Herstmonceux Castle
Encyclopedia
Herstmonceux Castle is a brick-built Tudor
castle
near Herstmonceux
, East Sussex
, United Kingdom
. From 1957 to 1988 its grounds were the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Today it is used by the Bader International Study Centre of Queen's University
, Canada
.
Herstmonceux Castle is home to a number of events throughout the year, including the annual England's Medieval Festival on August Bank Holiday weekend.
which reports that one of William's closest supporters granted tenancy of the manor at Herst to a man named ‘Wilbert'. By the end of the twelfth century, the family at the manor house at Herst had considerable status. Written accounts mention a lady called Idonea de Herst, who married a Norman nobleman named Ingelram de Monceux. Around this time, the manor began to be called the “Herst of the Monceux”, a name that eventually became Herstmonceux.
A descendant of the Monceux family, Roger Fiennes, was ultimately responsible for the construction of Herstmonceux Castle in the County of Sussex. Sir Roger was appointed Treasurer of the Household of Henry VI of England
and needed a house fitting a man of his position, so construction of the castle on the site of the old manor house began in 1441. It was this position as treasurer which enabled him to afford the £3,800 construction of the original castle. The result is not a defensive structure, but a palatial residence in a self-consciously archaising castle style.
In 1541, Sir Thomas Fiennes, Lord Dacre, was tried for murder and robbery of the King's deer after his poaching exploits on a neighboring estate resulted in the death of a gamekeeper. He was convicted and hanged as a commoner, and the Herstmonceux estate was temporarily confiscated by Henry VIII of England
, but was restored to the Fiennes family during the reign of one of Henry's children.
The profligacy of the 15th Baron Dacre, heir to the Fiennes family, forced him to sell in 1708 to George Naylor, a lawyer of Lincoln’s Inn in London. Naylor’s grandson followed the architect Samuel Wyatt
’s advice to reduce the Castle to a picturesque ruin by demolishing the interior. Thomas Lennard, 16th Baron Dacre, was sufficiently exercised as to commission James Lamberts of Lewes to record the building. The castle was dismantled in 1777 leaving the exterior walls standing and remained a ruin until the early 20th century.
in 1933 by the distinguished architect, Walter Godfrey
. The existing interiors largely date to this period, incorporating architectural antiques from England and France. The one major change in planning was the combination of the four internal courtyard
s into one large one. The restoration work, regarded as the apex of Godfrey's architectural achievement, was described by the critic Nikolaus Pevsner
as executed 'exemplarily'.
The property passed through the hands of a number of private owners until it was sold in 1946 to the Admiralty
. In 1957 the Herstmonceux Castle grounds became the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and remained so until 1988 when the observatory moved to Cambridge. Several of the telescopes still remain but the largest telescope, the 100 inch (254 cm) aperture Isaac Newton Telescope
was moved to La Palma
, Canary Islands
in the 1970s. The estate still provides housing the Equatorial Telescope Buildings, which have been converted to an interactive science centre for schoolchildren. The empty dome for the Newton Telescope remains on this site and is a well known landmark being visible from afar.
alumnus Alfred Bader
learned of the castle's vacancy and initially offered to purchase the castle for his wife; she declined, joking that there would be "too many rooms to clean". Bader later contacted then-Principal of Queen's University, David Chadwick Smith
, asking if a castle might fit into the school's plans, possibly as an international study centre. In 1994, after intensive renovations, the Queen's International Study Centre was opened. It hosts primarily undergraduate students studying
arts or commerce through the Canadian University Study Abroad Program (CUSAP), as well as graduate students studying Public International Law or International Business Law. In late January 2009, the ISC was renamed the Bader International Study Centre.
, a 1990 BBC
adaptation of the book (one of The Chronicles of Narnia
) by C. S. Lewis
. Both the castle and its gardens were used by comedians Reeves and Mortimer
for one of their Mulligan and O'Hare sketches. In August 2002, the Coca-Cola Company rented the castle for use as part of a prize in a Harry Potter
-themed sweepstakes
-- the castle served as "Hogwarts
" in a day of Harry Potter-related activities for the sweepstakes winners. A "painting" of the castle was used as a magical cursed object in the U. S. television show Charmed
- episode 2.3 "The Painted World".
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
near Herstmonceux
Herstmonceux
Herstmonceux is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The parish includes Herstmonceux Castle, the village of Cowbeech and a number of smaller hamlets.-History:...
, East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. From 1957 to 1988 its grounds were the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Today it is used by the Bader International Study Centre of Queen's University
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Significance
Herstmonceux Castle is one of the oldest significant brick buildings still standing in England; brick was a relatively unusual material for the time in Britain. The builders of Herstmonceux Castle concentrated more on grandeur and comfort than on defence to produce a truly magnificent estate.Herstmonceux Castle is home to a number of events throughout the year, including the annual England's Medieval Festival on August Bank Holiday weekend.
