Yarmouth Castle is an
artillery fort built by
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 ...
in 1547 to protect
Yarmouth Harbour on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
from the threat of French attack. Just under across, the square castle was initially equipped with 15
artillery guns and a garrison of 20 men. It featured an Italianate "arrow-head"
bastion
A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...
on its landward side; this was very different in style from the earlier circular bastions used in the
Device Fort
The Device Forts, also known as Henrician castles and blockhouses, were a series of artillery fortifications built to defend the coast of England and Wales by Henry VIII. Traditionally, the Crown had left coastal defences in the hands of local ...
s built by Henry and was the first of its kind to be constructed in England.
During the 16th and 17th centuries the castle continued to be maintained and modified; the seaward half of the castle was turned into a solid gun platform and additional accommodation was built for the fort's
gunners. A
bulwark
Bulwark primarily refers to:
* Bulwark (nautical), a nautical term for the extension of a ship's side above the level of a weather deck
* Bastion, a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification
The Bulwark primarily refe ...
was built on the east side of the castle and an additional
gun battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to faci ...
was placed on the town's
quay
A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring location ...
, just to the west. For most of the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
of the 1640s it was held by
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
; following the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
, it was refortified by
Charles II in the 1670s.
The fortification remained in use through the 18th and 19th centuries, albeit with a smaller garrison and fewer guns, until in 1885 these were finally withdrawn. After a short period as a
coast guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
signalling post, the castle was brought back into military use during the
First
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
s. In the 21st century, the heritage organisation
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
operates the castle as a tourist attraction.
History
16th century
Construction
![Yarmouth castle plan 1559](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Yarmouth_castle_plan_1559.jpg)
Yarmouth Castle was built as a consequence of international tensions between England,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
in the final years of the reign of King
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 ...
. Traditionally
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
had left coastal defences to the local lords and communities, only taking a small role in building and maintaining fortifications, and while France and the Empire remained in conflict with one another, maritime raids were common but an actual invasion of England seemed unlikely. Modest defences, based around simple
blockhouse
A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
s and towers, existed in the south-west and along the
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
coast, with a few more impressive works in the north of England, but in general the fortifications were very limited in scale.
In 1533, Henry broke with Pope
Paul III
Pope Paul III ( la, Paulus III; it, Paolo III; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death in November 1549.
He came to ...
to annul the long-standing marriage to his wife,
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...
, and remarry. This resulted in France and the Empire declaring an alliance against Henry in 1538, and the Pope encouraged the two countries to attack England. Henry responded in 1539 by ordering the construction of fortifications along the most vulnerable parts of the coast, through an instruction called a "
device". The immediate threat passed, but resurfaced in 1544, with France threatening an invasion across the Channel, backed by her allies in Scotland. Henry therefore issued another device in 1544 to further improve the country's defences, particularly along the south coast.
The town of Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight may have been attacked by the French in 1543; if so, this raid probably encouraged the construction of a castle there as part of the second wave of Device Forts. The fort functioned alongside the existing defences in the
Solent
The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...
and protected the main crossing from the west side of the island to the mainland. Yarmouth Castle was a square artillery fort built around a central courtyard with an angular, "arrow-head" bastion protecting the landward side.
[ It was initially equipped with three ]cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
s and culverin
A culverin was initially an ancestor of the hand-held arquebus, but later was used to describe a type of medieval and Renaissance cannon. The term is derived from the French "''couleuvrine''" (from ''couleuvre'' "grass snake", following the La ...
s, and twelve smaller guns, firing from a line of embrasures
An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed out ...
along the seaward side of the castle.[; ] It was garrisoned by a small team of soldiers, consisting of a master gunner, a porter
Porter may refer to:
Companies
* Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto
* Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets
* Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer
* H.K. Porter, Inc., ...
and 17 soldiers, commanded by Richard Udall, the castle's first captain.[; ] Udall lived in the castle, but the soldiers resided in the local town.
The castle was constructed by George Mills under the direction of Richard Worsley, the Captain of the Island, on land belonging to the Crown, possibly on the site of a church destroyed during the events of 1543.[; ; ] Henry had dissolved the monasteries in England a few years before, and stone from the local Quarr Abbey
Quarr Abbey ( French: ''Abbaye Notre-Dame de Quarr'') is a monastery between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The name is pronounced as "Kwor" (rhyming with "for"). It belongs to the Catho ...
was probably reused in the construction of the castle. It was finished by 1547, when Mills was paid £1,000 for his work and to discharge the soldiers who had been guarding the site during the project.
