York Castle
Encyclopedia
York Castle in the city of York
, England
, is a fortified complex comprising, over the last nine centuries, a sequence of castles, prison
s, law courts
and other buildings on the south side of the River Foss
. The now-ruinous keep
of the medieval Norman
castle
is sometimes referred to as Clifford's Tower. Built originally on the orders of William I
to dominate the former Viking
city of York, the castle suffered a tumultuous early history before developing into a major fortification with extensive water defences. After a major explosion in 1684 rendered the remaining military defences uninhabitable, York Castle continued to be used as a jail and prison until 1929.
The first motte and bailey castle on the site was built in 1068 following the Norman conquest of York. After the destruction of the castle by rebels and a Viking army in 1069, York Castle was rebuilt and reinforced with extensive water defences, including a moat
and an artificial lake. York Castle formed an important royal fortification in the north of England.
In 1190, 150 local Jews were killed in a pogrom
in the castle keep. Henry III
rebuilt the castle in stone in the middle of the 13th century, creating a keep
with a unique quatrefoil
design, supported by an outer bailey wall
and a substantial gatehouse
. During the Scottish wars
between 1298 and 1338, York Castle was frequently used as the centre of royal administration across England, as well as an important military base of operations.
York Castle fell into disrepair by the 15th and 16th centuries, becoming used increasingly as a jail for both local felons and political prisoners. By the time of Elizabeth I
the castle was estimated to have lost all of its military value but was maintained as a centre of royal authority in York. The outbreak of the English Civil War
in 1642 saw York Castle being repaired and refortified, playing a part in the Royalist
defence of York in 1644 against Parliamentary
forces. York Castle continued to be garrisoned until 1684, when an explosion destroyed the interior of Clifford's Tower. 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 jail 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
.
's first northern expedition after the Norman Conquest, he built a number of castles across the north-east of England, including one at York. This first castle at York was a basic wooden motte and bailey castle built between the rivers Ouse
and Foss
on the site of the present-day York Castle. It was built in haste; contemporary accounts imply it was constructed in only eight days, although this assertion has been challenged. The motte was originally around 200 feet (71 metres) wide at the base. As it was built in an urban environment, hundreds of houses had to be destroyed to make way for the development. William Malet
, the sheriff of Yorkshire
, was placed in charge of the castle and successfully defended it against an immediate uprising by the local population.
In response to the worsening level of security, William conducted his second northern campaign in 1069. He built another castle in York, on what is now Baile Hill
on the west bank of the Ouse opposite the first castle, in an effort to improve his control over the city. This second castle was also a motte and bailey design, with the Baile Hill motte probably reached by a horizontal bridge and steps cut up the side of the motte. Later that year, a Danish Viking
fleet sailed up to York along the Humber
and the Ouse, and attacked both castles with the assistance of Cospatrick of Northumbria and a number of local rebels. The Normans, attempting to drive the rebels back, set fire to some of the city's houses. The fire grew out of control and also set fire to York Minster
and, some argue, the castles as well.Hull and others draw on documentary evidence which state that the castles were first burnt, then partially dismantled. Cooper disagrees, drawing on archaeological work that shows no evidence of fire having damaged the relevant layers of the mottes. The castles were captured and partially dismantled, and Malet was taken hostage by the Danes.
William conducted a widespread sequence of punitive operations across the north of England in the aftermath of the attacks in 1069 and 1070. This "Harrying of the North
" restored sufficient order to allow the rebuilding of the two castles, again in wood. 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". 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 especially for the purpose. More property, including two watermill
s, had to be destroyed to make way for the water defences. Over time the Baile Hill site was abandoned in favour of the first castle site, leaving only the motte, which still exists.
visited York Castle four times during his reign. The royal chambers at the time were inside the keep for safety, and Henry paid £15 for repairs to the keep. During his 1175 visit, Henry used the castle as the base for receiving the homage
of William the Lion of Scotland. 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. The mills proved to be vulnerable to the flooding of the two rivers and had to be repeatedly repaired.
In 1190, York Castle was the location of one of the worst pogrom
s in England during the medieval period. The Normans had introduced the first Jewish communities into England, where they occupied a special economic role as moneylenders, an essential but otherwise banned activity. 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. 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.
Richard I
was crowned King in 1189 and announced his intention to join the Crusades
; this inflamed anti-Jewish sentiment. Rumours began to spread that the king had ordered that the English Jews be attacked. In York, tensions broke out into violence the following year. Richard de Malbis, who owed money to the powerful Jewish merchant Aaron of Lincoln
, exploited an accidental house fire to incite a local mob to attack the home and family of a recently deceased Jewish employee of Aaron in York. Josce of York
, the leader of the Jewish community, led the local Jewish families into the royal castle, where they took refuge in the wooden keep. The mob surrounded the castle, and when the constable left the castle to discuss the situation, the Jews, fearing the entry of the mob or being handed over to the sheriff
, refused to allow him back in. The constable appealed to the sheriff
, who called out his own men and laid siege to the keep. The siege continued until 16 March when the Jews' position became untenable. Their religious leader, Rabbi Yomtob
, proposed an act of collective suicide to avoid being killed by the mob, and the castle was set on fire to prevent their bodies being mutilated after their deaths. Several Jews perished in the flames but the majority took their own lives rather than give themselves up to the mob. A few Jews did surrender, promising to convert to Christianity, but they were killed by the angry crowd. Around 150 Jews died in total in the massacre. The keep was rebuilt, again in wood, on the motte, which was raised in height by 13 feet (4 metres) at a cost of £207.
used York Castle extensively during his reign, using the keep as his personal quarters for his own security. The castle was kept in good repair during that time. During this period, the first records of the use of the castle as a jail appeared, with references to prisoners taken during John's Irish campaigns being held at York Castle. By the 13th century there was a well-established system of castle-guard
s in place, under which various lands around York were granted in return for the provision of knight
s and crossbow
men to assist in protecting the castle.
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. The keep was apparently not repaired, and a building for the king's use was built in the bailey instead. 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. 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.For the purposes of this article, the keep is referred to as Clifford's Tower throughout.