Early history
The first written evidence of the existence of the Herst settlement appears in William the Conqueror's Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
which reports that one of William's closest supporters granted tenancy of the manor at Herst to a man named ‘Wilbert'. By the end of the twelfth century, the family at the manor house at Herst had considerable status. Written accounts mention a lady called Idonea de Herst, who married a Norman nobleman named Ingelram de Monceux. Around this time, the manor began to be called the “Herst of the Monceux”, a name that eventually became Herstmonceux.
A descendant of the Monceux family, Roger Fiennes, was ultimately responsible for the construction of Herstmonceux Castle in the County of Sussex. Sir Roger was appointed Treasurer of the Household of Henry VI of England
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
and needed a house fitting a man of his position, so construction of the castle on the site of the old manor house began in 1441. It was this position as treasurer which enabled him to afford the £3,800 construction of the original castle. The result is not a defensive structure, but a palatial residence in a self-consciously archaising castle style.
In 1541, Sir Thomas Fiennes, Lord Dacre, was tried for murder and robbery of the King's deer after his poaching exploits on a neighboring estate resulted in the death of a gamekeeper. He was convicted and hanged as a commoner, and the Herstmonceux estate was temporarily confiscated by Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, but was restored to the Fiennes family during the reign of one of Henry's children.
The profligacy of the 15th Baron Dacre, heir to the Fiennes family, forced him to sell in 1708 to George Naylor, a lawyer of Lincoln’s Inn in London. Naylor’s grandson followed the architect Samuel Wyatt
Samuel Wyatt
Samuel Wyatt was an English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th and 19th century English architects, his work was primarily in a neoclassical style.-Career:...
’s advice to reduce the Castle to a picturesque ruin by demolishing the interior. Thomas Lennard, 16th Baron Dacre, was sufficiently exercised as to commission James Lamberts of Lewes to record the building. The castle was dismantled in 1777 leaving the exterior walls standing and remained a ruin until the early 20th century.
20th century restoration
Radical restoration work was undertaken by Colonel Lowther in 1913 to transform the ruined building into a residence and completed for Sir Paul LathamSir Paul Latham, 2nd Baronet
Major Sir Paul Latham, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby constituency from 1931 to 1941....
in 1933 by the distinguished architect, Walter Godfrey
Walter Godfrey
Walter Hindes Godfrey CBE, FSA, FRIBA , was an English architect, antiquary, and architectural and topographical historian. He was also a landscape architect and designer, and an accomplished draftsman and illustrator...
. The existing interiors largely date to this period, incorporating architectural antiques from England and France. The one major change in planning was the combination of the four internal courtyard
Courtyard
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....
s into one large one. The restoration work, regarded as the apex of Godfrey's architectural achievement, was described by the critic Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
as executed 'exemplarily'.
Royal Greenwich Observatory
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
. In 1957 the Herstmonceux Castle grounds became the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and remained so until 1988 when the observatory moved to Cambridge. Several of the telescopes still remain but the largest telescope, the 100 inch (254 cm) aperture Isaac Newton Telescope
Isaac Newton Telescope
The Isaac Newton Telescope or INT is a 2.54 m optical telescope run by the ING at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands since 1984....
was moved to La Palma
La Palma
La Palma is the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands. La Palma has an area of 706 km2 making it the fifth largest of the seven main Canary Islands...
, Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
in the 1970s. The estate still provides housing the Equatorial Telescope Buildings, which have been converted to an interactive science centre for schoolchildren. The empty dome for the Newton Telescope remains on this site and is a well known landmark being visible from afar.
University study centre
In 1992, Queen'sQueen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
alumnus Alfred Bader
Alfred Bader
Alfred Bader CBE is a Canadian chemist, businessman and collector of fine art.-Early years:Bader's father's family was of Czech Jewish descent; his mother was a Catholic Hungarian aristocrat. He fled from Austria to England in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution...
learned of the castle's vacancy and initially offered to purchase the castle for his wife; she declined, joking that there would be "too many rooms to clean". Bader later contacted then-Principal of Queen's University, David Chadwick Smith
David Chadwick Smith
David Chadwick Smith, CM, FRSC was an Canadian economist, and the sixteenth Principal of Queen's University from 1984 to 1994....
, asking if a castle might fit into the school's plans, possibly as an international study centre. In 1994, after intensive renovations, the Queen's International Study Centre was opened. It hosts primarily undergraduate students studying
arts or commerce through the Canadian University Study Abroad Program (CUSAP), as well as graduate students studying Public International Law or International Business Law. In late January 2009, the ISC was renamed the Bader International Study Centre.
Appearances in fiction
The castle was used for filming part of The Silver ChairThe Silver Chair
The Silver Chair is part of The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven fantasy novels written by C. S. Lewis. It was the fourth book published and is the sixth book chronologically. It is the first book published in the series in which the Pevensie children do not appear. The main characters are...
