We were pretty stuck for still-standing-castles this week. A lot of them were Adulterine castles, which meant that they had been built during the Anarchy and were promptly taken down at the end of the war on Henry II’s orders.
That doesn’t mean we didn’t find a lot to talk about, though. Although we’ve kind of shoe-horned some castles in that are *technically* in Oxfordshire. Don’t judge us, they were in Berkshire originally, and definitely during the time when they were working castles, so we thought we’d include them all the same.
First up, we had Hampstead Norris… and that’s basically all we have to say about it.
We know, we know, it isn’t a lot to go on, but it’s mentioned in the Domesday book and we believe it was built pretty soon after the invasion in 1066. Plus, the village looks beautiful, so if you’re ever in the neighbourhood we recommend you go and take a look.
Hinton Waldrist Castle gave us a bit more to go on. It was originally a Motte and Bailey built after the Norman invasion on the land owned by the St. Valory family, then rebuilt in stone by the Earls of Hereford. It’s got some royal connections, too. Mary de Bohun (b. 1370) was raised at Hinton Waldrist and later married Henry Bolingbroke, who would go on to become Henry IV. Although Mary died before Henry’s coronation, her son, Henry (later Henry V) would have visited the castle.
Next, we looked at our first of this episode’s Adulterine castles, Farringdon. Built by Robert of Gloucester in 1144, it didn’t take long before the castle was besieged and surrendered to Stephen. There’s a similar amount of history available for Brightwell Castle, which Stephen built during 1145 because it was close to Wallingford, home of Matilda’s ally, Brian.
However, things get a bit more interesting with Newbury Castle. Built by John Marshall in 1152, when Stephen besieged it in 1153 he actually threatened to catapult John’s son, William, at the walls if John didn’t surrender. John refused. Apparently, he thought he could make some better sons.
Given the was William Marshall’s gone down in history, we think he was probably a bit very wrong on this front.
Now, there is something left of Donnington Castle at least - even if it’s only the gatehouse. Originally owned by the Abberbury family, there was a manor house on the land at least as early as 1292. The castle was built in 1336 and sold to Geoffrey Chaucer’s son in 1398 as a home for his daughter, who later married a De la Pole and became the Duchess of Suffolk. The De la Poles eventually fell out of favour during the Tudor period after a series of unfortunate circumstances.
You didn’t think we’d tell you what those were here, did you? You’ll have to check out the episode to find out more about those.
Unfortunately, the castle was destroyed by the Parliamentarians in 1646 during the English Civil War, which is why only the gatehouse remains.
Beaumys Castle didn’t even stay standing for 100 years, but its short history gave us some excellent ghosts and skeletons. The castle’s builder, Nicholas de la Beche, left the castle to his widow when he died. On Good Friday in 1347, a man called Sir John de Dalton broke into the castle with some pals, killed a nobleman and possibly a couple of others, stole £1000 worth of things, kidnapped Margaret, and forced her to marry him for the money. Apparently, he was sent to the Tower for it, but Magaret died just two years later in 1349.
Finally, and possibly our favourite of the week - Yattendon Castle. We don’t know a lot about this castle before the 15th Century, but from then and for the next 200 years it was owned by the Norreys family, before it was destroyed in the Civil War.
William Norrey fought for Henry VII at Bosworth in 1485 and again in 1487 against the pretender Lambert Simnel, but it’s his grandson Henry who’s got the most skeletons in his closet. In 1520, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon visited Yattendon Castle and there was a dance. During the evening, Henry Norris noticed that one of Catherine’s ladies’ maids, Anne Boleyn, had dropped her handkerchief, and he picked it up for her. Anne Boleyn went on to be wife number two for Henry VIII, which sadly ended in disaster for both her and for Henry Norreys - the event at Yattendon was one of the events that helped condemn a supposed affair between the two. They were beheaded in 1536.
We’ll be back next time with our Christmas special! Until then, drop us a message on Twitter and if you like the podcast, please give us a like and a review!
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