Liddel Strength facts for kids
Liddel Strength is an old monument in northwest England, near a place called Carwinley in Cumbria. It's mostly the remains of an old fort built from earth. This fort was a very important border stronghold for the Anglo-Normans. The Scots destroyed it in 1346. At that time, it was a motte and bailey castle made of wood. Later, a stone tower called a pele tower was built there, but only small parts of it remain.
Liddel Strength sits on a cliff next to the Liddel Water. It's right where the Liddel Water joins the River Esk. This spot was the last high ground before the Esk River reached the flat Solway Plain. Today, the Liddel Water and the Esk River form the border between England and Scotland. Long ago, this area was known as the "Debatable Lands" because the border often changed.
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What is Liddel Strength?
Liddel Strength was also known as Liddel Moat. People sometimes confused it with Liddel Castle, which was much further up the Liddesdale valley. Liddel Strength was the main fort for the Liddel area on the English side of the border. There was also a Liddesdale area on the Scottish side. Its main fort was first Liddel Castle, then later Hermitage Castle. The border wasn't always in the same place in the Middle Ages. So, both castles were sometimes in different countries!
The Old Castle of Liddel
A fort was needed here from the very beginning of the Liddel area. The first clear mention of a castle was in 1174. It was called a "strength" but it wasn't a huge, super-strong castle. It was a motte-and-bailey castle, which meant it had a large mound (the motte) and a walled area (the bailey). The walls were made of wood. By the 1300s, this kind of wooden castle wasn't as strong as newer stone castles.
The earthworks you see today are huge. The inner part is about 48 by 58 meters. The ground rises 8 meters from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank. On the north side, a very steep 150-foot drop to the river acted as a natural defense. The whole fort covered about 3.5 to 4 acres. There's no ditch between the motte and the inner bailey. This suggests the motte might have been added later to an older circular fort.
In the 1280s, the castle had a timber hall with rooms and cellars. It also had other wooden buildings like a kitchen, a place for grain, a barn, and a chapel. Some of these buildings were in bad shape. Around 1300, plans were made to fix the mound, the ditches, the wooden walls, and to build shelters for the soldiers.
The Barons of Liddel
The Liddel area was like a small kingdom, called a barony. It covered the land of today's Arthuret, Kirkandrews-on-Esk, and Nicholforest parishes. It was probably created around the early 1100s.
In 1174, William the Lion, the King of Scotland, attacked and captured the castle of Liddel. At that time, it belonged to Nicholas de Stuteville. His family was important and well-connected. Even though they owned Liddel, their main home was at Cottingham in Yorkshire.
Later, the Stuteville lands passed to the le Wake family through marriage. In 1346, the castle belonged to Sir Thomas Wake, 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell. He was a very important baron. Thomas Wake had lost his Scottish lands after the Battle of Bannockburn. He fought in other battles too. Both Thomas and his sister Margaret had married into the royal House of Plantagenet family.
The Castle's Capture in 1346
In October 1346, King David II of Scotland invaded England. His ally, Philip VI of France, had told him that England would be unprotected because King Edward III of England was busy fighting in France at the siege of Calais. David's army had about 12,000 men, some with new equipment from France. His campaign ended at the Battle of Neville's Cross. But first, he attacked Liddel Strength.
Sir Walter de Selby was in charge of Liddel Strength's defense in October 1346. Sir Walter had a tricky past. He had been involved in some trouble earlier in his life and had to escape to Scotland. Later, he became loyal to the English king. He was even knighted and served Edward Baliol, who gave him land in Scotland. In 1337, he was asked to be in charge of Bothwell Castle, an English headquarters in Scotland, but the Scots soon captured that castle.
The Scottish army arrived at Liddel Strength on the morning of October 6, 1346. King David and the main army arrived by evening. For three days, they didn't attack. But on the fourth day, before sunrise, the Scots attacked the fort from all sides. Both the defenders inside and the attackers outside fought fiercely. Many were hurt, and some were killed.
The Scots used beams, wood, earth, stones, and bundles of sticks to fill up the ditches around the fort. Then, some Scottish soldiers, protected by shields, used iron tools to break through the bottom of the wooden walls. Many of them entered the fort this way without much more fighting. Knights and armed men rushed in and killed almost everyone they found. This is how they took full control of the fort.
Sir Walter de Selby was one of the few who survived the initial attack. English writers say that King David treated him very badly. One story says David had two of Selby's sons killed in front of him, then executed Selby, who was almost mad with sadness. Another story says Selby accepted he would die and asked David for a weapon to die fighting like a knight. But David refused and had him killed without a chance to confess his sins to a priest.
Liddel Strength was never rebuilt after this attack. When Thomas Wake died in 1349, the land of Liddel was worth very little. The castle and manor were described as "destroyed." The land eventually became part of the Duchy of Lancaster, which belonged to the English Crown.
