York Castle
York Castle | |
---|---|
Her Majesty's Courts Service | |
Condition | Ruined keep, restored part curtain-wall, surviving 18th century buildings used as a museum and York's Crown Court |
Site history | |
Materials | Magnesian Limestone |
Battles/wars | Siege of York in 1644 |
Events | Jewish massacre of 1190 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Designated | 14 June 1954 |
Reference no. | 1259325[1] 1259360[2] 1259324[3] 1259328[4] 1259329[5] |
York Castle is a fortified complex in the city of
The first
In 1190, 150 local Jews were killed in a
York Castle fell into disrepair by the 15th and 16th centuries, becoming used increasingly as a gaol for both local felons and political prisoners. By the time of
The castle bailey was redeveloped in a neoclassical style in the 18th century as a centre for county administration in Yorkshire, and was used as a gaol and debtors' prison. Prison reform in the 19th century led to the creation of a new prison built in a Tudor Gothic style on the castle site in 1825; used first as a county and then as a military prison, this facility was demolished in 1935. By the 20th century the ruin of Clifford's Tower had become a well-known tourist destination and national monument; today the site is owned by English Heritage and open to the public. The other remaining buildings serve as the York Castle Museum and the Crown Court.
History
11th century
York was a
In response to the worsening security situation, William conducted his second northern campaign in 1069. He built another castle in York, on what is now
William conducted a widespread sequence of punitive operations across the north of England in the aftermath of the attacks in 1069 and 1070.[14] This "Harrying of the North" restored sufficient order to allow the rebuilding of the two castles, again in wood.[14] The bailey at York Castle was enlarged slightly in the process; buildings believed to have been inside the bailey at this time include "halls, kitchens, a chapel, barracks, stores, stables, forges [and] workshops".[17] By the time the Domesday Book was written in 1086, York Castle was also surrounded by a water-filled moat and a large artificial lake called the King's Pool, fed from the river Foss by a dam built for the purpose.[18] More property, including two watermills, had to be destroyed to make way for the water defences.[9] Over time the Baile Hill site was abandoned in favour of the first castle site, leaving only the motte, which still exists.[19]
12th century
Henry II visited York Castle four times during his reign.[20] The royal chambers at the time were inside the keep for safety, and Henry paid £15 for repairs to the keep.[20][nb 2] During his 1175 visit, Henry used the castle as the base for receiving the homage of William the Lion of Scotland.[20] Castle mills were built close by to support the garrison, and the military order of the Knights Templar was granted ownership of the mills in the mid-12th century.[22] The mills proved to be vulnerable to the flooding of the two rivers and had to be repeatedly repaired.[23]
Massacre of Jews
External audio | |
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The Medieval Massacre of the Jews of York, Speaking with Shadows, published by English Heritage, retrieved 6 April 2021 |
In 1190, York Castle was the location of one of the worst pogroms in England during the medieval period.[24] The Normans had introduced the first Jewish communities into England, where some occupied a special economic role as moneylenders, an essential but otherwise banned activity.[25] English Jews were subject to considerable religious prejudice and primarily worked from towns and cities in which there was a local royal castle that could provide them with protection in the event of attacks from the majority Christian population.[26] Royal protection was usually granted as the Norman and Angevin kings had determined that Jewish property and debts owed to Jews ultimately belonged to the crown, reverting to the king on a Jew's death.[27]
13th and 14th centuries
King
Henry III also made extensive use of the castle, but during his visit at Christmas 1228 a gale destroyed the wooden keep on the motte.[38] The keep was apparently not repaired, and a building for the king's use was built in the bailey instead.[39] In 1244, when the Scots threatened to invade England, King Henry III visited the castle and ordered it to be rebuilt in white limestone, at a cost of about £2,600.[40][nb 4] The work was carried out between 1245 and 1270, and included the construction of a towered curtain wall, a gatehouse of considerable size with two large towers, two smaller gatehouses, a small watergate, a small gateway into the city, a chapel, and a new stone keep, first known as the King's, later Clifford's, Tower.[41][nb 5]
