Bolingbroke Castle

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008318
Date first listed:: 09-Oct-1981

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008318
Date first listed:: 09-Oct-1981
Date of most recent amendment:: 16-Jun-1994

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Lincolnshire
District:: East Lindsey (District Authority)
Parish:: Bolingbroke
National Grid Reference:: TF 34925 64931

Reasons for Designation

An enclosure castle is a defended residence or stronghold, built mainly of stone, in which the principal or sole defence comprises the walls and towers bounding the site. Some form of keep may have stood within the enclosure but this was not significant in defensive terms and served mainly to provide accommodation. Larger sites might have more than one line of walling and there are normally mural towers and gatehouses. Outside the walls a ditch, either waterfilled or dry, crossed by bridges may be found. The first enclosure castles were constructed at the time of the Norman Conquest. However, they developed considerably in form during the 12th century when defensive experience gained during the Crusades was applied to their design. The majority of examples were constructed in the 13th century although a few were built as late as the 14th century. Some represent reconstructions of earlier medieval earthwork castles of the motte and bailey type, although others were new creations. They provided strongly defended residences for the king or leading families and occur in both urban and rural situations. Enclosure castles are widely dispersed throughout England, with a slight concentration in Kent and Sussex supporting a vulnerable coast, and a strong concentration along the Welsh border where some of the best examples were built under Edward I. They are rare nationally with only 126 recorded examples. Considerable diversity of form is exhibited with no two examples being exactly alike. With other castle types, they are major medieval monument types which, belonging to the highest levels of society, frequently acted as major administrative centres and formed the foci for developing settlement patterns. Castles generally provide an emotive and evocative link to the past and can provide a valuable educational resource, both with respect to medieval warfare and defence and with respect to wider aspects of medieval society. All examples retaining significant remains of medieval date are considered to be nationally important.

The site of Bolingbroke Castle includes significant architectural remains and associated earthworks surviving in very good condition. Being principally of one build, the structure is a valuable illustration of castle design and layout in the mid-13th century, and our understanding of it has been enhanced by recent partial excavation and consolidation. Associated earthworks of both medieval and post-medieval date have survived intact in the southern part of the site, preserving the relationships between a diversity of activities. Waterlogging in the area of the moat indicates the likely survival of organic remains. The castle is both well documented historically and well known as the birthplace of Henry IV; as a monument open to the public it thus functions as an important educational and recreational resource.

Details

The monument includes the remains of Bolingbroke Castle, built in the early 13th century by Randulph de Blundevil, Earl of Chester and Lincoln. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries it served as an administrative centre for the extensive estates of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, before passing by marriage in 1311 to the house of Lancaster. Henry IV, son of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, was born here in 1366. The castle was extensively rebuilt in the 15th century, but by the early 17th century had fallen into disrepair. In October 1643 the Royalists stood siege here and were defeated by the Parliamentarians, who held the castle before leaving it to ruin. The structure further deteriorated through the succeeding centuries until the late 20th century when it was excavated and consolidated. The monument includes the remains of the castle and its associated earthworks.

Bolingbroke Castle is situated in a valley at the point where the wolds rise out of the fenland of eastern Lincolnshire. The site lies in an area of grassland on the south side of the village of Old Bolingbroke. In the northern part of the monument are the standing remains of the castle, a stone-built structure of roughly hexagonal form enclosing an area of approximately 0.25ha. The curtain wall, constructed of Spilsby sandstone with Ancaster limestone dressings, incorporates five round corner towers and a double-towered gatehouse. The wall stands to a height of up to 2m above the ground level of the interior, the towers up to 3m. The gatehouse, on the north, is composed of two round towers with a cobbled road between. Alterations to the eastern tower, including the insertion of brick walls and a staircase to a basement chamber, date from its later conversion to a prison. Later alterations, including limestone openings, are also evident in the castle's north western tower which continued in use into the 17th century as a store for the castle's records and accounts. The north eastern tower was levelled in post-medieval times and its position is marked by modern stone slabs.

The interior of the castle is largely level apart from the earthworks of structures which have been investigated by excavation. These include, adjoining the gatehouse and curtain wall on the north east, the remains of the castle's great hall, a rectangular structure with stone foundations constructed in the 15th century. Adjoining the north western tower are the earthworks of a porch and garderobe, with a kiln mound to the south. On the south side of the enclosure is a raised area, standing approximately 1m higher than the rest of the interior, representing the remains of a complex of service buildings.

The castle buildings are surrounded on all sides by a moat, partly water-filled, approximately 30m in width. It is crossed by two post-medieval causeways: that on the north leads from the gatehouse and replaces an earlier drawbridge, while that on the east runs across the levelled north east tower. The moat is surrounded on the south, west and south east by an external bank.

Outside the castle, in the southern part of the monument, is a large rectangular enclosure of approximately 4ha bounded on the north by the external bank of the castle moat, on the south and west by a further linear bank, and on the east by a series of interconnected ponds. The ponds are roughly rectangular in shape and form a chain running along the western edge of the stream, from which they are separated by a narrow bank. About 20m to the west, lying near the centre of the large enclosure and on the same alignment, is a rectangular earthwork approximately 90m x 60m consisting of a central area surrounded by a linear bank and external moat; there is a further external bank on the south and west. The banks stand to a height of up to 1m above the surrounding ground surface, and the moat 1m below. Channels have been cut through the northern and south western parts of this earthwork to connect it to drains running from the castle moat in the north towards the stream in the south. The enclosure in which this earthwork lies, together with the pond complex, are medieval in origin and represent an outer bailey of the castle for use as a tilting ground and animal enclosure with adjacent fishponds; these features are believed to have subsequently formed part of a garden. Documentary sources indicate that by the end of the 16th century the enclosure was in use as a 'Rout Yard', an animal pound for the collection of stray cattle. The central earthwork is thought to have been associated with the Civil War siege, later serving as a pen and watering place for empounded animals. Bolingbroke Castle is Listed Grade 1.

Excluded from the scheduling are all fences and modern buildings, although the ground beneath these structures is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 22623
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Beresford, M W, St Joseph, J K S, Medieval England: An Aerial Survey, (1979), 150-152
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Lincolnshire: Volume II, (1906), 284-285
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Lincolnshire: Volume II, (1906), 284-5
Smith, A, Jones, M J, Bolingbroke Castle Survey 1987: The Kilns, (1987)
'Lincolnshire History and Archaeology' in Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, , Vol. 10, (1975)
'Middle Ages' in History of the King's Works, , Vol. II, (1963), 571-572
Drewett, P L, Freke, D J, 'Medieval Archaeology' in The Great Hall at Bolingbroke Castle, Lincolnshire, (), 163-165
Holmes, C, 'History of Lincolnshire' in Seventeenth Century Lincolnshire, , Vol. VII, (1980), 170-171
Platts, G, 'History of Lincolnshire' in Land and People in Medieval Lincolnshire, , Vol. IV, (1985), 97-100
Thompson, M W, 'Archaeological Journal' in Old Bolingbroke Castle, , Vol. 131, (1975), 314-317
Other
17thc [BM Harleian MS 6829 f.161], Holles, Gervase, Church Notes, (1911)
AJWhite's notes on document at SMR, Document DL 44/4,
AJWhite's notes on document in SMR, Document DL 44/604,
Cruickshank, Christopher, Lincolnshire From The Air, (1993)
Guide, Hall, Reverend , (1848)
texts for interpretation boards, Field, Naomi, Bolingbroke Castle, (1991)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.