Clifford's Tower is of an unusual design. The two storey tower has a quatrefoil
plan with four circular lobes. Each lobe measures 22 feet (6.5 metres) across, with walls 9 feet 6 inches (3 metres) thick; at its widest, the tower is 79 feet (24 metres) across. A square gatehouse, 21 feet (6.5 metres) wide, protected the entrance on the south side between two of the lobes. There are defensive turrets between the other lobes. Large corbel
s and a central pier
supported the huge weight of stone and the first floor. Loopholes of a design unique to York Castle provided firing points. A chapel
was built over the entrance, measuring 15 feet by 14 feet (4.5 metres by 4.2 metres), doubling as a portcullis
chamber as at Harlech
and Chepstow castles
. 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 to 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
. 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.
The new castle needed constant investment in order to maintain its quality as a military fortification. Winter floods in 1315–16 damaged the soil at the base of the motte, requiring immediate repairs. Around 1358–60, the heavy stone keep again suffered from subsidence and the south-eastern lobe cracked from top to bottom. Royal officials recommended that the keep be completely rebuilt, but, instead, the lobe was repaired at a cost of £200.
Edward I gave wide-reaching powers to the sheriff of Yorkshire
for enforcing law and order in the city of York, and the sheriffs established their headquarters in Clifford's Tower. During the wars against the Scots
under both Edward and his son, York Castle also formed the centre of royal administration in England for almost half the years between 1298 and 1338. Many Westminster
institutions followed the king north to York, basing themselves in the castle compound. The existing castle buildings were insufficient to house all the administrative institutions; a temporary building inside the castle was built for the Court of Common Pleas
at the beginning of the period, and rebuilt on a larger scale during 1319–20. The Exchequer
took over Clifford's Tower. Other buildings around the city had to be commandeered to absorb the overflow from the castle itself. As a result of the extended use of the castle for these purposes, the law courts at York Castle began to compete with those in London, a pattern that lasted into the 1360s. The castle eventually acquired its own mint
in 1344, when Edward III decided to create a permanent mint in York Castle to produce gold
and silver
coins to serve the needs of the north of England. European coiners were brought to York to establish the facility.
Henry III extended the castle's role as a jail for holding a wide range of prisoners. The sheriff was responsible for the jail at this time, and his deputy usually took the role of a full-time jailer. Up to three hundred and ten prisoners were held in the castle at any one time. The conditions in which prisoners were held were "appalling", and led to the widespread loss of life amongst detainees. Prison escapes were relatively common, and many of them, such as the breakout by 28 prisoners in 1298, were successful. 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. The castle mills, as former Templar property, returned to royal control at the same time. Edward II
also used the castle as a jail 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.
By the end of the 14th century, the castle bailey was primarily occupied by the local county administration. It was used extensively as a jail, with prisoners being kept in the various towers around the bailey. 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. 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.
, was considered a key security asset in the north of England, but investment even in these castles diminished. Repairs to York Castle grew infrequent from 1400 onwards, and it fell into increasing disrepair. Richard III
recognised the issue and in 1483 had some of the most decrepit structures removed, but he died at the battle of Bosworth before replacement work could commence. By the reign of Henry VIII
, the antiquary John Leland reported that the castle was in considerable disrepair; nonetheless the water defences remained intact, unlike those of many other castles of the period. As a result of the deterioration, Henry had to be advised that the king's councillors no longer had any official residence in which to stay and work when they were in York. The castle mint was shut down after the death of Edward VI in 1553, and the castle mills were given to a local charitable hospital in 1464. The hospital was then closed during the Reformation, and the mills passed into private ownership once again.
The castle continued to be used as a jail, increasingly for local felons, and a location for political executions. By the 16th century it had become traditional to execute traitors by hanging them from the top of Clifford's Tower, rather than killing them at Micklegate Bar
, the usual previous location for capital punishment in York. In 1536, for example, the political leader Robert Aske
was executed at York Castle on the orders of Henry VIII, following the failure of Aske's Pilgrimage of Grace
protest against the dissolution of the monasteries
. For most of the period the sheriffs of Yorkshire remained in control of the castle, although there were some notable exceptions such as the appointment of the royal favourite Sir Robert Ryther by Edward IV in 1478.Ryther also served twice as the sheriff of Yorkshire, but was unusual in being granted control of the castle as well from 1478 onwards on a personal basis. At the end of the 16th century, however, the Clifford family (Earls of Cumberland
), became the hereditary constables of the castle, and Clifford's Tower took its name from the family at around this time.
The deterioration of the castle continued into the reign of Elizabeth I, who was advised that it no longer had any military utility. 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. Despite numerous attempts by local city and crown officials to halt this, Redhead continued to cause considerable damage before being forced to stop. Proposals were made to pull down Clifford's Tower altogether in 1596, but were turned down because of the strength of local feeling.
broke out between the rival factions of the Royalists
and Parliament. Forces loyal to Charles I, under the command of Henry Clifford
, garrisoned York Castle and the surrounding city in 1643. York effectively became the "northern capital" for the Royalist cause. Clifford repaired the castle and strengthened the walls to permit them to support cannon
, placing his arms alongside those of the king above the entrance. Clifford's Tower's gatehouse was substantially remodelled, losing its original medieval appearance. Baile Hill, on the other side of the river, became a gun emplacement. The castle mint was reopened to supply the king's forces with coins.
The war turned against the Royalist factions, and on 23 April 1644 Parliamentary forces commenced the siege of York
. A Scottish army under Alexander Leslie
came from the south, while a Parliamentary force under Ferdinando Fairfax
came from the east. Six weeks later, Edward Montagu
brought a third contingent to York, bringing the number of forces besieging the city to over 30,000 men. William Cavendish commanded the city during the siege, while Colonel Sir Francis Cobb was appointed the governor of the castle. Despite bombardment, attempts to undermine the walls and attacks on the gates, the city held out through May and June. Prince Rupert, sent to relieve York, approached with reinforcements, and through clever manoeuvring was able to force the besiegers to withdraw, lifting the siege on 1 July. The next day, Parliamentary forces defeated Rupert at the Battle of Marston Moor
, six miles west of York, making the surrender of York and the castle inevitable. On 14 July the city and castle surrendered to the Parliamentary forces, who permitted the Royalists to march out with full honours.