Clifford's Tower is of an unusual design. The two-storey tower has a quatrefoil plan with four circular lobes. Each lobe measures 22 ft (6.7 m) across, with walls 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) thick; at its widest, the tower is 79 ft (24 m) across.[42] A square gatehouse, 21 ft (6.4 m) wide, protected the entrance on the south side between two of the lobes.[42] There are defensive turrets between the other lobes.[42] Large corbels and a central pier supported the huge weight of stone and the first floor.[43] Loopholes of a design unique to York Castle provided firing points.[44] A chapel was built over the entrance, measuring 15 by 14 ft (4.6 by 4.3 m) doubling as a portcullis chamber as at Harlech and Chepstow Castles.[45] The tower is believed to be an experiment in improving flanking fire by making more ground visible from the summit of the keep. Although unique in England, the design of the tower closely resembles that at Étampes in France, and may have influenced the design of the future keep of Pontefract Castle.[46] Henry employed master mason Henry de Rayns and chief carpenter Simon of Northampton for the project, and the cost of the tower accounted for the majority of the overall expenditure on the castle during this period of work.[47]
The new castle needed constant investment to maintain its quality as a military fortification.[48] Winter floods in 1315–16 damaged the soil at the base of the motte, requiring immediate repairs.[49] Around 1358–60, the heavy stone keep again suffered from subsidence and the south-eastern lobe cracked from top to bottom.[50] Royal officials recommended that the keep be completely rebuilt, but, instead, the lobe was repaired at a cost of £200.[49][nb 6]
Henry III extended the castle's role as a gaol for holding a wide range of prisoners.[54] The sheriff was responsible for the gaol at this time, and his deputy usually took the role of a full-time gaoler.[55] Up to three hundred and ten prisoners were held in the castle at any one time.[56] The conditions in which prisoners were held were "appalling", and led to the widespread loss of life amongst detainees.[57] Prison escapes were relatively common, and many of them, such as the break-out by 28 prisoners in 1298, were successful.[55] When the Military Order of the Knights Templar was dissolved in England in 1307, York Castle was used to hold many of the arrested knights.[58] The castle mills, as former Templar property, returned to royal control at the same time.[59] Edward II also used the castle as a gaol in his campaign against his rebellious barons in 1322, and after the Battle of Boroughbridge many of the defeated rebel leaders were executed at York Castle.[60]
By the end of the 14th century, the castle bailey was primarily occupied by the local county administration. It was used extensively as a gaol, with prisoners being kept in the various towers around the bailey.[54] The old castle-guard system for securing the castle had changed into a system whereby the crown used rents from local royal lands to hire local guards for the castle.[61] Increasingly, royalty preferred to stay at the Franciscan friary, between the castle and King's Staith on the Ouse, while their staff resided at St Mary's Abbey and St Andrew's Priory in the Fishergate area.[49]
15th and 16th centuries
In the 15th century, York Castle, along with
The castle continued to be used as a gaol, increasingly for local felons, and a location for political executions.
The deterioration of the castle continued into the reign of Elizabeth I, who was advised that it no longer had any military utility.[72] Robert Redhead, the tower keeper, became infamous at the time for taking parts of the castle to pieces and selling off the stonework for his own profit.[69] Despite numerous attempts by local city and crown officials to halt this, Redhead continued to cause considerable damage before being forced to stop.[73] Proposals were made to pull down Clifford's Tower altogether in 1596, but were turned down because of the strength of local feeling.[72]
17th century
Maintaining the castle was becoming increasingly expensive, and in 1614
The war turned against the Royalist factions, and on 23 April 1644 Parliamentary forces commenced the
Parliament then appointed Thomas Dickenson, the local mayor, as the governor of Clifford's Tower.[77] Control of the castle rested with the post of mayor until the Restoration.[84] Efforts were made to separate the structures of Clifford's Tower, which Parliament used as a garrison, from the buildings of the bailey, which continued to be used as a prison.[85] Oliver Cromwell visited Clifford's Tower in 1650, and received a salute from the guns stationed on top of it.[85] The cost of the garrison was levied on the city of York.[86]
After the
The county facilities in the bailey were expanded during these years, with improvements to the Grand Jury House and the Common Hall, but by the 1680s the role of the military garrison at York Castle was being called into question.
