| Bletsoe Castle | |
|---|---|
| Bletsoe, Bedfordshire, England | |
 | |
  Bletsoe Castle | |
| Coordinates | 52°12′52″N0°30′05″W / 52.21435°N 0.50131°W |
| Grid reference | grid reference TL024584 |
| Type | Fortified manor house |
| Site information | |
| Condition | Earthworks only remain, with parts of the later 16-17th century building |
| Site history | |
| Built by | John Pateshull |
Bletsoe Castle was a late medieval fortified manor house in the village of Bletsoe, Bedfordshire, England.
Bletsoe Castle was created by John Pateshull, who received a licence to crenellate an existing manor house on the east side of Bletsoe in 1327. [1] Pateshull had owned the manor of Bletsoe since 1313, but with the death of his mother, in 1324, he inherited additional lands, allowing him to acquire permission to crenellate the property. [2]
In 1421 the house descended to Margaret Beauchamp who married Sir Oliver St John. On his death in 1437 she remarried John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset and had one daughter, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, who was born in the house on 31 May, although it remains in dispute whether she was born in 1441 or 1443. Margaret Beaufort later became the mother of Henry VII of England.
The house later passed down in the St John of Bletsoe family. In the late 16th or early 17th century, a new building was erected around the castle, quadrangular in design with three or four storeys and gable windows. [1] [3] Much of this later building was pulled down, leaving a much smaller building, still incorporating parts of the older castle, within the older medieval earthworks. [1]
Today the castle is a scheduled monument and a Grade II* listed building. [4] The medieval moat has a diameter of 130 metres (430 ft), is on average 18 metres (59 ft) wide and 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in) deep. The moat is water-filled in parts though the south side has been destroyed by the construction of agricultural buildings over it. [5]
Eccleshall Castle is located in Eccleshall, Staffordshire, England. It was originally built in the 13th century. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade II* listed building.
Bodiam Castle is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, with the permission of Richard II, ostensibly to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War. Of quadrangular plan, Bodiam Castle has no keep, having its various chambers built around the outer defensive walls and inner courts. Its corners and entrance are marked by towers, and topped by crenellations. Its structure, details and situation in an artificial watery landscape indicate that display was an important aspect of the castle's design as well as defence. It was the home of the Dalyngrigge family and the centre of the manor of Bodiam.
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Baynard Castle was a moated castle built in the 12th and 13th centuries in the village of Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was referred to by terms including the 'castle at Cottingham' or 'Stuteville's castle'; the term Baynard Castle is common in 19th-century references and later.
Dacre Castle is a moated tower house in the village of Dacre, 4 miles (6.4 km) south-west of Penrith, Cumbria, England. It was constructed in the mid-14th century, probably by Margaret Multon, against the background of the threat of Scottish invasion and raids, and was held in the Dacre family until the 17th century. The tower house is 66 feet (20 m) tall, built out of local sandstone, topped by crenellations, with four turrets protruding from a central block, and includes an ornate lavabo in the main hall. Renovated during the 1670s and 1960s after periods of disrepair, the castle is now used as a private home.
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"'build to make and to construct walls and turrets with stone, lime and sand around and below his manor house in Bury in the County of Lancaster, and to shut in the manor house with such manner of walls and turrets; also to embattle, crenellate and machicolate those towers."
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Mettingham Castle was a fortified manor house in the parish of Mettingham in the north of the English county of Suffolk.
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