Sleaford Castle is a medieval castle in

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Centred on the former parish of New Sleaford, the modern boundaries and urban area include Quarrington, Lincolnshire, ...

, Lincolnshire, England. Built by the

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...

in the early 1120s, it was habitable as late as 1555 but fell into disrepair during the latter half of the 16th century. Two

English monarchs This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself King of the Anglo-Sax ...

are known to have stayed at the castle, King John and

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

Medieval era

The castle was built between 1123 and 1139 by Alexander de Blois,

from 1123 to 1147. Alexander built a quadrilateral castle, akin to his construction at Newark Castle, with square towers and massive keep. He sited it on flat fen rather than on high ground, perhaps even replacing an earlier moated manor house on the site. This shows he intended it for a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

(for storing the produce from episcopal land, administering episcopal estates and providing accommodation for the bishop and his entourage when he visited the area) rather than for defence, though the flatness of the fen site would make it very hard for an enemy to approach unseen. Plan of Sleaford Castle

The building fulfilled its manor house function for most of its life, never withstanding an armed attack or siege but becoming one of the chief episcopal strongholds and an agricultural focus for the Bishop’s estates in Sleaford and elsewhere. An outline of a 40 by 15 metre

tithe barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithes. Farmers were required to give one-tenth of their produce to the established church. Tithe barns were usually associated with the vi ...

(said to be the largest in Lincolnshire, and with a cattle shed and hay loft attached) can still be seen in the southern half of the castle - local inhabitants would pay their

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...

(or rent for farming the land) to the bishop, either by time working for the bishop (either on his land or serving in his army or castle garrison), a share of their crop, or a cash sum. A dam was placed across the

river Slea The River Slea is a tributary of the River Witham, in Lincolnshire, England. In 1872 the river was described as "a never-ending source of pure water", and was a trout river renowned throughout the East coast of England. But in the late 1960s, t ...

at the end of Westgate, with a two-wheeled watermill behind it, producing a large pond to provide fresh fish for episcopal celebrations (an orchard just outside the castle provided fruit, and a dovecote to the east of the barn meat) along with rushes and thatch for roofing. The nearest the castle came to a siege were on two occasions when the bishop was forced to hand over his keys to King Stephen during

the Anarchy The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adelin, the only legiti ...

(by Alexander himself, to buy his release after Stephen's successful siege of Newark Castle) and to

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...

in the 1320s when his loyalties were doubted. King John spent a night in the castle in October 1216 just after his disastrous crossing of

the Wash The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk, England, Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it i ...

and just before his death, and in 1430 Bishop Richard Fleming died in the castle.

Early modern period

Henry VIII stayed at Sleaford twice (once in 1541 with his queen

Catherine Howard Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542), also spelled Katheryn Howard, was Queen of England from 1540 until 1542 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn (the s ...

) and held a State Council at the Castle. The castle passed into the hands of the

Duke of Somerset Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

in 1544, from whom it was confiscated by the crown in 1546. On both occasions, and in 1555, it was still said to be defensible and habitable. John Leland described it at this time as well maintained with a gatehouse, which housed two portcullises, and a high central tower, 'but not sette upon a hille of raised yerth'. The castle began to fall into disrepair during the second half of the 16th century with the timber and lead roof being removed to be reused in buildings in the town, some of which survives to the present day. The process of decline continued under the ownership of the Carre family. In 1604 it was described as ‘the late fair castle’, suggesting it had been largely or even fully dismantled before 1600. An early 18th-century engraving of the castle shows a ruin with a considerable amount of stonework still visible.

Present

The visible remains are now only a moat, a scrap of masonry (one small, toppled portion of a wall in the north-east corner of the

inner bailey The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer w ...

) and associated earthworks. It is now a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

and a Grade II listed building protected by law. It is also cultivated for wildlife.

Sources

Websites

Local government pdf

Books

*Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern) p59 *Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p179 *Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p148

light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...

*Roffe, David, 1993, 'Castles' in Bennett, S. and Bennett, N. (eds), An Historical Atlas of Lincolnshire (University of Hull Press) p40-1 *King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p262 *Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p298 *Roffe, D.R.,1979, 'Origins', in Mahany, C.M., Roffe D.R. (eds) Sleaford (Stamford) p11-16 *Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker) *Beresford, M., 1967, New Towns of the Middle Ages (London) p466 *Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co) *Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol1 p439-40 *Arnold, T. (ed), 1879, Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum (London) p266 *Trollope, E., 1872, Sleaford and Wapentakes of Flaxwell and Aswardhurn in the County of Lincoln (London) p107-21

Journal articles

*Brown, R, Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' English Historical Review Vol74 eprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p249-280

Antiquarian

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Annal ...

, 1607, Britanni

* Lucy Toulmin Smith, Toulmin Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535–43 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol1 p26-7 and Vol5 p32 Buildings and structures completed in 1139 Castles in Lincolnshire Grade II listed buildings in Lincolnshire Scheduled monuments in Lincolnshire Sleaford