On
18th century
By 1701, the conditions of the county gaol had become scandalous and the decision was taken to redevelop the area occupied by the old bailey.[54] A local tax helped to fund the development, and the king agreed for the ruins of St Mary's Abbey to be cannibalised for building stone.[54] Three new buildings were erected to the south of Clifford's Tower. A new county gaol, built between 1701 and 1705 by William Wakefield, was placed on the south side, closely resembling the fashionable work of John Vanbrugh.[96] The local architect John Carr then built the Assize Courts on the site of the old Jury House between 1773 and 1777 on the west side, and oversaw the replacement of the Sessions House and Common Hall by the Female Prison between 1780 and 1783 on the east side.[97] The Female Prison and county gaol were later combined to become the Debtors' Prison.[54] Both of Carr's buildings were designed in a distinctive neoclassical style; the Assize Court building was particularly praised at the time as being "a superb building of the Ionic order".[98] The castle courtyard was grassed over to form a circle in 1777 and became known as the "Eye of the Ridings" because it was used for the election of members of parliament for York.[99]
Visits by the prison reformer John Howard as part of the research for his book The State of the Prisons found these prisons flawed, but in relatively good condition compared to others at the time.[100] The Debtors' Prison as a whole was an "honour to the county" of York, with "airy and healthy" rooms, but the felons' wing of the prison attracted some criticism.[101] The felons' wing was "too small" and had "no water" for the inmates; felons were forced to sleep on piles of straw on the floor.[101] Indeed, conditions were so bad in the felons' wing that nine prisoners suffocated in one night during 1739.[99]
Just outside the main walls, the castle mills had become increasingly ineffective from the 16th century onwards because of a reduction in the flow of the rivers driving the water-wheels.[102] As a result, in 1778 they were rebuilt with a new steam engine to drive the machinery; this steam engine caused considerable discomfort to the prisoners affected by the smoke and noise.[103]
19th century
Criticism of the castle prison increased at the end of the 18th century.
The suitability of the prison was finally brought to a head at the 1821
In 1825, Clifford's Tower and the Waud house were purchased by the county of Yorkshire at the cost of £8,800 (equivalent to £660,000 in 2019) The new prison buildings, designed by architects P. F. Robinson and G. T. Andrews, were constructed in a Tudor Gothic style, including a gatehouse 35 ft (11 m) high and a radial prison block, protected by a long, high stone wall.[108] The prison, considered to be the strongest such building in England, was built entirely of stone to be both secure and fireproof.[109] Dark grey gritstone was used in the construction to produce a forbidding appearance, although the prison itself was considered healthy and well ventilated.[110] Clifford's Tower played no part in the formal design of the prison, although the talus, or sloping edge of the motte, was cut away and replaced by a retaining wall to allow more space for the new prison building.[111] The backyard of the Female Prison, concealed from public view by the new wall, was used for hangings from 1868 onwards.[99]
The
By the early 19th century, dredging and other improvements to the river Foss had made it possible to import flour into York by river, reducing the economic significance of the castle mills.[114] In 1856, the castle mills were finally demolished as part of a further sequence of improvements to this part of the river.[115] The King's Pool that formed part of the castle's water defences was drained.[114] With the construction of several new bridges near the castle, the site became "surrounded by roads instead of moats".[114] Some major trials took place at the Assizes (now Crown Court) building of York Castle in the 19th century, including that of Mary Fitzpatrick who was accused of murder.[116]
20th century
In 1890 the Prison Commissioners agreed to declare Clifford's Tower a national monument and to conserve it as a historic location.[112] In 1902 Clifford's Tower was given to the York Corporation, together with a grant of £3,000 (equivalent to £320,000 in 2019) arranged by Lord Wenlock for conservation and repairs. The removal of the talus and the damage to the castle stonework in the 16th century had put excessive pressure on the supporting motte, causing a recurrence of the 14th-century subsidence.[117] Sir Basil Mott, a leading Victorian engineer, installed concrete underpinnings to stabilise the structure beneath the gatehouse.[117] By the early 20th century, Clifford's Tower was regularly open to visitors, and in 1915 it was passed to the Office of Works as a national monument.[118] The castle was historically excluded from York's municipal boundaries; it was formally absorbed into the city in 1968.[119][120]
Today
York Prison finally closed in 1929, and the Tudor Gothic Victorian prison buildings were demolished in 1935.[113] The Assize Courts building now houses the York Crown Court, while the former Debtors' Prison and Female Prison, together with a modern entrance area, are now the Castle Museum. The circular grassed area between these buildings that was once known as the "Eye of the Ridings" is now known as Castle Green, or the "Eye of York".[99] Clifford's Tower is the most prominent surviving part of the original medieval fortification, although the stone steps up the side of the motte are modern.[30] Fragments of the bailey wall, parts of the south gatehouse and one of the corner towers also survive.[122]
The castle is classed as a
In March 2022 an English Heritage conservation project, including work on the limestone fabric of the tower and care of the chapel roof, was completed. New internal access stairways of gluelam timber leading to a new roof deck allow visitors a close view of some original features of the building and less-crowded viewpoints over the city.[126]
Notes
- ^ Hull (p.98) and others draw on documentary evidence which state that the castles were first burnt, then partially dismantled. Cooper (p.18) disagrees, drawing on archaeological work that shows no evidence of fire having damaged the relevant layers of the mottes.