Initial use
When the Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
Queen Mary I
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. Sh ...
succeeded to the throne there were changes in the leadership on the Isle of Wight and the castle. Worsley was dismissed in favour of a Roman Catholic appointee in 1553 and Udall was executed in 1555 for his role in the Dudley conspiracy
Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the M ...
to overthrow the Queen. When the Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
came to the throne in 1558, however, peace was made with France and military attention shifted towards the Spanish threat to England. Elizabeth reappointed Worsley to his post and he carried out an extensive redevelopment of the castle. Worsley filled in half of the castle's courtyard to produce a solid artillery platform able to hold eight heavy guns with an uninterrupted field of fire over the sea, and he probably also constructed the Master Gunner's House on the other side of the castle. Nonetheless, an inspection in 1586 showed that the fortification was in poor condition. Work costing £50 was done in 1587, including the erection of an earth bulwark
Bulwark primarily refers to:
* Bulwark (nautical), a nautical term for the extension of a ship's side above the level of a weather deck
* Bastion, a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification
The Bulwark primarily refe ...
alongside the castle to mount additional guns. The next year saw the attempted invasion of England by the Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...
, after which further repairs were carried out on the castle. By 1599 the Crown was informed that the castle, which was still considered an important defence for the Solent, needed expensive repairs.
17th century
Yarmouth Castle continued to be an important military fortification, used both as a fortress but also as a transport hub and a stores depot. The repairs recommended in 1599 were carried out in the first years of the 17th century and a further £300 was invested in Yarmouth Castle and nearby Sandown Castle in 1609, including adding two angular buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...
es along the walls facing the sea.
A survey in 1623 by the castle's captain, John Burley, reported that the garrison comprised only four gunners and the captain, with the buildings in a "ruinous" state and the defences in need of repair; similar concerns were raised in 1625 and 1629.[; ] Suggestions that a half-moon battery should be added to the defences were not progressed, but in 1632 the parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
s were raised in height and further lodgings and a long room for stores were constructed within the castle. Some of the stone used for this may have been reused from nearby Sandown, whose walls had been destroyed by the sea; before it was used at Sandown, the stone appears to have been taken from the local monasteries.
Civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
broke out in 1642 between the followers of King Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
and those of Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. Initially, Captain Barnaby Burley, a relative of John, and an ardent Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
, held the castle on behalf of the King with a tiny garrison. Burley negotiated surrender terms, including that he initially be allowed to remain in the castle with armed protection, and the castle remained in the control of Parliament for the rest of the war. Early during the Interregnum
An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...
it was decided to increase the size of the garrison at the castle from 30 to 70 soldiers, due to concerns about a potential Royalist attack from the island of Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...
. Most of the soldiers lived outside the castle itself.[ The annual cost of this force was around £78 and in 1655 the garrison was made smaller again to reduce costs.]
When Charles II returned to the throne in 1660, he demobilised most of the existing army and the following year the garrison at Yarmouth was given four days notice to leave the castle. The King announced that the castle's artillery would be sent to Cowes
Cowes () is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked by the Cowes Floa ...
, unless the town of Yarmouth agreed to take over the financial responsibility of running the site themselves.[; ] The town declined to do so, but Charles repeated the offer in 1666; this time Yarmouth seems to have taken action, appointing four soldiers for a garrison, although the town did not assign an officer to command them, or apparently make any repairs to the now dilapidated castle.
The Crown took over the castle again in 1670, and Robert Holmes, the new Captain of the Isle of Wight, had some of the guns brought back from Cowes to the castle. The site was refortified and a new battery placed on the adjacent quay, but the older earthworks were demolished and the moat was filled in. Holmes built a mansion for himself alongside the castle, where on three occasions he hosted the King.
In 1688, Charles' brother, James II James II may refer to:
* James II of Avesnes (died c. 1205), knight of the Fourth Crusade
* James II of Majorca (died 1311), Lord of Montpellier
* James II of Aragon (1267–1327), King of Sicily
* James II, Count of La Marche (1370–1438), King C ...
, faced widespread revolt and a potential invasion of England by William of Orange. Holmes was a supporter of James, but although he intended to control Yarmouth Castle on the monarch's behalf, the local inhabitants and the garrison at Yarmouth sided with William, preventing him from openly siding with the King.