Parliament then appointed Thomas Dickenson, the local mayor, as the governor of Clifford's Tower. Control of the castle rested with the post of mayor until the Restoration. 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. Oliver Cromwell
visited Clifford's Tower in 1650, and received a salute from the guns stationed on top of it. The cost of the garrison was levied on the city of York.
After the Restoration of Charles II
, the pre-war owners of the property laid claim to Clifford's Tower, eventually being granted ownership. A garrison continued to be stationed there, however, which prevented the owners from actually occupying or using the property. Repairs were made to the tower, and it became a magazine
for storing gunpowder
and shot
. Attempts were made to restore the condition of the moat, which had become badly silted. Some political prisoners continued to be held at the castle during the Restoration period, including George Fox
, the founder of the Society of Friends.
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. Sir Christopher Musgrave produced a report for the Crown in 1682; he argued that it would cost at least £30,000 to turn the castle into a modern fortification, producing a proposal for the six bastion
s that such a star fort
would require. This work was never carried out. Meanwhile, the garrison and the castle had become extremely unpopular with the people of York, who disliked both the cost and the imposition of external authority.
On St George's Day
in 1684 at around 10 pm, an explosion in the magazine destroyed the interior of Clifford's Tower entirely. The official explanation was that the celebratory salute from the guns on the roof had set fire to parts of the woodwork, which later ignited the magazine. Most historians, however, believe the explosion was not accidental. At the time, it was common in the city to toast the potential demolition of the "Minced Pie", as the castle was known to locals; suspiciously, some members of the garrison had moved their personal belongings to safety just before the explosion, and no-one from the garrison was injured by the event. The heat of the fire turned the limestone of the tower to its current, slightly pink, colour. The now-ruined tower was returned fully to private ownership, eventually forming part of the lands of the neighbouring house and gardens belonging to Samuel Waud.
to be cannibalised for building stone. Three new buildings were erected to the south of Clifford's Tower. A new county jail, built between 1701 and 1705 by William Wakefield, was placed on the south side, closely resembling the fashionable work of John Vanbrugh
. 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. The Female Prison and county jail were later combined to become the Debtors' Prison. 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". 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.
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. The Debtors' Prison as a whole was an "honour to the county" of York, with "airy and healthy" rooms, but the felon
s' wing of the prison attracted some criticism. 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. Indeed, conditions were so bad in the felons' wing that nine prisoners suffocated in one night during 1739.
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. 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.
The suitability of the prison was finally brought to a head at the 1821 assizes
in York, when an official complaint was made and an investigation begun. The decision was taken to purchase Clifford's Tower and the Waud house, with the aim of demolishing them both to make room for a new, more modern prison. Sydney Smith
, the famous wit, writer and vicar
of Foston-le-Clay
, successfully led a campaign to save Clifford's Tower, emphasising the historic importance of the location for the surrounding city. An alternative proposal, put forward by architect Robert Wallace, would have seen the conversion of Clifford's Tower back into a habitable building to form the hub of a radial
prison design, but this was turned down.
In 1825, Clifford's Tower and the Waud house were purchased by the county of Yorkshire
at the cost of £8,800 (£665,000 at 2009 prices). 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 feet (11 metres) high and a radial prison block, protected by a long, high stone wall. The prison, considered to be the strongest such building in England, was built entirely of stone in order to be both secure and fireproof. Dark grey gritstone
was used in the construction to produce a forbidding appearance, although the prison itself was considered healthy and well ventilated.
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 in order to allow more space for the new prison building. The backyard of the Female Prison, concealed from public view by the new wall, was used for hangings from 1868 onwards. The Prison Act, 1877
, reformed the English prison system, and York Castle gaol was passed into the control of central government the following year. It was used as the county prison until 1900, when the remaining prisoners were transferred to Wakefield Prison
, and from then onwards the facility was used as a military prison
instead.
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. In 1856, the castle mills were finally demolished as part of a further sequence of improvements to this part of the river. The King's Pool that formed part of the castle's water defences was drained. With the construction of several new bridges near the castle, the site became "surrounded by roads instead of moats".
In 1890 the Prison Commissioners agreed to declare Clifford's Tower a national monument and to conserve it as a historic location. In 1902 Clifford's Tower was given to Yorkshire County Council
, together with a grant of £3,000 (£242,000 at 2009 prices) 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. Sir Basil Mott
, a leading Victorian engineer, installed concrete
underpinnings to stabilise the structure beneath the gatehouse. 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.
York Prison finally closed in 1929, and the Tudor Gothic Victorian prison buildings were demolished in 1935. 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 "Eyes of the Ridings" is now known as Castle Green, or the "Eye of York". 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. Fragments of the bailey wall, parts of the south gatehouse and one of the corner towers also survive.
The castle is classed as a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled monument. The site, managed by English Heritage
, is open to the public. Until the 1970s, the pogrom
of 1190 was often underplayed by official histories of the castle; early official guides to the castle made no reference to it. In 1978, however, the first memorial tablet to the victims was laid at the base of Clifford's Tower, and in 1990 the 800th anniversary of the killings was commemorated at the tower. Recently, commercial interests have sought to introduce retail development to the area surrounding it. Citizens, visitors, academics, environmentalists, local businesspeople and Jewish groups have opposed the development with some success, winning a lengthy and bitter public inquiry
in 2003.
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, is a fortified complex comprising, over the last nine centuries, a sequence of castles, prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s, law courts
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
and other buildings on the south side of the River Foss
River Foss
The River Foss is an improved river in North Yorkshire, England, and a tributary of the River Ouse. It rises in the Foss Crooks woods near Oulston reservoir close to the village of Yearsley and runs south through the Vale of York to the Ouse...
. The now-ruinous keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
of the medieval Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
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...
is sometimes referred to as Clifford's Tower. Built originally on the orders of William I
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
to dominate the former Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
city of York, the castle suffered a tumultuous early history before developing into a major fortification with extensive water defences. After a major explosion in 1684 rendered the remaining military defences uninhabitable, York Castle continued to be used as a jail and prison until 1929.