- ^ Comparison of medieval financial figures with modern equivalents is notoriously challenging. For comparison, the majority of the barons of the period would have an annual income from their lands of less than £100.[21]
- ^ Comparison of medieval financial figures with modern equivalents is notoriously challenging. For comparison, £207 is slightly more than the £200 a year average income of a baron during this period.[33]
- ^ Comparison of medieval financial figures with modern equivalents is notoriously challenging. For comparison, £2,600 is around thirteen times the £200 a year average income of a baron during this period.[33]
- ^ For the purposes of this article, the keep is referred to as Clifford's Tower throughout.
- ^ Comparison of medieval financial figures with modern equivalents is notoriously challenging. For comparison, this sum corresponds to the £200 a year average income of a baron during this period.[33]
- ^ Ryther was unusual in being granted control of the castle as well from 1478 onwards on a personal basis, as this was usually reserved for the sheriff. Cooper, p.146.
References
- ^ Clifford's Tower Archived 6 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Historic England. Accessed 22 June 2016.
- ^ Debtors Prison Archived 6 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Historic England. Accessed 22 June 2016.
- ^ Female Prison Archived 6 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Historic England. Accessed 22 June 2016.
- ^ York Crown Court Archived 6 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Historic England. Accessed 22 June 2016.
- ^ Curtain Wall, Castle Precinct Archived 6 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Historic England. Accessed 22 June 2016.
- ^ Butler, p.2.
- ^ a b c Brown, p.32.
- ^ Brown, p.110; Cooper, p.15.
- ^ a b Cooper, p.14.
- ^ Clark, p.239.
- ^ Pounds, p.7; Clark, p.239.
- ^ Brown, p.32; Pounds, p.7.
- ^ Brown, p.41; Butler, p.3.
- ^ a b c d Hull, p.98.
- ^ Hull, p.98; Cooper, p.18.
- ^ Cooper, p.16.
- ^ Cooper, p.18; Butler, p.13.
- ^ Clark, p.255; Cooper pp.12–3.
- ^ Pounds, p.7.
- ^ a b c Cooper, p.23.
- ^ Pounds, p.59.
- ^ Cooper, p.117; Pounds, p.193.
- ^ Pounds, p.193.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Butler, p.14.
- ^ Hillaby, p.16.
- ^ Hillaby, pp.21–2.
- ^ Stenton, p.197.
- ^ McLynn, pp.120–1.
- ^ Hillaby, p.29.
- ^ a b Hull, p.99.
- ^ Butler, p.15.
- ^ Hull, p.99; Cooper, p.25.
- ^ a b c Pounds, p.147.
- ^ Cooper, pp.27–9.
- ^ Cooper, p.28.
- ^ Cooper, p.91.
- ^ Cooper, p.113.
- ^ Brown, p.86; Cooper, p.31.
- ^ Cooper, p.32.
- ^ Hull, p.99; Butler, p.4.
- ^ Brown, p.86; Hull, p.99; Toy, p.133; Cooper, pp.85, 87.
- ^ a b c Clark, p.256.
- ^ Toy, pp.134–5.
- ^ Cooper, pp.42–3.
- ^ Clark, p.257.
- ^ Brown, p.86; Butler, p.16.
- ^ Hull, p.99; Toy, p.133.
- ^ Cooper, p.63.
- ^ a b c Butler, p.17.
- ^ Cooper, p.76; Butler, p.17.
- ^ Cooper, p.50.
- ^ a b c d e f Musson, p.164.
- ^ a b Cooper, p.151.
- ^ a b c d e Twyford, p.45.
- ^ a b Cooper, p.98.
- ^ Cooper, p.111.
- ^ Cooper, p.97.
- ^ Cooper, pp.102–3.
- ^ a b Cooper, p.126.
- ^ Cooper, p.51.
- ^ Cooper, p.115.
- ^ Pounds, p.258.
- ^ Cooper, p.143.
- ^ Cooper, p.147.
- ^ Timbs, p.170; Clark, p.255.
- ^ a b Cooper, p.148.
- ^ Cooper, pp.126, 155.
- ^ Twyford, p.46.
- ^ a b c Cooper, p.158.
- ^ Cooper, pp.146–7.
- ^ a b c Butler, p.4.
- ^ a b Cooper, p.149.
- ^ Cooper, p.161.
- ^ Twyford, p.44; Butler, p.20.
- ^ Cooper, p.169.
- ^ Wedgwood, p.77.
- ^ a b c d Timbs and Gunn, p.170.
- ^ Cooper, p.155.
- ^ Wedgwood, p.289.
- ^ Wedgwood, p.311.
- ^ Wedgwood, pp.312–3.
- ^ Wedgwood, p.322.
- ^ Wedgwood, p.322; Twyford, p.41.
- ^ Twyford, p.41.
