The site served as a residence of the Mercian kings in Anglo Saxon times, but fell into disuse during the Viking invasions. Refortified by the Normans and later enlarged, the building is today one of the best preserved motte-and-bailey castles in England.
History
When Tamworth became the chief residence of Offa, ruler of the expanding Mercian kingdom, he built a palace there from which various charters were issued sedens in palatio regali in Tamoworthige, the first dating from 781. Little trace of its former glory survived the Viking attack in 874 that left the town "for nearly forty years a mass of blackened ruins". Then in 913 Tamworth was rebuilt by Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, who newly fortified the town with an earthen burh. This, however, did little to defend the place when it was again sacked by the Danes in 943.[3]
Over the following centuries there is no more mention of Tamworth as a royal residence, although a mint there struck coins for later Anglo-Saxon kings and eventually for the new Norman monarch, William the Conqueror.[4] The place was then granted to William's steward, Robert Despenser, who built a wooden castle during the 1080s in the typical Norman motte and bailey fashion. Occupying the south western part of the earlier burh, this was the forerunner of the present building.[5]
When Robert died childless, the castle passed to his nieces, one of whom, Matilida, married Robert Marmion. The Marmion family, hereditary champions of the Dukes of Normandy and then of the new Kings of England, held the castle for six generations from c.1100 to 1294.[6] It was during their occupancy that the castle began to be remodelled in stone, although on one occasion it was also in danger of being demolished altogether. Robert Marmion, 3rd Baron Marmion of Tamworth, deserted King John in 1215 during the turmoil of his reign. As a consequence, the king ordered Robert's son Geoffrey to be imprisoned, all of Robert's lands to be confiscated and Tamworth Castle to be demolished.[6] But the fabric had only been partially destroyed by the time of John's death the following year, when Robert's sons were able to regain their father's lands.[6]
Early Norman herringbone masonry on the castle causeway
The last male of the family to own the castle was Philip Marmion. Since he had no legitimate sons, the castle passed on his death (c.1291) to his daughter and, after she died without an heir in 1294, to her niece Joan. As she was the wife of Sir Alexander Freville, Joan's descendants initiated the next dynasty of owners who held the castle until 1423.[6] The male line then came to an end with Baldwin de Freville, whose son died a minor, and the castle passed to the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Thomas Ferrers of Groby.[6][7]
Numerous additions were made to the castle over the centuries, especially in the Jacobean period, from which time the arms of the Ferrers family and those with whom they intermarried came to dominate the interior. The shell keep contains a 12th-century gate tower and later residential accommodation in an H plan comprising a 13th-century three-storey north range, and a 17th-century Jacobean three-storey south range linked by an oak timbered Great Hall of the 15th century.[1] A notable exterior feature surviving from early times is the herring-bone pattern of masonry laid diagonally at the base of the causeway up to the gate tower.[8]
The ground plan of Tamworth Castle
The modern period
Originally entry to the castle grounds was by a gateway (little of which now remains) fronting onto the town's market-place. In his itinerary of Britain (1539/43), John Leland found the outworks “cleane decayed and the Wall fallen downe”, although on the mound there remained “a great round Tower of Stone, wherein Mr [Humphrey] Ferrers dwelleth, and now repaireth it.”[9]
However adapted as a residence, the castle's defences had been built with the conditions of mediaeval warfare in mind. During the English Civil War, it was captured by Parliamentary forces on 25 June 1643 after only a two-day siege and was garrisoned by them.[10] In July 1645 the garrison comprised ten officers and 77 soldiers under the command of the military governor, Waldyve Willington. Owing to this use, the castle therefore escaped the slighting ordered for so many others at that period.[11]
After 1668 the castle passed to the relatives of the Ferrers, initially the Shirleys of Chartley and then in 1715 to the Comptons when Elizabeth Ferrers married the 5th Earl of Northampton.[12] During their period of ownership, the castle again fell into disrepair but after the Ferrers grandniece, Charlotte Compton, had married George Townshend of Raynham, it was again refurbished.[7] Following his death in 1811, the castle was acquired by an auctioneer, John Robbins in 1814, although he did not move in until 1821: ownership reverted to the Townshend family on his death.[13]
View of the bandstand, flower terraces and river bank in the Castle Pleasure Grounds
The moat on the town side had fallen into disuse and from the 15th century onwards parts of it were leased to the houses on that side of Market Street. In 1810 a new gatehouse was built at the foot of the Holloway, where the road ran south along the Lady Bridge. From it a carriageway wound up through the grounds to the castle's entrance.[14] The castle mill was sited further along the Anker, where it was depicted in J. M. W. Turner’s panoramic watercolour of the castle from the south-east (1832). Also included there is the Lady Bridge to the left and the square tower of St Editha’s Church on the right.[15]
The castle had earlier made a brief appearance in Walter Scott’s narrative poem Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field (1808). Set in Tudor times, its anachronistic anti-hero is proclaimed at the banquet in the first canto as “Lord of Fontenaye…Of Tamworth tower and town”, although the barony of Marmion had by then been extinct for more than two centuries.[16]
Finally in 1891 the Marquess Townshend put the castle up for sale by auction and it was purchased by its present owners, Tamworth Corporation (now Tamworth Borough Council), for £3,000 in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.[7] It was then opened to the public by the Earl of Dartmouth as a museum in 1899.[17]
Mercia was one of the three notable Anglic kingdoms founded after as Sub-Roman Britain was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred around the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlands of England.
Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians ruled Mercia in the English Midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Ealhswith.
Tamworth is a market town and borough in Staffordshire, England, 14 miles (23 km) north-east of Birmingham and on the West Coast Main Line. The town borders North Warwickshire to the east and north, Lichfield to the north, south-west and west. The M6 Toll runs to the south of the town. It takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through it. The population of Tamworth borough (mid-2019 est.) was 76,696. The wider urban area has a population of 81,964.
Stafford Castle is an ancient Grade II listed castle situated two miles west of the town of Stafford in Staffordshire, England. From the time of the Norman Conquest and as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 it was the seat of the powerful Anglo-Norman Stafford family, feudal barons of Stafford, later Barons Stafford (1299) by writ, Earls of Stafford (1351) and Dukes of Buckingham (1444). The 14th-century stone keep was demolished in 1643, during the Civil War, having been held for the Royalists by Lady Isabel Stafford. The castle was remodeled in the early 19th century by the Jerningham family in the Gothic Revival style, on the foundations of the medieval structure, and incorporates much of the original stonework. Today the A518 Stafford-to-Newport Road passes next to it and it is a prominent local landmark visible from the M6 motorway and from the West Coast inter-city mainline.
Tutbury is a village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. It is 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Burton upon Trent and 20 miles (32 km) south of the Peak District. The village has a population of about 3,076 residents. It adjoins Hatton to the north on the Staffordshire–Derbyshire border.
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It adjoins Cheshire to the north west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south east, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The historic county of Staffordshire includes Wolverhampton, Walsall, and West Bromwich, these three being removed for administrative purposes in 1974 to the new West Midlands authority. The resulting administrative area of Staffordshire has a narrow southwards protrusion that runs west of West Midlands to the border of Worcestershire. The city of Stoke-on-Trent was removed from the admin area in the 1990s to form a unitary authority, but is still part of Staffordshire for ceremonial and traditional purposes.
The history of Northamptonshire spans the same period as English history.
Scrivelsby is a village and ecclesiastical parish in the East Lindsey district of the County of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Horncastle and is on the B1183 road 1 mile (1.6 km) east from the A153 road. It is administered by the civil parish of Mareham on the Hill.
The feudal holder of the Manor of Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire, England, has, since the Norman Conquest in 1066, held the manor from the Crown by grand serjeanty of being The Honourable The King's/Queen's Champion. Such person is also the Standard Bearer of England. The current Queen's Champion is a member of the Dymoke family, which has included many Champions.
A burh or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constructions; others were situated at the site of Iron Age hillforts or Roman forts and employed materials from the original fortifications. As at Lundenburh, many were also situated on rivers: this facilitated internal lines of supply while aiming to restrict access to the interior of the kingdom for attackers in shallow-draught vessels such as longships.
Llansteffan Castle is a privately owned castle in Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire, Wales, overlooking the River Tywi estuary in Carmarthen Bay.
A shell keep is a style of medieval fortification, best described as a stone structure circling the top of a motte.
Events from the 10th century in the Kingdom of England.
The Church of St Editha is an Anglican parish church and Grade I listed building in Tamworth, Staffordshire, England.
Robert Marmion, 3rd Baron Marmion of Tamworth was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and itinerant justice. He was reputed to have been the King's Champion but his grandson, Phillip, is the first Marmion to have a solid claim to this. Robert was descended from the lords of Fontenay-le-Marmion in Normandy, who are said to have been hereditary champions of the Dukes of Normandy.
Gervais, Count of Rethel was a French archbishop and nobleman. He was the son of Count Hugh I and his wife Melisende of Crécy. He succeeded his father as Count of Rethel.
There have been four different baronies held by the Marmion family, two feudal baronies, one purported barony created by Simon de Montfort and one barony by writ.
Philip Marmion, 5th and last Baron Marmion of Tamworth was King's Champion and Sheriff. He was descended from the lords of Fontenay-le-Marmion in Normandy, who are said to have been hereditary champions of the Dukes of Normandy.
Robert Marmion was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and rebel involved in the First Barons' War. He was referred to as "Robert Marmion the Younger" as his elder half-brother was also called Robert and known as "Robert Marmion the Elder".
Tamworth Town Hall is a municipal building in Market Street, Tamworth, Staffordshire, England. The town hall, which was the meeting place of Tamworth Borough Council is a Grade II* listed building.
↑ The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary, Oxford 1711, Vol.IV, p.95
↑ Palmer, Charles Ferrers Raymund (1845). The History of the Town and Castle of Tamworth: In the Counties of Stafford & Warwick. J. Thompson. p.131–136.
↑ "Tamworth Castle"(PDF). Wessex Archaeology. p.2. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
↑ "Ferrers of Baddesley Clinton", Burke’s A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.3, pp.127-131
Meeson, R. A. (1978–1979), "Tenth Tamworth Excavation Report, 1977: The Norman Bailey Defences of the Castle", South Staffordshire Archaeological & Historical Society Transactions, 20: 15–28, ISBN0-86061-015-2
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