The first motte and bailey castle on the site was built in 1068 following the Norman conquest of York. After the destruction of the castle by rebels and a Viking army in 1069, York Castle was rebuilt and reinforced with extensive water defences, including a moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
and an artificial lake. York Castle formed an important royal fortification in the north of England.
In 1190, 150 local Jews were killed in a pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
in the castle keep. Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
rebuilt the castle in stone in the middle of the 13th century, creating a keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
with a unique quatrefoil
Quatrefoil
The word quatrefoil etymologically means "four leaves", and applies to general four-lobed shapes in various contexts.-In heraldry:In heraldic terminology, a quatrefoil is a representation of a flower with four petals, or a leaf with four leaflets . It is sometimes shown "slipped", i.e. with an...
design, supported by an outer bailey wall
Ward (fortification)
In fortifications, a bailey or ward refers to a courtyard enclosed by a curtain wall. In particular, an early type of European castle was known as a Motte-and-bailey. Castles can have more than one ward. Their layout depends both on the local topography and the level of fortification technology...
and a substantial gatehouse
Gatehouse
A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...
. During the Scottish wars
Wars of Scottish Independence
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....
between 1298 and 1338, York Castle was frequently used as the centre of royal administration across England, as well as an important military base of operations.
York Castle fell into disrepair by the 15th and 16th centuries, becoming used increasingly as a jail for both local felons and political prisoners. By the time of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
the castle was estimated to have lost all of its military value but was maintained as a centre of royal authority in York. The outbreak of the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
in 1642 saw York Castle being repaired and refortified, playing a part in the Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
defence of York in 1644 against Parliamentary
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
forces. York Castle continued to be garrisoned until 1684, when an explosion destroyed the interior of Clifford's Tower. The castle bailey
Motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...
was redeveloped in a neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
style in the 18th century as a centre for county administration
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
in Yorkshire, and was used as a jail and debtors' prison. Prison reform
Prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system.-History:Prisons have only been used as the primary punishment for criminal acts in the last couple of centuries...
in the 19th century led to the creation of a new prison built in a Tudor Gothic
Jacobethan
Jacobethan is the style designation coined in 1933 by John Betjeman to describe the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance , with elements of Elizabethan and...
style on the castle site in 1825; used first as a county and then as a military prison
Military prison
A military prison is a prison operated by the military. Military prisons are used variously to house prisoners of war, enemy combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by the military or national authorities, and members of the military found guilty of a serious crime...
, 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
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
and open to the public. The other remaining buildings serve as the York Castle Museum
York Castle Museum
York Castle Museum is a museum located in York, North Yorkshire, England, on the site of York Castle, originally built by William the Conqueror in 1068...
and the Crown Court
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
.
11th century
York was a Viking capital in the 10th century, and continued as an important northern city in the 11th century. In 1068, on William the ConquerorWilliam I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
's first northern expedition after the Norman Conquest, he built a number of castles across the north-east of England, including one at York. This first castle at York was a basic wooden motte and bailey castle built between the rivers Ouse
River Ouse, Yorkshire
The River Ouse is a river in North Yorkshire, England. The river is formed from the River Ure at Cuddy Shaw Reach near Linton-on-Ouse, about 6 miles downstream of the confluence of the River Swale with the River Ure...
and Foss
River Foss
The River Foss is an improved river in North Yorkshire, England, and a tributary of the River Ouse. It rises in the Foss Crooks woods near Oulston reservoir close to the village of Yearsley and runs south through the Vale of York to the Ouse...
on the site of the present-day York Castle. It was built in haste; contemporary accounts imply it was constructed in only eight days, although this assertion has been challenged. The motte was originally around 200 feet (71 metres) wide at the base. As it was built in an urban environment, hundreds of houses had to be destroyed to make way for the development. William Malet
William Malet (Norman conquest)
William Malet is one of the very few proven Companions of William the Conqueror known to have been present at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, as recorded by the contemporary chronicler William of Poitiers...
, the sheriff of Yorkshire
High Sheriff of Yorkshire
The High Sheriff of Yorkshire was an ancient High Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. A list of the sheriffs from the Norman conquest onwards can be found below...
, was placed in charge of the castle and successfully defended it against an immediate uprising by the local population.
In response to the worsening level of security, William conducted his second northern campaign in 1069. He built another castle in York, on what is now Baile Hill
Baile Hill, York
Baile Hill is a man-made earth mound in York, United Kingdom. It is the only remaining feature of what was known as the Old Baile.The origins of Baile Hill date back to 1068. Having seized York in that year, William the Conqueror built a castle on the south side of the city close to the river Ouse...
on the west bank of the Ouse opposite the first castle, in an effort to improve his control over the city. This second castle was also a motte and bailey design, with the Baile Hill motte probably reached by a horizontal bridge and steps cut up the side of the motte. Later that year, a Danish Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
fleet sailed up to York along the Humber
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
and the Ouse, and attacked both castles with the assistance of Cospatrick of Northumbria and a number of local rebels. The Normans, attempting to drive the rebels back, set fire to some of the city's houses. The fire grew out of control and also set fire to York Minster
York Minster
York Minster is a Gothic cathedral in York, England and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the cathedral for the Diocese of York; it is run by...
and, some argue, the castles as well.Hull and others draw on documentary evidence which state that the castles were first burnt, then partially dismantled. Cooper disagrees, drawing on archaeological work that shows no evidence of fire having damaged the relevant layers of the mottes. The castles were captured and partially dismantled, and Malet was taken hostage by the Danes.
William conducted a widespread sequence of punitive operations across the north of England in the aftermath of the attacks in 1069 and 1070. This "Harrying of the North
Harrying of the North
The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate Northern England, and is part of the Norman conquest of England...
" restored sufficient order to allow the rebuilding of the two castles, again in wood. 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". By the time the Domesday Book
Domesday 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...
was written in 1086, York Castle was also surrounded by a water-filled moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
and a large artificial lake called the King's Pool, fed from the river Foss by a dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
built especially for the purpose. More property, including two watermill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
s, had to be destroyed to make way for the water defences. Over time the Baile Hill site was abandoned in favour of the first castle site, leaving only the motte, which still exists.
