Sutton Valence Castle
{{Short description|Castle in Sutton Valence, Kent, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{good article}}
{{Infobox military installation
| name=Sutton Valence Castle
| location=Kent
| image=Sutton Valence Castle.jpg
| image_size = 225px
| caption= The ruined keep of the castle
| pushpin_map=Kent
| coordinates={{coord|51.21238|0.59775|type:landmark_region:GB|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
{{gbmapping|TQ815491}}
| ownership= English Heritage
| open_to_public = Yes
| condition=Ruined
| built = 12th century
| materials = Ragstone and flint rubble
}}
Sutton Valence Castle is a ruined medieval fortification in the village of Sutton Valence in Kent, England. Overlooking a strategic route to the coast, the original castle probably comprised an inner and an outer bailey and a protective barbican, with a three-storey high keep on its southern side.
It was built in the second half of the 12th century, probably by Baldwin of Bethune, the Count of Aumale. It then passed to the families of Marshal and de Montfort, before being given by King Henry III to his half-brother William de Valence in 1265, from whom the castle takes its current name. It was abandoned in the early 14th century and fell into ruin. Today, the castle is managed by English Heritage, and the remains of the keep are open to the public.
12th – 15th centuries
Sutton Valence Castle was probably built in the second half of the 12th century by the Counts of Aumale, most likely by Baldwin of Bethune, but perhaps by William le Gros, Baldwin's father-in-law.{{harvnb|Pettifer|1995|p=192}}; {{harvnb|Sands|1907|p=196}}; {{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/sutton-valence-castle/history-and-research/|title=History and Research: Sutton Valence Castle|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}; {{cite web|url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1013537|title=List Entry|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}
The castle was built on a commanding position overlooking the strategic route between the towns of Maidstone, Rye and Old Winchelsea and the location was also known as Sudtone and Town Sutton.{{harvnb|Grove|1957|pp=202, 204}}; {{cite web|url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1013537|title=List Entry|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}
The castle keep was constructed around 1200.{{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/sutton-valence-castle/history-and-research/|title=History and Research: Sutton Valence Castle|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}
In 1203, Baldwin gave the castle to his daughter Alicia on her marriage to William Marshal, the Earl of Pembroke, who later remarried, passing the property to his second wife, Eleanor. After William's death, Eleanor married Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester.{{harvnb|Sands|1902|p=205}} Simon led a rebellion against King Henry III during the Second Barons' War, but was killed at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, after which Eleanor lost ownership of the castle.
After the de Montfort rebellion, King Henry III gave the castle to William de Valence, his half-brother, who had supported him during the conflict. Under William, the castle and village acquired its current name of Sutton Valence.{{cite web|url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1013537|title=List Entry|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}} {{harvnb|Sands|1902|p=205}} Aymer de Valence, his son, inherited the castle in 1307.English Heritage history website. The Valences travelled around their estates, increasingly focusing their attention on a handful of their various great houses, and stayed at Sutton Valence on at least several occasions.{{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/sutton-valence-castle/history-and-research/|title=History and Research: Sutton Valence Castle|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}; {{harvnb|Emery|2006|p=28}}
After Aymer's death in 1324, the castle passed by marriage to Lawrence, Lord Hastings, and was held in the Hastings family until 1390, when Reginald Lord Grey de Ruthin acquired it.{{harvnb|Sands|1902|pp=204–206}} There are few historical records of the castle beyond this point, but it appears to have been abandoned in the early 14th century and by the 15th century had become ruined.{{harvnb|Pettifer|1995|p=130}}; {{harvnb|Grove|1957|p=228}}; {{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/sutton-valence-castle/history-and-research/|title=History and Research: Sutton Valence Castle|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}
Architecture - Layout of the Castle Area
File:Sutton Valence castle map.jpg
Sutton Valence Castle is on a spur of the Chart Hills on the east side of the village of Sutton Valence.
It probably comprised an inner, an outer bailey and a protective barbican, see the diagram.{{cite web|url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1013537|title=List Entry|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}; {{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/sutton-valence-castle/history-and-research/|title=History and Research: Sutton Valence Castle|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}
Access would have been through the eastern barbican, coming to an outer bailey, but these features only survive today as earthworks.
A dry ditch protected the inner bailey, which was approximately {{convert|300|by|34|m}} across, on the southern side of the site.
The site probably included a hall, chapel and kitchen, but of the original buildings only the castle keep now survives.
The keep on the South side of the site is {{convert|11|m}} square, with walls {{convert|2.4|m}} thick, built from ragstone and flint rubble and surviving up to {{convert|7|m}} high. It was originally {{convert|20|m}} tall, with at least three storeys, and entered through an external staircase leading to a doorway in the first floor. The building had a corner tower, in which was a spiral staircase linking the floors, and had clasping buttresses at the corners.{{cite web|url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1013537|title=List Entry|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}
16th – 21st centuries
File:Sutton_Valence_castle_keep_in_1778.jpg
File:Sutton Valence Castle - geograph.org.uk - 1015824.jpg
The historian Edward Hasted (1732-1812) in his "History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent" described Sutton Valence Castle as being "now almost covered with ivy, and the branches of the trees which sprout out from the walls of it."{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp364-375|title=Parishes: Sutton Valence, in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5|pages=364–375|author=Edward Hasted|publisher=British History Online|date=1798|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}} See the drawing on the right from Halstead's History.
Archaeological excavations were carried out at the site during the mid-1950s with the assistance of Maidstone Museum and the local Sutton Valence School, concentrating on the area of the castle keep.{{harvnb|Grove|1957|pp=227–228}}
The castle was placed in the guardianship of the state in 1976 and it is now owned by English Heritage.
Conservation work was done on the ruins in the 1980s.{{cite web|url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1013537|title=List Entry|publisher=English Heritage|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}; {{cite web|url=http://magic.defra.gov.uk/Metadata_for_magic/rsm/27017.pdf|title=Extract from English Heritage's Record of Scheduled Monuments|author=English Heritage|publisher=Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}
It is protected under UK law as a Grade II listed building and a Scheduled Monument.{{cite web|url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1186956|publisher=English Heritage|title=List Entry|mode=cs2|access-date=1 January 2015}}
See also
References
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
Bibliography
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book
| last = Emery
| first = Anthony
| year = 2006
| title = Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Volume 3, Southern England
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| location= Cambridge, UK
| isbn = 9781139449199
}}
- {{cite journal
| year = 1957
| last1 = Grove
| first1 = L. R. A.
| title = Sutton Valence
| journal = Archaeologia Cantiana
| volume = 71
| pages = 227–228
}}
- {{cite book
| last = Pettifer
| first = Adrian
| year = 1995
| title = English Castles: A Guide by Counties
| publisher = Boydell Press
| location= Woodbridge, UK
| isbn = 9780851157825
}}
- {{cite journal
| year = 1902
| last1 = Sands
| first1 = Harold
| title = Sutton Valence Castle
| journal = Archaeologia Cantiana
| volume = 25
| pages = 198–206
}}
- {{cite book |
last=Sands|
first=Harold |
editor-last1 =Ditchfield|
editor-first1 = P. H. |
editor-last2 =Clinch |
editor-first2 = George |
chapter= Some Kentish Castles |
title=Memorials of Old Kent | url=https://archive.org/details/memorialsofoldke00ditc|
publisher=Bemrose and Sons|
location=London, UK |
year=1907 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/memorialsofoldke00ditc/page/150 150]–214 }}
{{refend}}
External links
{{Commons category|Sutton Valence Castle|position=right}}
- [https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/sutton-valence-castle/ English Heritage's website entry]