- ^ a b Cooper, p.173.
- ^ Cooper, p.172.
- ^ Cooper, pp.180–1.
- ^ a b c d Clarke, p.261.
- ^ Twyford, p.42.
- ^ Cooper, p.181.
- ^ a b c Butler, p.20.
- ^ Cooper, p.183.
- ^ Butler, p.21.
- ^ Timbs and Gunn, p.170; Twyford, pp.43–4.
- ^ Cooper, p.177; Butler, p.21.
- ^ Butler, p.22.
- ^ Butler, pp.8, 20, 22.
- ^ Butler, p.8; Twyford, p.49.
- ^ a b c d e f g Butler, p.23.
- ^ Twyford, pp.46–7.
- ^ a b Howard, quoted Twyford p.47.
- ^ Cooper, p.128.
- ^ Cooper, p.129.
- ^ a b c Cooper, p.191.
- ^ "The Hull Packet". 22 January 1836.
- ^ Cooper, pp.191–2.
- ^ Cooper, p.192.
- ^ Cooper, p.239; Twyford, p.45; Butler, p.24.
- ^ Sears, p.180.
- ^ Butler, p.24; Sears, p.180.
- ^ Cooper, p.195.
- ^ a b Cooper, p.196.
- ^ a b Butler, p.24.
- ^ a b c Butler, p.8.
- ^ Cooper, p.130.
- ^ Yorkshire Assizes, York Herald, 4 November 1882, p.3 col.5. British Newspaper Archive. Accessed 19 August 2019.
- ^ a b Cooper, p.200.
- ^ Cooper, p.208, Butler, p.24.
- ^ "Administrative Areas Series, 1947". National Library of Scotland. Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
- ^ Census 1971, England and Wales: Volume 59, Parts 1-3. Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. 1973. p. 26. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
- ^ The Massacre of the Jews at Clifford's Tower Archived 5 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine, English Heritage. Accessed 10 November 2019
- ^ Butler, p.9.
- ^ York Castle Archived 10 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, National Monuments Record. Accessed 15 October 2010.
- ^ a b Dobson, p.145.
- ^ Castle Area Campaign News 2003 Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, York Castle Campaign website. Accessed 6 November 2010.
- ^ "Clifford's Tower Revealed". English Heritage. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
Bibliography
- Brown, Reginald Allen. (2004) Allen Brown's English Castles. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-069-6.
- Butler, Lawrence. (1997) Clifford's Tower and the Castles of York. London: English Heritage. ISBN 1-85074-673-7.
- Clark, G. T. (1874) "The Defences of York", in The Archaeological Journal, Vol. 31 pp. 221–61.
- Cooper, Thomas Parsons. (1911) The History of the Castle of York, from its Foundation to the Current Day with an Account of the Building of Clifford's Tower. London: Elliot Stock. OCLC 4246355.
- Dobson, Barry. (2003) "The Medieval York Jewry Reconsidered", in Skinner (ed) (2003).
- Hillaby, Joe. (2003) "Jewish Colonisation in the Twelfth Century", in Skinner (ed) (2003).
- Hull, Lise E. (2006) Britain's Medieval Castles. Westport: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-98414-4.
- McLynn, Frank. (2007) Lionheart and Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-7126-9417-9.
- Musson, Anthony. (2008) "Court Venues and the Politics of Justice", in Saul (ed) (2008).
- Pounds, Norman John Greville. (1990) The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: a Social and Political History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45828-3.
- Saul, Nigel. (ed) (2008) Fourteenth Century England, Volume 5. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-387-1.
- Sears, Robert. (1847) A New and Popular Pictorial Description of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the British Islands. New York: Robert Sears. OCLC 557568051.
- Skinner, Patricia. (ed) (2003) The Jews in Medieval Britain: Historical, Literary, and Archaeological Perspectives. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-931-7.
- Stenton, Doris Mary. (1976) English Society in the Early Middle Ages (1066–1307). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-020252-8.
- Timbs, John and Alexander Gunn. (2008) Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales: Their Legendary Lore and Popular History, Volume 3. Alcester, UK: Read Books. ISBN 978-1-4437-8400-9.
- Toy, Sidney. (1985) Castles: Their Construction and History. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-24898-1.
- Twyford, Anthony William. (2010) Records of York Castle – Fortress, Courthouse and Prison. Alcester, UK: Read Books. ISBN 978-1-4455-7111-9.
- Wedgwood, C. V. (1970) The King's War: 1641–1647. London: Fontana. OCLC 254381447.
Further reading
- Renn, D. F. (1971) Clifford's Tower and the castles of York. London : Her Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN 0-11-670409-8.