Guildford Castle: A Norman Royal Fortress and Palace in England
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- English, Norman
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page9 sections
History
Guildford Castle is a Norman motte-and-bailey castle in Guildford, United Kingdom, built after the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Its early construction probably began after 1086, and the site developed into both a royal residence and a fortress before becoming a palace under Henry III.
Norman foundations
William the Conqueror, the Norman ruler who became king of England after defeating Harold Godwinson at Hastings, or one of his barons is thought to have established the castle. Guildford was sacked after the battle, but the castle does not appear in the Domesday Book, the survey of English landholding and resources completed in 1086. This places the probable beginning of construction after that survey.
The first castle was a motte-and-bailey complex, combining a raised mound with an enclosed area for buildings and activity. A ditch surrounded the motte, while a wooden palisade protected the bailey. The bailey may have been divided into inner and outer sections by another palisade. A timber keep probably stood on the mound before the construction of the stone keep and may have served as a lookout post for the soldiers stationed there.
A stone shell keep, meaning a defensive stone enclosure built around the summit of a motte, was erected in the late eleventh or early twelfth century. A further stone tower followed around the 1130s. During the civil war of Stephen’s reign, the castle was strengthened, probably including an increase in the keep’s height. It was strengthened again during the rebellion of Henry II’s sons in 1173 and 1174.
Royal residence and palace
The castle’s principal role was residential, although its defenses remained important. In the thirteenth century, Henry III enlarged and improved the complex, after which it became known as a palace. He acquired additional land in 1245 for apartments intended for his son and heir, Edward. These were completed in 1246, and a gate at Quarry Street was completed in 1256.
The improvements included enlarged windows in the Queen’s apartment, two marble columns, coloured-glass windows, and paintings in the great hall. A royal room was painted green with gold and silver stars, and a garden surrounded by marble columns was created. Fire damaged the hall in 1254, but work on the complex continued.
Guildford also served as a military and political site. On 9 July 1216, during the First Barons’ War, Prince Louis took possession of the castle. This conflict began when rebellious English barons opposed King John. The castle later served as a mustering point for Edward I’s foreign wars. During Simon de Montfort’s rebellion against Henry III in the 1260s, Henry’s son Prince Edward brought the captured rebel Adam Gurdon to Guildford after the Battle of Alton.
Keepers, prisoners, and decline
The castle’s officials included constables, keepers, and governors such as William de Coniers in 1218, Elias de Maunsel in 1247, William de Aguillon in 1259, Edward de Say in 1307, Oliver de Burdegala in 1322, Sir John de Brocas in 1337, Andrew Sackville in 1367, and Sir Simon Burleigh in 1377. Under William de Aguillon, the castle was probably intended for use as a prison. In 1307, Edward de Say, keeper of the King’s prisoners, was ordered to repair the prison.
The keep remained the common gaol for Surrey and Sussex until 1487. A petition by the inhabitants of Sussex then led to the transfer of its prisoners to a more secure facility at Lewes. By this period, Guildford and other inland royal castles had lost much of their military necessity and were being neglected.
From the 1360s, royalty preferred an enlarged royal moated hunting lodge on the opposite side of the river. By 1379, the castle’s royal apartments had decayed beyond repair except for the King’s great chamber. The site continued to pass through changing forms of ownership and use. In 1544, John Daborne became keeper of the castle garden, and his family remained associated with the castle throughout the sixteenth century. They are thought to have added brick windows and fireplaces.
Estate ownership and conservation
James I granted the castle estate to Francis Carter in 1611. After the tower roof was removed in the 1630s, the tower became a cockpit, an enclosed place used for staged cockfighting. Parts of the grounds were farmed or rented to different occupants. The Duke of Norfolk purchased the estate around 1820, and Lord Grantley of Wonersh, who owned a large part of the castle, sold it to Guildford Corporation in 1885.
The tower and walls were restored and opened as pleasure gardens in 1888, commemorating Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in the previous year. A year-long conservation project began in 2003. It partly renovated the keep, provided a floor and roof for its first floor, and revealed that original features, including crenellations, survived. The keep later incorporated a visitor centre and a model of the castle as it appeared around 1300.
Guildford Borough Council owns the castle. It is a scheduled monument, an archaeological or historic site protected by law, while the keep is a Grade I listed building, a designation for structures of exceptional architectural or historic interest in England.
Remains
The surviving castle is arranged around the twelfth-century keep, with the motte and its former ditch defining the central defensive position. The wider bailey boundary followed Castle Street, South Hill, the area now called Racks Close, and a line parallel with Quarry Street but slightly farther east. The principal surviving masonry is built from Bargate stone, quarried nearby at Godalming and bonded with hard, durable mortar.
The motte and keep
The keep has a generally quadrangular plan, measuring about 47 by 45.5 feet, or 14 by 13.9 metres. Its walls are approximately 10 feet, or 3 metres, thick at the base and taper towards the top. The foundations extend to the chalk bedrock. The building originally contained a ground floor and a first floor, with the entrance placed on the first floor to improve its defensibility. The ground floor was windowless, while the first floor contained a principal chamber, a chapel, and a wardrobe with a latrine.
A second floor was added soon afterwards, with a two-seat latrine, raising the keep to more than 70 feet, or 21 metres. The roof was covered with lead, and the interior walls were plastered and whitewashed. The building probably served as a private royal apartment before the principal royal accommodation moved into the bailey during the twelfth century. The ruined keep now has a floor and roof at first-floor level, and a staircase reaches the roof, where the 2003 conservation work found surviving crenellations, the notched battlements of a fortified wall or tower.
Bailey buildings and gate
The bailey probably contained a stone great hall, apartments for the King and Queen, and chapels. The great hall is thought to have stood where two houses now occupy the bottom of Castle Hill. Henry III’s alterations gave this residential group enlarged windows, marble columns, coloured glass, and painted interiors. The Quarry Street gate, completed in 1256, formed part of the later palace complex.
Gardens and associated buildings
The restored castle gardens are laid out around the keep. They include a life-size statue of Alice Through the Looking-Glass, commemorating Lewis Carroll, the pen name of the writer and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He lived nearby at The Chestnuts, his sisters’ house, from 1868 until his death in 1898.
The old gatehouse now accommodates part of Guildford Museum, a local history and archaeology museum with a specialist needlework collection. Together with the restored keep and the surviving earthworks, these elements preserve parts of the castle’s defensive, residential, and later civic history.
