Kenilworth Castle

 Last weekend, we were visiting the Midlands.  One of the places we visited was Kenilworth Castle.  I had been before, almost 40 years ago and not surprisingly I  didn't remember much apart from the very imposing keep.

The walls of the keep are up to 14ft thick as can be seen on the North Wall which was demolished when the building was 'slighted' after the Civil War.

The castle was first established by the Royal Chamberlain, Geoffrey de Clinton in the early part of the 12th century.  It was considerably strengthened by King John, who built a stone curtain wall, an outwork to protect the main castle gate and raised the level of the keep.  He also raised the level of the causeway leading to the main gate which increased the extent of the water defences.  These were tested to the limit in 1266 when Simon de Montfort's son, also called Simon, was besieged by the Royal army after the rebel defeat at Evesham.  For six months the garrison held out.  The Royal stone throwers did not have the range to fire over the water defences and a larger machines had to be sent from London.  Stones from a trebuchet have been found within the castle grounds and are on display in the Stables exhibition.

The water defences meant that undermining the walls was impossible and an assault using barges was repulsed.   In the end disease and starvation forced the garrison to surrender. 

Further building was carried on by John of Gaunt.  He created a great hall with additional private apartments and the castle was often visited by the Lancastrian kings in the 15th century.  Below is a photograph of a model of the castle at the time of Elizabeth I when additional buildings had been added by Robert Dudley.  He also created a garden using French and Italian designs.  In 2005-6 an archaeological survey established the layout of the 16th century design and the garden has been recreated, complete with fountain and avairy.