18th–21st centuries
Yarmouth Castle continued to be used, and records from 1718 and 1760 show it was equipped with eight and five guns along the castle and the quay platforms, respectively. Throughout this period it was probably staffed by a captain and six gunners, supported by the local militia. In the early 18th century, Holmes' mansion was rebuilt, forming its current appearance. By the 18th century, however, Yarmouth Harbour had gradually silted up and been destroyed by industrial developments, reducing the value of the anchorage
Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...
, and the design of the castle had become outdated.
In 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars, work was carried out to alter the design of the parapet. The Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
sparked a fresh invasion scare and in 1855 the south coast of England was refortified. Yarmouth Castle underwent considerable repairs that year; four naval gun
Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare and then subsequently used for naval gunfire support, shore bombardment and anti-aircraft roles. The term generally refers to tube-launched projectile-firi ...
s and traversing rails were installed on the castle platform, and a regular county army unit was put in place to garrison the fort. In 1881 a proposal was put forward to modernise the entire fortification, but this was rejected and in 1885 the garrison and the guns were withdrawn.
The coastguard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
began using the castle as a signalling station in 1898.[; ] In 1901, the War Department passed the castle to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests
The Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues were established in the United Kingdom in 1810 by merging the former offices of Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases and Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown into ...
and in 1912 parts of the castle were leased to the Pier Hotel, which incorporated Robert Holmes's former mansion; the Pier Hotel eventually became the George Hotel and still occupies part of the old castle moat. The Office of Works
The Office of Works was established in the England, English Royal Household, royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department forces within the Office of W ...
took control of the castle in 1913, carrying out a programme of repairs, and it was used by the military in both the First
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
s. It was finally retired from military use in the 1950s.
In the 21st century, Yarmouth Castle is run by the heritage organisation English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
as a tourist attraction, receiving 9,007 visitors in 2010. It is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
and as 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 ...
.
Architecture
Yarmouth Castle is a square fortification, nearly across, with an arrow-head bastion protecting the landward side. The north and west walls face the sea, protected by angular buttresses, and a wide moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...
originally protected the south and east side, although this has since been filled in. The castle's 16th-century bulwark, which originally covered the area to the west of Pier Street and the north of Quay Street, and its quay battery have also been destroyed.
The walls of the castle are mainly built from ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
stone, with some red brick used on the south side. The walls are pierced by a small number of gunloop
An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of Age of Gunpowder , gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a ...
s, including in the "ears" of the bastion, which would have overlooked the moat. When first built the interior of the castle formed a sequence of buildings around a courtyard, but the southern half of the castle was filled in shortly afterwards to produce a solid gun platform able to support heavy guns.[ It was later raised again in the 17th century to its current height.] The parapet is now covered with turf, with 19th-century rounded corners, and the platform still has the rails on which the four naval guns would have traversed, dating from 1855. A small lodging room, built on the platform at the top of the stairs, has since been destroyed.[
The arrow-head design of the castle's bastion reflected new ideas about defensive fortifications spreading out from Italy in the 16th century. Earlier Henrician castles had used the older European style of semi-circular bastions to avoid presenting any weak spots in the stonework, but an arrow-headed design enabled defenders to provide much more effective supporting fire against an attacking force. Yarmouth was among the first fortifications in Europe, and the first in England, to adopt this design.]
The accommodation and other facilities are on the south side of the castle. On the ground floor, the entrance to the castle leads through to a courtyard, linked to four barrel-vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
ed rooms in the south-west corner, originally 17th-century lodgings for the garrison. Two of these chambers were converted for use as magazines
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...
and the fittings of one of these still remains in place.[ In the south-east corner is the Master Gunner's House, comprising a ]parlour
A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...
, hall and kitchen on the ground floor, and a chamber and attic on the floors above. The parlour and hall would have originally been separated by a screen; the chamber would also have been subdivided. On the first floor is a small chamber, supported on arches above the courtyard, which was used as a lodging. On the second floor, the Long Room runs on top of the barrel-vaulted chambers, its massive, original roof still intact.
Notes
References
Bibliography
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External links
English Heritage's visitor site
{{Device Forts
1547 establishments in England
Buildings and structures completed in 1547
16th-century fortifications
Castles on the Isle of Wight
Forts on the Isle of Wight
Device Forts
English Heritage sites in the Isle of Wight
Grade I listed buildings on the Isle of Wight
Museums on the Isle of Wight
Military and war museums in England
Yarmouth, Isle of Wight
Henry VIII
Scheduled monuments in Isle of Wight