Thorpe Waterville Castle was a medieval fortified
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 ...
near
Thorpe Waterville
Thorpe Waterville is a village in the English county of Northamptonshire. It is combined with Achurch to form the ecclesiastical parish of 'Thorpe Achurch'; in turn this is added to another combined parish, Lilford-cum-Wigsthorpe, to form the ...
,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, England.
Details
Thorpe Waterville Castle was built by
Walter Langton
Walter Langton (died 1321) of Castle Ashby'Parishes: Castle Ashby', in A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 4, ed. L F Salzman (London, 1937), pp. 230-236/ref> in Northamptonshire, was Bishop of Lichfield, Bishop of Coventry and Lic ...
, the
bishop of Coventry and Lichfield
The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers 4,516 km2 (1,744 sq. mi.) of the counties of Powys, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West M ...
, around 1300. The wood for the castle was stolen by Langton from the woods of a nearby abbey. The result was a luxurious fortified home. While owned by
Lord Lovell, the castle was successfully besieged in early 1461 during the
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...
.
The hall of the castle was later converted into a barn, and still survives in this form, complete with a distinctive 14th-century chimney.
[Pettifer, p.168.] Today, the remains of castle have scheduled monument status and a grade I listed building.
Thorpe Waterville Castle
', Gatehouse website, accessed 1 January 2020.
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 10 ...
*
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
*Mackenzie, James D. (1896)
The Castles of England: Their Story and Structure, Vol I.' New York: Macmillan.
*Pettifer, Adrian. (2002)
English Castles: a Guide by Counties'' Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. .
References
{{reflist
Castles in Northamptonshire