Brinklow Castle, known locally as the Tump, is a medieval castle in the village of
Brinklow
Brinklow is a village and civil parish in the Rugby district of Warwickshire, England. It is about halfway between Rugby and Coventry, and has a population of 1,041 ( 2001 Census), increasing to 1,101 at the 2011 Census.
Geography
Brinklo ...
in the county of
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avo ...
between
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
and
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
.
History
Brinklow seems to have first been used as a prehistoric barrow, hence the old English 'hlāw' in the name Brinklow. It was later modified during the late 11th century by
Aubrey de Coucy
Aubrey de Coucy (a.k.a. Alberic) was the earl of Northumbria from 1080 until about 1086.
Aubrey de Coucy was a Norman from Coucy-le-Château-Auffrique, Aisne which was the inheritance of his wife, Ada, daughter of Letétard de Marle (himself a so ...
, the first Norman lord of Brinklow, but he left his Earldom in Northumbria and thus lost his lands in England before the writing of the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086. However his land and title had not been reassigned by the time of the Domesday survey, so there is a good record of his land holdings. The castle was abandoned during the 13th century for unknown reasons.
Brinklow Castle is a
motte and bailey
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy t ...
castle of grand size: the motte is 12 m high and its original bailey was 121m wide by 152m long. Later it seems that Brinklow's bailey was modified to enclose a smaller area by cutting a ditch and forming a rampart in the middle of the bailey;
[Chatwin: 1948, 4.] this seems to suggest that Brinklow slowly declined.
See also
*
Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain and Ireland since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castles had been built in England in the 1050 ...
*
List of castles in England
This list of castles in England is not a list of every building and site that has "castle" as part of its name, nor does it list only buildings that conform to a strict definition of a castle as a medieval fortified residence. It is not a li ...
Bibliography
*Creighton C, 2002: ''Castles and Landscapes Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England''. Equinox, Great Britain
*Chatwin P, 1955: "Brandon Castle, Warwickshire, Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeology", ''Society'', 73, 63–83
*Holt, J. 1972: "Politics and Property in Early Medieval England", ''Past & Present'', 57, 3–52
*Williams A (Ed), Martin GH (Ed), 2003: ''Domesday book, A complete Translation''. Penguin books, England
Further reading
*Fry, Plantagenet Somerset, ''The David & Charles Book of Castles'', David & Charles, 1980.
References
External links
Brinklow Village Website - The Tump
Castles in Warwickshire
Motte-and-bailey castles
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