, a 1990 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
adaptation of the book (one of The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages...
) by C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
. Both the castle and its gardens were used by comedians Reeves and Mortimer
Vic and Bob
Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer , more commonly known simply as Vic and Bob or Reeves and Mortimer, are a British comedy double act...
for one of their Mulligan and O'Hare sketches. In August 2002, the Coca-Cola Company rented the castle for use as part of a prize in a Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
-themed sweepstakes
Sweepstakes
The United States consumer sales promotion known as a sweepstake has become associated with marketing promotions targeted toward both generating enthusiasm and providing incentive reactions among customers by enticing consumers to submit free entries into drawings of chance...
-- the castle served as "Hogwarts
Hogwarts
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or simply Hogwarts is the primary setting for the first six books of the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, with each book lasting the equivalent of one school year. It is a fictional boarding school of magic for witches and wizards between the ages of...
" in a day of Harry Potter-related activities for the sweepstakes winners. A "painting" of the castle was used as a magical cursed object in the U. S. television show Charmed
Charmed
Charmed is an American television series that originally aired from October 7, 1998, until May 21, 2006, on the now defunct The WB Television Network. The series was created in 1998 by writer Constance M...
- episode 2.3 "The Painted World".
Owners of Herstmonceux Manor/Castle
- 1066 - Edmer, a priest.
- 1086 - Wilbert, tenant-in-chief.
- c.1200 - Idonea de Herst (married Ingelram de Monceux).
- 1211 - Their son Waleran de Monceux.
- 1216 - His son William de Monceux.
- ? - His son Waleran de Monceux.
- 1279 - His son John de Monceux.
- 1302 - His son John de Monceux.
- 1316 - His son John de Monceux.
- 1330 - His sister Maud de Monceux (married Sir John Fiennes)
- 1351 - The eldest son William Fiennes.
- 1359 - His son Sir William Fiennes.
- 1402 - His son Sir Roger Fiennes (built Herstmonceux castle)
- 1449 - His son Sir Richard FiennesSir Richard FiennesSir Richard Fiennes, jure uxoris 7th Baron Dacre 'of the South' in Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex, England, was the son of Sir Roger Fiennes and Elizabeth Holland. His paternal uncle was James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele....
(married Joan Dacre, 7th Baroness Dacre) - 1483 - His grandson Sir Thomas Fiennes.
- 1533 - Sir Thomas Fiennes.
- 1541 - His eldest son Thomas Fiennes.
- 1553 - His brother Gregory Fiennes.
- 1594 - His sister Margaret Fiennes (married Sampson Leonard).
- 1612 - Their son Sir Henry Leonard.
- 1616 - His son Richard Leonard.
- 1630 - His son Francis Leonard.
- 1662 - His son Thomas Leonard.
- 1708 - Estate purchased by George Naylor for £38,215.
- 1730 - His nephew Francis Naylor.
- 1775 - His half-brother Robert Hare who demolished the castle in 1776.
- ? - His son Francis Hare Naylor.
- 1807 - Purchased by Thomas Read KempThomas Read KempThomas Read Kemp was an English property developer and politician. He was the son of Sussex landowner Thomas Kemp, whose farmhouse in Brighton was rented by the Prince of Wales in 1786.-Biography:...
. - 1819 - Purchased for John Gillon MP.
- 1846 - Purchased by Herbet Barrett Curteis MP.
- ? - His son Herbert Mascall Curteis.
- ? - His son Herbert Curteis.
- 1911 - Purchased by Lieutenant-Colonel Claude LowtherClaude LowtherColonel Claude William Henry Lowther was an English Conservative politician. He was the son of Francis William Lowther and Louise Beatrice de Fonblanque; Francis William was the illegitimate son of the Earl of Lonsdale and an opera singer, and received £125,000 on the Earl's death.Lowther was...
(restoration begins). - 1929 - Purchased by Reginald Lawson.
- 1932 - Purchased by Sir Paul Latham (completes restoration under Walter Godfrey).
- 1946 - Purchased by H.M. Admiralty for The Royal Observatory.
- 1965 - Transferred to the Science Research Council.
- 1989 - Purchased by James Developments, transfers to a receiver, the Guinness Mahon BankGuinness MahonGuinness Mahon was an Irish merchant bank originally based in Dublin but more recently with major operations in London.-History:The firm was founded in Dublin in 1836 by brewer Robert Rundell Guinness, cousin of the brewer Arthur Guinness, and John Ross Mahon, an estate agent. A London office...
. - 1993 - Purchased for Queen's University, Ontario (Canada) as a generous gift from Drs. Alfred and Isabel Bader.
External links
- Herstmonceux Castle official website
- Queen's University (Canada)'s International Study Centre at Herstmonceux Castle
- The Observatory Science Centre, Herstmonceux
- England's Medieval Festival
- A Personal History of the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux Castle, 1948-1990 by George Wilkins, a former member of staff