Colchester Castle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Colchester Castle |
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| Colchester, Essex, England | |
Colchester Castle keep from the south, showing the main entrance
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 Colchester Castle
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| Coordinates | 51°53′26″N 0°54′11″E / 51.890589°N 0.903047°E |
| Type | Norman castle |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Borough of Colchester |
| Controlled by | Colchester & Ipswich Museums |
| Condition | Keep is largely intact. |
| Site history | |
| Built | circa 1076 |
| Built by | William I of England |
| Demolished | Bailey wall and keep battlements, 17th century |
| Events | 1216 siege in the First Barons' War 1648 capture in the Siege of Colchester |
Colchester Castle is a large Norman castle located in Colchester, Essex, England. It was built around the year 1076. The main part of the castle, called the keep, is still mostly standing. It is the biggest castle keep in Europe. This is because it was built on the old foundations of a huge Roman building called the Temple of Claudius, Colchester.
The castle faced a long three-month siege in 1216 during a war. By the 1600s, parts of the castle had fallen apart. Its outer walls and some upper sections of the keep were taken down. We don't know for sure how tall the castle was originally. The remaining castle was used as a prison for a while. Later, it was partly fixed up to be a large garden building. In 1922, the Colchester Borough Council bought the castle. Since 1860, Colchester Castle has been home to the Colchester Museum. This museum has many important Roman items on display. The castle is now a protected historical site and a very important listed building.
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Building Colchester Castle
The castle was likely started by William the Conqueror. This is known from a document by his son, King Henry I, from 1101. This document gave the town and castle of Colchester to a man named Eudo Dapifer. It said that Henry's father and brother had owned it before him. A local history book, the Colchester Chronicle, says Eudo started building the castle in 1076.
Some people think the castle's design is similar to the White Tower in the Tower of London. This is why some believe Gundulf of Rochester might have designed it. However, both castles also look like an older castle in France.
The Castle's Main Tower (Keep)
Colchester Castle's keep is huge. It measures about 152 by 112 feet (46 by 34 metres). This makes it the largest medieval tower ever built in Britain or Europe. Its enormous size was decided by using the stone base of the Temple of Claudius, Colchester. This Roman temple was built between AD 49 and 60. It was the biggest Roman temple in Britain.
The castle site is on high ground at the west end of the town. When the Normans arrived, there was a Saxon chapel and other buildings nearby. The Normans chose this spot because the Roman foundations were already there. Also, they could reuse Roman building materials. There was no natural stone in the area. The Normans also liked to see themselves as following the Romans. They saw William the Conqueror as similar to Julius Caesar. The Colchester Chronicle said the temple site was a palace built by a mythical Roman king. This helped the Normans feel like they were part of a heroic past.
Building the castle so close to the town centre was unusual for Norman castles. Most were built as part of the town's outer defences. They usually had access to open countryside.
First, the builders cleared away what was left of the Roman temple. This left a layer of rubble at the new ground level. The keep's walls sit on narrow trenches filled with rubble and mortar. They are right next to the Roman base. However, in the south, they are set back. This was to avoid the original temple steps and to dig a well. The walls are made of rough stones. These include septaria and Roman brick taken from nearby ruins. Smoother stones, like Barnack stone, and Roman tiles were used for details. A large curved section sticks out from the south-east corner. It looks like a chapel in the White Tower. But there is no clear proof a similar chapel was at Colchester.
At first, the keep was only built to the height of the first floor. You can still see parts of the battlements from this first stage on the outside walls. It seems that money problems or a military threat stopped the building. This meant the partly finished keep had to be made ready for defence quickly. A Danish attack in 1075 or a planned invasion in 1085 might have caused this. Another idea is that only a single-story building was planned at first.
Today, the keep has only two floors. Its original height is unknown. This is because parts were pulled down in the late 1600s. Some historians thought it had four floors, like the White Tower. But more recent studies suggest it had only three, or even just two floors. This is based on old pictures of the castle. These pictures, despite some mistakes, show the castle as it looks today, not much taller. Also, the demolition happened very quickly. And details inside the castle suggest the main hall was on the first floor, unlike the White Tower.
The original entrance's location is also uncertain. The current main doorway in the southwest tower was added later. This was during the second building phase, when the first floor and staircases were built. This second phase likely happened after 1100. It was probably done by Eudo after the 1101 charter. In the mid-1200s, a stone barbican was built near the southwest tower. This protected the main doorway.
Building the Outer Walls (Bailey)
The castle's outer defences, called the bailey, had a large earth bank and ditch. These surrounded the keep. The northern part of these earthworks still exists. But it was changed a lot in the 1800s. Digs have shown these banks were built over the old Roman temple wall. On the north side, they were probably built at the same time as the first part of the keep. The bank to the north-east was about 28.5 metres wide and 4 metres high. The southern bank seems to have been finished around 1100.
Inside the bailey, an old Anglo-Saxon chapel stood near the keep. A hall was also there. Both were kept during the first stage of building the keep. The chapel was rebuilt later. The hall had a large fireplace added around the same time.
