Patrick Comerford
I have often caught a glimpse of the magnificent ruins of Berkhamsted Castle from the train between Milton Keynes and London. Berkhamsted Castle is half-way betweem both, just 35 minutes by train, and nestled in beautiful Hertfordshire countryside.
Much of the castle’s stone and fabric was plundered during the 16th century. But I only managed to appreciate its splendour during my two visits to Berkhamsted earlier this month.
From the Norman Conquest on, kings, queens and princes lived within the castle walls and shaped the course of English history. For centuries, the castle was a royal stronghold, and many key figures lived there in the Middle Ages, including Thomas Becket, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and the Black Prince.
Berkhamsted is a typical motte-and-bailey castle, with a tower or keep built on an earthern mound surrounded by a defensive enclosure. The castle was first built in the late 11th century, and became one of the most important early Norman castles, controlling the northern approach to London, 30 miles away.
William the Conqueror received the submission of the English at Berkhamsted Castle after the Battle of Hastings. His half-brother, Robert of Mortain, built a timber castle there ca 1070. It was in the classic Norman motte-and-bailey form, with a defensive conical mound and oval bailey below.
The castle remained in royal hands, and in 1155 Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was granted the honour of Berkhamsted by King Henry II. As chancellor, Becket was the king’s right hand man and enjoyed great favour. He rebuilt the castle to befit his new status and house his large staff. His buildings probably included the huge stone curtain wall.
Later, in 1164, during his quarrel with Henry II, Becket was deprived of the honour of Berkhamsted. In a further dispute with the king over the rights and privileges of the Church, he was murdered by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170.
Berkhamsted Castle was designed as a fortress, with impressive earthwork defences, high motte and stone curtain wall. The water-filled ditches prevented tunnelling under the wall, and the motte could protect the bailey as well as defend attacks from the north.
The castle defences were put to the test in 1216. Prince Louis of France had invaded England at the invitation of the English barons. When John died in October 1216, his nine-year-old son was crowned King Henry III. Louis acted quickly and besieged the castle for two weeks, battering it with huge stones flung from siege weapons. The earthwork buttresses by the outer ditch were probably platforms to support them, although it is still unclear which side built them. The castle surrendered finally on the orders of the king.
King Henry III granted Berkhamsted Castle to his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1225. Richard was a skilful diplomat was believed to be the richest man in England. He made Berkhamsted the administrative centre of the earldom of Cornwall. He repaired and refurbished the castle and enlarged the western tower to create a luxurious palace complex. Parts of the palace, believed to be the chapel and possibly the undercroft of the Great Painted Chamber, remain.
Richard’s son Edmund was born at the castle and two of his wives died there. He himself died at Berkhamsted in 1272.
A century later, Prince Edward, the ‘Black Prince’ (1330-1371), son and heir of Edward III, was given the castle as Duke of Cornwall. Berkhamsted was a favourite residence of the Black Prince, and he repaired the castle buildings and ordered a new timber palisade around the park to keep the deer from escaping. He married Joan ‘the Fair Maid of Kent’ in 1361 and the couple spent their first Christmas at the castle.
The castle later passed to five queens in succession, until Elizabeth I. It was probably not occupied after 1495, however. Elizabeth I granted a lease of the manor, including the ruins and the park, to Sir Edward Carey in 1580, for the nominal rent of one red rose each year.
Carey built a new house to the west – Berkhamsted Place – that is now almost totally demolished, while the castle itself gradually fell into ruin. Stone from the castle was used to build a local school and other buildings in the late 16th century.
The castle’s park, which had reached 507 ha (1,252 acres) in size by 1627, was broken up in the next two decades, shrinking to only 152 ha (376 acres). Writing in the early 17th century, Camden described the damage wrought by Carey’s masons and said the castle was a heap of stones and ruined walls.
The English Civil War in the 1640s largely passed Berkhamsted by, and the castle apparently played no part in the conflict.
Some writers in the 18th century described the remaining castle, including most of the outer walls, chimneys, the remains of the chapel and the signs of a staircase. The wider estate and the castle were separated in 1761, when the estate was leased to the Duke of Bridgewater, while the castle remained in the direct control of the Duchy of Cornwall.
An orchard in the inner court survived until the early 19th century, the outer court was cultivated as a farm, and a small cottage with a few outbuildings stood on the site.