12th century
Henry IIHenry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
visited York Castle four times during his reign. The royal chambers at the time were inside the keep for safety, and Henry paid £15 for repairs to the keep. During his 1175 visit, Henry used the castle as the base for receiving the homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
of William the Lion of Scotland. Castle mills
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
were built close by to support the garrison, and the military order of the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
was granted ownership of the mills in the mid-12th century. The mills proved to be vulnerable to the flooding of the two rivers and had to be repeatedly repaired.
In 1190, York Castle was the location of one of the worst pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s in England during the medieval period. The Normans had introduced the first Jewish communities into England, where they occupied a special economic role as moneylenders, an essential but otherwise banned activity. 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. Royal protection was usually granted as the Norman and Angevin
House of Plantagenet
The House of Plantagenet , a branch of the Angevins, was a royal house founded by Geoffrey V of Anjou, father of Henry II of England. Plantagenet kings first ruled the Kingdom of England in the 12th century. Their paternal ancestors originated in the French province of Gâtinais and gained the...
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.
Richard I
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
was crowned King in 1189 and announced his intention to join the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
; this inflamed anti-Jewish sentiment. Rumours began to spread that the king had ordered that the English Jews be attacked. In York, tensions broke out into violence the following year. Richard de Malbis, who owed money to the powerful Jewish merchant Aaron of Lincoln
Aaron of Lincoln
Aaron of Lincoln was an English Jewish financier . He is believed to have been the wealthiest man in 12th century Britain; it is estimated that his wealth exceeded that of the King. He is first mentioned in the English pipe-roll of 1166 as creditor of King Henry II for sums amounting to £616 12s...
, exploited an accidental house fire to incite a local mob to attack the home and family of a recently deceased Jewish employee of Aaron in York. Josce of York
Josce of York
Josce of York was the leader of the Jewish community in York, England, and the leading figure in the York massacre of 1190. He committed suicide along with nearly the entire Jewish community, rather than face death or conversion at the hands of an angry mob.Josce is mentioned in the earliest...
, the leader of the Jewish community, led the local Jewish families into the royal castle, where they took refuge in the wooden keep. The mob surrounded the castle, and when the constable left the castle to discuss the situation, the Jews, fearing the entry of the mob or being handed over to the sheriff
High Sheriff of Yorkshire
The High Sheriff of Yorkshire was an ancient High Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. A list of the sheriffs from the Norman conquest onwards can be found below...
, refused to allow him back in. The constable appealed to the sheriff
High Sheriff
A high sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.In England and Wales, the office is unpaid and partly ceremonial, appointed by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall, the High Sheriff is appointed by the Duke of...
, who called out his own men and laid siege to the keep. The siege continued until 16 March when the Jews' position became untenable. Their religious leader, Rabbi Yomtob
Yom Tov of Joigny
Yom Tov of Joigny, also denoted of York was a French-born rabbi and liturgical poet of the medieval era who lived in York, and died in the massacre of the Jews of York in 1190...
, proposed an act of collective suicide to avoid being killed by the mob, and the castle was set on fire to prevent their bodies being mutilated after their deaths. Several Jews perished in the flames but the majority took their own lives rather than give themselves up to the mob. A few Jews did surrender, promising to convert to Christianity, but they were killed by the angry crowd. Around 150 Jews died in total in the massacre. The keep was rebuilt, again in wood, on the motte, which was raised in height by 13 feet (4 metres) at a cost of £207.
13th and 14th centuries
King JohnJohn of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
used York Castle extensively during his reign, using the keep as his personal quarters for his own security. The castle was kept in good repair during that time. During this period, the first records of the use of the castle as a jail appeared, with references to prisoners taken during John's Irish campaigns being held at York Castle. By the 13th century there was a well-established system of castle-guard
Castle-guard
Castle-guard was an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain manors, knight's fees or baronies. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their sub-enfeoffedknights...
s in place, under which various lands around York were granted in return for the provision of knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
s and crossbow
Crossbow
A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts or quarrels. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word ballista, a torsion engine resembling a crossbow in appearance.Historically, crossbows played a...
men to assist in protecting the castle.
Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
also made extensive use of the castle, but during his visit at Christmas 1228 a gale destroyed the wooden keep on the motte. The keep was apparently not repaired, and a building for the king's use was built in the bailey instead. In 1244, when the Scots threatened to invade England, King Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
visited the castle and ordered it to be rebuilt in white limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
, at a cost of about ₤2,600. 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
Watergate (disambiguation)
A watergate is a gate opening onto water, or only or mainly accessible by water. However the word can refer to:...
, a small gateway into the city, a chapel, and a new stone keep, first known as the King's, later Clifford's, Tower.For the purposes of this article, the keep is referred to as Clifford's Tower throughout.
Clifford's Tower is of an unusual design. The two storey tower has a quatrefoil
Quatrefoil
The word quatrefoil etymologically means "four leaves", and applies to general four-lobed shapes in various contexts.-In heraldry:In heraldic terminology, a quatrefoil is a representation of a flower with four petals, or a leaf with four leaflets . It is sometimes shown "slipped", i.e. with an...
plan with four circular lobes. Each lobe measures 22 feet (6.5 metres) across, with walls 9 feet 6 inches (3 metres) thick; at its widest, the tower is 79 feet (24 metres) across. A square gatehouse, 21 feet (6.5 metres) wide, protected the entrance on the south side between two of the lobes. There are defensive turrets between the other lobes. Large corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
s and a central pier
Pier (architecture)
In architecture, a pier is an upright support for a superstructure, such as an arch or bridge. Sections of wall between openings function as piers. The simplest cross section of the pier is square, or rectangular, although other shapes are also common, such as the richly articulated piers of Donato...
supported the huge weight of stone and the first floor. Loopholes of a design unique to York Castle provided firing points. A chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
was built over the entrance, measuring 15 feet by 14 feet (4.5 metres by 4.2 metres), doubling as a portcullis
Portcullis
A portcullis is a latticed grille made of wood, metal, fibreglass or a combination of the three. Portcullises fortified the entrances to many medieval castles, acting as a last line of defence during time of attack or siege...
chamber as at Harlech
Harlech Castle
Harlech Castle, located in Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales, is a concentric castle, constructed atop a cliff close to the Irish Sea. Architecturally, it is particularly notable for its massive gatehouse....
and Chepstow castles
Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle , located in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in Wales, on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye, is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain...