A weaker outer bailey was formed by two smaller bank-and-ditch barriers. These stretched north towards the town walls. This might be the "new bailey" mentioned in 1173. Or it could be the stone walls of the main bailey, which were in place by 1182. No trace of these stone walls has been found. This suggests they were on top of the earth bank. A gatehouse with two towers allowed entry to the bailey. It was in the southwest corner. It was probably built when the bailey walls were made. A wooden fence, likely part of the outer bailey, blew down in 1218 and again in 1237. More repairs were needed in 1275–76.
Later Years of the Castle
Medieval Times
After Eudo died in 1120, the King took control of Colchester Castle again. From then on, the castle was managed by royal officers called constables. If there was no constable, the High Sheriff of Essex looked after it. In 1190, records show 26 military tunics were bought for the castle. This proves there was a group of soldiers living there all the time. Kings Henry I, Henry II, and Henry III all visited the castle.
In 1214, the constable was William de Lanvalai. He was one of the noblemen who opposed King John. In November that year, King John came to Colchester. He probably tried to win over Lanvalai, but failed. Lanvalai soon left the castle with the sheriff and joined other rebel noblemen. Meanwhile, King John sent a new constable, Stephen Harengood. He was a French soldier and was told to make the castle stronger.
The noblemen later marched on London. They forced King John to agree to the Magna Carta in June 1215. This document said Colchester Castle should be given back to Lanvalai. But within months, King John broke his promises. The First Barons' War began.
King John attacked Rochester Castle. Then he sent an army towards Colchester. A French soldier named Savary de Meuleon led this army. The noblemen had asked King Louis VIII of France for help. So, a group of French soldiers had come to defend Colchester Castle for them. The siege started in January 1216 and ended in March. King John himself arrived. The 116 French soldiers were able to leave safely for London. But they were arrested there. After Colchester was captured, Harengood became constable again. But in 1217, the castle was given to the French and the noblemen as part of a peace deal. However, the young King Henry III got it back in September 1217. This ended the war. William of Sainte-Mère-Église, the Bishop of London, was made constable.
The Castle in the 1600s and 1700s
In 1607, Charles, Baron Stanhope was given charge of the castle for life. In 1624, Stanhope rented it out to Thomas Holmes. The castle and its grounds stayed with the Holmes family until after 1659. In 1629, King Charles I gave the castle's future ownership to James Hay. It then passed to Archibald Hay in 1636.
In 1649, Hay sold his share to Sir John Lenthall. In 1650, a government survey said the building was in bad shape. It valued the stone at only five pounds. In 1656, Lenthall sold his share to Sir James Norfolk. Norfolk finally bought Stanhope's remaining share in 1662. In 1683, a man named John Wheely was allowed to pull the castle down. He probably wanted to use the stones for other buildings in the town. He caused "great damage" to the upper parts of the castle. He used tools and gunpowder. But he stopped when it became too expensive.
The castle has been used for many things since it stopped being a royal castle. It was a county prison. In 1645, the "Witchfinder General," Matthew Hopkins, questioned and imprisoned people suspected of being witches there. In 1648, during the Second English Civil War, two Royalist leaders, Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, were executed behind the castle. A local story says grass will not grow where they fell. A small stone marker now shows the spot. In 1656, a Quaker named James Parnell died there as a martyr.
In 1705, Wheely sold the castle to Sir Isaac Rebow. He left it to his grandson in 1726. In 1727, Mary Webster bought the castle for her daughter Sarah. Sarah was married to Charles Gray, who was a Member of Parliament for Colchester. At first, Gray rented the keep to a grain merchant. The east side was rented to the county as a prison. In the late 1740s, Gray fixed up parts of the building, especially the front. He made a private park around the castle ruins. His summer house, shaped like a Roman temple, can still be seen. He also added a library with big windows and a dome on the south-east tower. This was finished in 1760. When Gray died in 1782, the castle went to his step-grandson, James Round. He continued the restoration work.
The Castle in the 1800s and 1900s
The part of the castle under the chapel continued to be used as a prison. It was made bigger in 1801. A long-serving jailer named John Smith lived there with his family. His daughter, Mary Ann Smith, was born there in 1777. She lived her whole life in the castle. She became the librarian until she died in 1852. People believe she planted the sycamore tree that is still growing on top of the southwest tower. She might have planted it to celebrate the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Or it might have been to mark her father's death in the same year.
Between 1920 and 1922, the Borough of Colchester bought the castle and its parkland. This was possible thanks to a large gift from Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray. He was a rich businessman and had been the town's Member of Parliament. The fancy iron gates at the park entrance were made in Cheltenham. The park is now split into the Upper and Lower Castle Parks.
A museum of items owned by the borough had been on display at the castle since 1860. In the mid-1930s, the keep was roofed over. This allowed the museum to become much larger. Between January 2013 and May 2014, the castle museum was greatly improved. This cost £4.2 million. The work updated the displays. It also included the latest research into the castle's history. The roof was also repaired.
Images for kids
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Colchester Castle keep from the south, showing the main entrance
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Plan of the first floor of Colchester Castle keep
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A plan of Colchester Castle from 1916. It shows the remaining outer earthworks around the keep.
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The northern ditch and rampart of the upper bailey. These were changed a lot in the 1700s and 1800s.
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Colchester Castle, south front and south-east corner showing the apse
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Colchester Castle, rear from north-west
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A plaque recording the acquisition of the castle and park by the Borough of Colchester. This was thanks to Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray and his wife.