At the height of the Industrial Revolution, the neglected castle stood in the way of the plans and ambitions of railway engineers. From an engineering perspective, the ideal route for the new railway ran through the site of the castle. However, concerns over the need to protect ancient monuments and buildings had been growing for several years, and the Bridgwater estate was keen to protect the local view from their buildings.
The castle was specifically protected in an 1833 Act that sanctioned the railway, forcing the track to take a route across the valley floor. Berkhamsted was the first building in Britain to receive statutory protection from development in this way.
However, the route still needed the track to pass through the outer fortifications of the castle. When the London and Birmingham Railway built its new line through Berkhamsted in 1837, the ruins of the barbican gate were demolished and the southern outer moat was filled in.
What Prince Louis of France had failed to destroy in the 13th century, and what the warring parties in the Civil War had ignored in the 17th century, was now levelled by Victorian engineers.
A soup kitchen operated within the castle ruins from 1841. It was set up as a charity by Charlotte Egerton (1763-1849), Countess of Bridgewater, to feed destitute agricultural workers during the winter months. Soup and bread were distributed to hundreds of poor people from a house in the castle grounds, thought to be the 19th-century keeper's house which stands in the outer ward.
Most traces of the castle had gone by 1855, when a local historian, the Revd John Wolstenholme Cobb of Saint Peter’s Church, wrote: ‘Windows, chimneys and staircases there are none. Walls there certainly are, but so hopelessly ruinous that the remains do little more than mark their original site.’ The surrounding estates and park were sold off in 1863 by the duchy to Lady Bridgewater’s heir, Earl Brownlow, who rented the castle from the Duchy of Cornwall at a nominal rent.
Lady Bridgewater’s soup kitchen continued to run from the Keeper’s Lodge at Berkhamsted Castle until at least 1879.
William Cooper and Nephews, a local agricultural chemical factory, bought a strip of land around the periphery of the castle ruins from the Brownlow estate in 1924 for use as grazing land for sheep.
Meanwhile, the cultural value of ancient monuments came to be more widely recognised in the 20th century. The Office of Works, later the Ministry of Works, acquired control of Berkhamsted Castle from the Duchy of Cornwall in 1929. Extensive renovation works were carried out on the castle ruins in 1930-1931, with a workforce of men who had become unemployed during the Great Depression.
Overgrown trees were felled and the moats cleared and filled with water. During the clearance work, the stave of a 13th-century crossbow, thought to date from the siege of 1216, was found in the eastern part of the inner moat.
When the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, visited Berkhamsted Castle in 1935, he was the first Duke of Cornwall to visit to Berkhamsted since a visit in 1616 by Prince Charles (later Charles I).
After the outbreak of World War II, Berkhamsted Castle was used as a secret location to hide a collection of public statues removed from central London to protect them from bomb damage during the Blitz.
In its heyday, Berkhamsted Castle was extremely well defended, with two ditches and three sets of earthworks around the oblong bailey, and a further ditch around the motte. Although no worked stone remains on the curtain wall, its flint rubble core survives for almost the full circuit of the bailey.
Access to the site is from the south-west, although the main entrance to the castle was to the south, and it would have opened to a wooden bridge across the moat. The remains of some of the structures that occupied the bailey, one of which was probably a chapel, survive on the west side.
The substantial motte stands at the north-east corner of the enclosure, and commands impressive views over the surrounding area. On the top are the foundations of the circular keep, 18 metres in diameter. Within the keep is a well.
The 900th anniversary of the Norman Conquest was marked in 1966 with a festive pageant in the castle grounds, including a dramatic presentation of the history of Berkhamsted. Plans to mark the 950th anniversary in 2016 were cancelled due to concerns about damage to the castle fabric and health and safety.
Today, Berkhamsted Castle is a protected ancient monument. Berkhamsted Castle is under the care of English Heritage, and Berkhamsted Castle Trust has managed the site since 2018 in partnership with English Heritage under a Local Management Agreement.
The land is still owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, with two peripheral sections formerly held by Coopers Works now held by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Berkhamsted Castle Trust.
The site is staffed by local volunteers. It is open daily and visitors can enter free of charge. The castle ruins are open daily in summer months from 10 am to 6 pm, and in winter from 10 am to 4 pm.
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