. 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 to England, the design of the tower closely resembles that at Étampes
Château d'Étampes
The Château d'Étampes was a castle in the town of Étampes in the départment of Essonne, France. The principal remains are of the 12th-century keep, the Tour de Guinette.-History:...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and may have influenced the design of the future keep of Pontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle is a castle in the town of Pontefract, in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was the site of the demise of Richard II of England, and later the place of a series of famous sieges during the English Civil War-History:...
. 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.
The new castle needed constant investment in order to maintain its quality as a military fortification. Winter floods in 1315–16 damaged the soil at the base of the motte, requiring immediate repairs. Around 1358–60, the heavy stone keep again suffered from subsidence and the south-eastern lobe cracked from top to bottom. Royal officials recommended that the keep be completely rebuilt, but, instead, the lobe was repaired at a cost of £200.
Edward I gave wide-reaching powers to the sheriff of Yorkshire
High Sheriff of Yorkshire
The High Sheriff of Yorkshire was an ancient High Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. A list of the sheriffs from the Norman conquest onwards can be found below...
for enforcing law and order in the city of York, and the sheriffs established their headquarters in Clifford's Tower. During the wars against the Scots
Wars of Scottish Independence
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....
under both Edward and his son, York Castle also formed the centre of royal administration in England for almost half the years between 1298 and 1338. Many Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
institutions followed the king north to York, basing themselves in the castle compound. The existing castle buildings were insufficient to house all the administrative institutions; a temporary building inside the castle was built for the Court of Common Pleas
Court of Common Pleas (England)
The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas"; actions between subject and subject, which did not concern the king. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas, the Common...
at the beginning of the period, and rebuilt on a larger scale during 1319–20. The Exchequer
Exchequer
The Exchequer is a government department of the United Kingdom responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. The historical Exchequer developed judicial roles...
took over Clifford's Tower. Other buildings around the city had to be commandeered to absorb the overflow from the castle itself. As a result of the extended use of the castle for these purposes, the law courts at York Castle began to compete with those in London, a pattern that lasted into the 1360s. The castle eventually acquired its own mint
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
in 1344, when Edward III decided to create a permanent mint in York Castle to produce gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
coins to serve the needs of the north of England. European coiners were brought to York to establish the facility.
Henry III extended the castle's role as a jail for holding a wide range of prisoners. The sheriff was responsible for the jail at this time, and his deputy usually took the role of a full-time jailer. Up to three hundred and ten prisoners were held in the castle at any one time. The conditions in which prisoners were held were "appalling", and led to the widespread loss of life amongst detainees. Prison escapes were relatively common, and many of them, such as the breakout by 28 prisoners in 1298, were successful. When the Military Order of the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
was dissolved in England in 1307, York Castle was used to hold many of the arrested knights. The castle mills, as former Templar property, returned to royal control at the same time. Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
also used the castle as a jail in his campaign against his rebellious barons in 1322, and after the battle of Boroughbridge
Battle of Boroughbridge
The Battle of Boroughbridge was a battle fought on 16 March 1322 between a group of rebellious barons and King Edward II of England, near Boroughbridge, northwest of York. The culmination of a long period of antagonism between the king and Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, his most powerful subject, it...
many of the defeated rebel leaders were executed at York Castle.
By the end of the 14th century, the castle bailey was primarily occupied by the local county administration. It was used extensively as a jail, with prisoners being kept in the various towers around the bailey. 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. Increasingly, royalty preferred to stay at the Franciscan friary
York Franciscan Friary
York Franciscan Friary was a friary in York, North Yorkshire, England. It was located between York Castle and the River Ouse. In 1538, it fell victim to Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. All that now remains of it is a stone wall on King's Staith, adjacent to the Davy Tower on the York...
, between the Castle and King's Staith on the Ouse, while their staff resided at St Mary's Abbey
St Mary's Abbey, York
The Abbey of St Mary in York, once the richest abbey in the north of England, is a ruined Benedictine abbey that lies in what are now the Yorkshire Museum Gardens, on a steeply sloping site to the west of York Minster. The original abbey on the site was founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olave...
and St Andrew's Priory in the Fishergate
Fishergate
Fishergate is one of the centre wards of York, England. It is situated directly south of the city walls, on the east bank of the River Ouse, north of Fulford. On its north west corner is the confluence point of the Foss and the Ouse. This area is protected from floods by the Foss Barrier...
area.
15th and 16th centuries
In the 15th century, York Castle, along with Nottingham CastleNottingham Castle
Nottingham Castle is a castle in Nottingham, England. It is located in a commanding position on a natural promontory known as "'Castle Rock'", with cliffs high to the south and west. In the Middle Ages it was a major royal fortress and occasional royal residence...
, was considered a key security asset in the north of England, but investment even in these castles diminished. Repairs to York Castle grew infrequent from 1400 onwards, and it fell into increasing disrepair. Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
recognised the issue and in 1483 had some of the most decrepit structures removed, but he died at the battle of Bosworth before replacement work could commence. By the reign of Henry VIII
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...
, the antiquary John Leland reported that the castle was in considerable disrepair; nonetheless the water defences remained intact, unlike those of many other castles of the period. As a result of the deterioration, Henry had to be advised that the king's councillors no longer had any official residence in which to stay and work when they were in York. The castle mint was shut down after the death of Edward VI in 1553, and the castle mills were given to a local charitable hospital in 1464. The hospital was then closed during the Reformation, and the mills passed into private ownership once again.
The castle continued to be used as a jail, increasingly for local felons, and a location for political executions. By the 16th century it had become traditional to execute traitors by hanging them from the top of Clifford's Tower, rather than killing them at Micklegate Bar
York city walls
The English city of York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England...
