument, meaning it's a very important historic and archaeological site. It's also a Grade I listed building. It's open to the public, and many people visit it every year. Many historians think Bodiam "represents the popular ideal of a medieval castle."
Castle Design and Features
Location and Surroundings
The castle's location was supposedly chosen to protect England from French raids. However, if that was the main reason, it's a bit unusual because it's quite far from the medieval coastline.
The area around Bodiam Castle was changed when the castle was built to make it look more beautiful. Experts say Bodiam is one of the best examples of how a landscape was designed to make a castle stand out. The water features were once much bigger, but now only the moat remains. The moat is roughly rectangular and gets its water from several springs. It was hard to drain during excavations because of these springs. A moat can stop attackers from reaching the castle walls, but at Bodiam, it also made the castle look bigger and more impressive by making it an island. The moat is now seen more as a beautiful feature than a strong defense. The path to the castle, across the moat and other ponds, was not direct, giving visitors time to admire the castle's grand appearance.
The castle sits in the middle of the moat. A back entrance (called a postern gate) would have had a drawbridge and a long wooden bridge connecting it to the south bank of the moat. The main entrance on the north side now has a wooden bridge. Originally, there were two bridges: one from the main entrance to an island in the moat, and another from the island to the west bank. Most of the bridge was fixed, but the part closest to the west bank was a drawbridge. The island in the moat is called the Octagon. Digs there found a garderobe (a toilet), suggesting there might have been a guard on the island. The Octagon was connected to a barbican (an outer fort) by another bridge, probably a drawbridge. The castle's 28 toilets all drained straight into the moat, which means the moat was basically an "open sewer"!
Outside the Castle
Bodiam is a quadrangular castle, meaning it's roughly square-shaped. This type of castle, with a central courtyard and buildings built against the outer walls (called curtain walls), was common in the 14th century. Bodiam Castle is considered one of the most complete examples of this type of castle.
There are round towers at each of the four corners. There are also square towers in the middle of the south, east, and west walls. The main entrance is a gatehouse with two towers on the north side. There's a second entrance at the back (the postern gate) through a square tower in the middle of the south wall. The towers are three stories high, taller than the curtain walls and the buildings inside the castle, which are two stories high.
Between the Octagon island and the main gatehouse was a barbican. Not much of it is left, but it was originally two stories high. It had a slot for a portcullis (a heavy gate that drops down) at its north gate. The barbican's second story probably had a guard room.
The gatehouse on the north wall is three stories high. It used to be connected to the barbican by a drawbridge. The top of the gatehouse has machicolations (holes through which things could be dropped on attackers). The entrance also has gun-loops in the gatehouse towers. The gatehouse is the only part of the castle with gun-loops. The rest of the castle walls and towers have windows for living, not for fighting. Inside the gatehouse, there were guardrooms and a basement. The passage through the gatehouse would have had three wooden portcullises. The ceiling of the passage has murder holes, which were likely used to drop objects on attackers or pour water to put out fires.
Above the main gate, there are three coats of arms carved into the stone. These belong to the Dalyngrigge family, his wife's family (Wardeux), and his mother's family (Radynden). Above these is a carving of a unicorn head. The postern gate also has three coats of arms, but two of them are blank.
Inside the Castle
While the outside of Bodiam Castle is mostly still standing, the inside is mostly ruins. The buildings inside the castle were built along the curtain walls. However, enough remains to figure out what the castle looked like inside. The castle was divided into separate living areas for the lord and his family, important guests, soldiers, and servants.
The south side of the castle had the great hall, kitchens, and other related rooms. The great hall was the main social area, where the lord would entertain guests. It was about 24 by 40 feet and as tall as the outer wall. To the west of the great hall were the pantry (for food) and buttery (for drinks), connected by a passage. This layout was common in large medieval houses. The kitchen was at the far west of the south side and was as tall as the curtain walls to let out heat from cooking fires. In the southwest tower, there was a well that provided water for the castle.
Along the east wall, there was a chapel, a hall, and an antechamber (a small waiting room). The chapel area sticks out a bit further into the moat. South of the chapel were the main living quarters for the lord and his family. These buildings were two stories high with a basement.
Along the west curtain wall, there was another hall and kitchen. These were probably for the household's servants. This "retainers' hall" had no windows on its west side, so it would have been quite dark compared to the great hall. It also didn't have a fireplace.
East of the main gatehouse was a two-story building with a basement. The basement was likely for storage, and the upper floors were for living. The purpose of the buildings on the west side of the north range is not clear. They were very simple, with little light, leading some to think they might have been stables, but there are no drains usually found in stables. The tower in the northwest corner had a toilet and fireplace on each of its three upper floors, and a basement below.
See also
In Spanish: Castillo de Bodiam para niños
- Bodiam, Eastern Cape, a South African town named after the Castle
- Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
- Kenilworth Castle – an elaborate castle well known for its water defences
- List of castles in England
Images for kids
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Plan of Bodiam Castle.