, the usual previous location for capital punishment in York. In 1536, for example, the political leader Robert Aske
Robert Aske (political leader)
Robert Aske was an English lawyer who became the leader of rebellion in York. He led the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 and was executed by Henry VIII for treason in 1537.-Biography:...
was executed at York Castle on the orders of Henry VIII, following the failure of Aske's Pilgrimage of Grace
Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in York, Yorkshire during 1536, in protest against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, as well as other specific political, social and economic grievances. It was done in action against Thomas Cromwell...
protest against the dissolution of the monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
. For most of the period the sheriffs of Yorkshire remained in control of the castle, although there were some notable exceptions such as the appointment of the royal favourite Sir Robert Ryther by Edward IV in 1478.Ryther also served twice as the sheriff of Yorkshire, but was unusual in being granted control of the castle as well from 1478 onwards on a personal basis. At the end of the 16th century, however, the Clifford family (Earls of Cumberland
Earl of Cumberland
The title of Earl of Cumberland was created in the Peerage of England in 1525 for the 11th Baron de Clifford. It became extinct in 1643. See also Duke of Cumberland.The subsidiary title of the first three earls was Baron de Clifford...
), became the hereditary constables of the castle, and Clifford's Tower took its name from the family at around this time.
The deterioration of the castle continued into the reign of Elizabeth I, who was advised that it no longer had any military utility. 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. Despite numerous attempts by local city and crown officials to halt this, Redhead continued to cause considerable damage before being forced to stop. Proposals were made to pull down Clifford's Tower altogether in 1596, but were turned down because of the strength of local feeling.
17th century
Maintaining the castle was becoming increasingly expensive, and in 1614 King James sold the lease on Clifford's Tower and the surrounding land to John Babington and Edmund Duffield, a pair of property speculators. In turn, Babington and Duffield sold Clifford's Tower to a York merchant family. In 1642, however, the English Civil WarEnglish Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
broke out between the rival factions of the Royalists
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
and Parliament. Forces loyal to Charles I, under the command of Henry Clifford
Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland
Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland was a member of the Clifford family which held the seat of Skipton from 1310 to 1676. He was the son of Francis Clifford, 4th Earl of Cumberland and Grisold Hughes. He married Frances Cecil , daughter of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Elizabeth Brooke...
, garrisoned York Castle and the surrounding city in 1643. York effectively became the "northern capital" for the Royalist cause. Clifford repaired the castle and strengthened the walls to permit them to support cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
, placing his arms alongside those of the king above the entrance. Clifford's Tower's gatehouse was substantially remodelled, losing its original medieval appearance. Baile Hill, on the other side of the river, became a gun emplacement. The castle mint was reopened to supply the king's forces with coins.
The war turned against the Royalist factions, and on 23 April 1644 Parliamentary forces commenced the siege of York
Siege of York
The Siege of York in 1644 was a prolonged contest for York during the English Civil War, between the Scottish Covenanter Army and the Parliamentarian Armies of the Northern Association and Eastern Association on the one hand, and the Royalist Army under the Marquess of Newcastle on the other...
. A Scottish army under Alexander Leslie
Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven
Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven was a Scottish soldier in Dutch, Swedish and Scottish service. Born illegitimate and raised as a foster child, he subsequently advanced to the rank of a Dutch captain, a Swedish Field Marshal, and in Scotland became lord general in command of the Covenanters,...
came from the south, while a Parliamentary force under Ferdinando Fairfax
Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron , English parliamentary general.-Early life:He was born in Yorkshire the eldest son of Thomas Fairfax, whom Charles I in 1627 created Lord Fairfax of Cameron in the Peerage of Scotland and received a military education in the Netherlands. Two of his...
came from the east. Six weeks later, Edward Montagu
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester KG, KB, FRS was an important commander of Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War, and for a time Oliver Cromwell's superior.-Life:...
brought a third contingent to York, bringing the number of forces besieging the city to over 30,000 men. William Cavendish commanded the city during the siege, while Colonel Sir Francis Cobb was appointed the governor of the castle. Despite bombardment, attempts to undermine the walls and attacks on the gates, the city held out through May and June. Prince Rupert, sent to relieve York, approached with reinforcements, and through clever manoeuvring was able to force the besiegers to withdraw, lifting the siege on 1 July. The next day, Parliamentary forces defeated Rupert at the Battle of Marston Moor
Battle of Marston Moor
The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven and the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince...
, six miles west of York, making the surrender of York and the castle inevitable. On 14 July the city and castle surrendered to the Parliamentary forces, who permitted the Royalists to march out with full honours.
Parliament then appointed Thomas Dickenson, the local mayor, as the governor of Clifford's Tower. Control of the castle rested with the post of mayor until the Restoration. 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. Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
visited Clifford's Tower in 1650, and received a salute from the guns stationed on top of it. The cost of the garrison was levied on the city of York.
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, the pre-war owners of the property laid claim to Clifford's Tower, eventually being granted ownership. A garrison continued to be stationed there, however, which prevented the owners from actually occupying or using the property. Repairs were made to the tower, and it became a magazine
Magazine (artillery)
Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition is stored. It is taken from the Arabic word "makahazin" meaning "warehouse".-Ammunition storage areas:...
for storing gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
and shot
Round shot
Round shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
. Attempts were made to restore the condition of the moat, which had become badly silted. Some political prisoners continued to be held at the castle during the Restoration period, including George Fox
George Fox
George Fox was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.The son of a Leicestershire weaver, Fox lived in a time of great social upheaval and war...
, the founder of the Society of Friends.
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. Sir Christopher Musgrave produced a report for the Crown in 1682; he argued that it would cost at least £30,000 to turn the castle into a modern fortification, producing a proposal for the six bastion
Bastion
A bastion, or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall , facilitating active defence against assaulting troops...
s that such a star fort
Star fort
A star fort, or trace italienne, is a fortification in the style that evolved during the age of gunpowder, when cannon came to dominate the battlefield, and was first seen in the mid-15th century in Italy....
would require. This work was never carried out. Meanwhile, the garrison and the castle had become extremely unpopular with the people of York, who disliked both the cost and the imposition of external authority.
On St George's Day
St George's Day
St George's Day is celebrated by the several nations, kingdoms, countries, and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint. St George's Day is celebrated on 23 April, the traditionally accepted date of Saint George's death in AD 303...
in 1684 at around 10 pm, an explosion in the magazine destroyed the interior of Clifford's Tower entirely. The official explanation was that the celebratory salute from the guns on the roof had set fire to parts of the woodwork, which later ignited the magazine. Most historians, however, believe the explosion was not accidental. At the time, it was common in the city to toast the potential demolition of the "Minced Pie", as the castle was known to locals; suspiciously, some members of the garrison had moved their personal belongings to safety just before the explosion, and no-one from the garrison was injured by the event. The heat of the fire turned the limestone of the tower to its current, slightly pink, colour. The now-ruined tower was returned fully to private ownership, eventually forming part of the lands of the neighbouring house and gardens belonging to Samuel Waud.
18th century
By 1701, the conditions of the county jail had become scandalous and the decision was taken to redevelop the area occupied by the old bailey. A local tax helped to fund the development, and the king agreed for the ruins of St Mary's AbbeySt Mary's Abbey, York
The Abbey of St Mary in York, once the richest abbey in the north of England, is a ruined Benedictine abbey that lies in what are now the Yorkshire Museum Gardens, on a steeply sloping site to the west of York Minster. The original abbey on the site was founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olave...
to be cannibalised for building stone. Three new buildings were erected to the south of Clifford's Tower. A new county jail, built between 1701 and 1705 by William Wakefield, was placed on the south side, closely resembling the fashionable work of John Vanbrugh
John Vanbrugh
Sir John Vanbrugh – 26 March 1726) was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife , which have become enduring stage favourites...
. 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. The Female Prison and county jail were later combined to become the Debtors' Prison. Both of Carr's buildings were designed in a distinctive neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
style; the Assize Court building was particularly praised at the time as being "a superb building of the Ionic order". 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
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for York.
Visits by the prison reformer John Howard
John Howard (prison reformer)
John Howard was a philanthropist and the first English prison reformer.-Birth and early life:Howard was born in Lower Clapton, London. His father, also John, was a wealthy upholsterer at Smithfield Market in the city...
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. The Debtors' Prison as a whole was an "honour to the county" of York, with "airy and healthy" rooms, but the felon
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
s' wing of the prison attracted some criticism. 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. Indeed, conditions were so bad in the felons' wing that nine prisoners suffocated in one night during 1739.
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. As a result, in 1778 they were rebuilt with a new steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
to drive the machinery; this steam engine caused considerable discomfort to the prisoners affected by the smoke and noise.
19th and 20th centuries
Criticism of the castle prison increased at the end of the 18th century. The facilities were felt to be inadequate and the crowds of spectators who gathered outside the prison to see inmates being taken into York for execution unseemly. Attempts were made to improve the way executions were carried out from 1803 onwards: the former castle courtyard, the Eye of the Ridings, was used for this purpose instead, although crowds still gathered outside the bailey to watch the slow deaths of the prisoners. By 1813 the execution process had been sped up by the introduction of the "short drop" method of hanging, allowing the unusually rapid execution of fourteen Luddite agitators at the castle in 1814. Overcrowding in the jail was now also a problem, with up to 114 prisoners being held at any one time; occasionally, around forty prisoners awaiting trial had to be kept in the jail yard for lack of space elsewhere.The suitability of the prison was finally brought to a head at the 1821 assizes
Assizes (England and Wales)
The Courts of Assize, or Assizes, were periodic criminal courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the Quarter Sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court...
in York, when an official complaint was made and an investigation begun. The decision was taken to purchase Clifford's Tower and the Waud house, with the aim of demolishing them both to make room for a new, more modern prison. Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith was an English writer and Anglican cleric. -Life:Born in Woodford, Essex, England, Smith was the son of merchant Robert Smith and Maria Olier , who suffered from epilepsy...
, the famous wit, writer and vicar
Vicar
In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...
of Foston-le-Clay
Foston, North Yorkshire
Foston is a small village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is about north east of York.Sydney Smith was rector of the parish from 1806 until 1829 ....
, successfully led a campaign to save Clifford's Tower, emphasising the historic importance of the location for the surrounding city. An alternative proposal, put forward by architect Robert Wallace, would have seen the conversion of Clifford's Tower back into a habitable building to form the hub of a radial
Radius
In classical geometry, a radius of a circle or sphere is any line segment from its center to its perimeter. By extension, the radius of a circle or sphere is the length of any such segment, which is half the diameter. If the object does not have an obvious center, the term may refer to its...
prison design, but this was turned down.
In 1825, Clifford's Tower and the Waud house were purchased by the county of Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
at the cost of £8,800 (£665,000 at 2009 prices). The new prison buildings, designed by architects P. F. Robinson and G. T. Andrews
George Townsend Andrews
George Townsend Andrews was an English architect born in Exeter. He is noted for his buildings designed for George Hudson's railways, especially the York and North Midland Railway...
, were constructed in a Tudor Gothic
Jacobethan
Jacobethan is the style designation coined in 1933 by John Betjeman to describe the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance , with elements of Elizabethan and...
style, including a gatehouse 35 feet (11 metres) high and a radial prison block, protected by a long, high stone wall. The prison, considered to be the strongest such building in England, was built entirely of stone in order to be both secure and fireproof. Dark grey gritstone
Gritstone
Gritstone or Grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for paper and for grindstones to sharpen blades. "Grit" is...
was used in the construction to produce a forbidding appearance, although the prison itself was considered healthy and well ventilated.
Clifford's Tower played no part in the formal design of the prison, although the talus
Talus (fortification)
The talus is an architectural feature of some late medieval castles, especially prevalent in crusader constructions. It consists of a sloping face at the base of a fortified wall. The slope acts as an effective defensive measure in two ways. First, conventional siege equipment is less effective...
, or sloping edge of the motte, was cut away and replaced by a retaining wall in order to allow more space for the new prison building. The backyard of the Female Prison, concealed from public view by the new wall, was used for hangings from 1868 onwards. The Prison Act, 1877
Prison Act 1877
The Prison Act of 1877 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that aimed to alter the way in which British prisons were operated.-Detail:...
, reformed the English prison system, and York Castle gaol was passed into the control of central government the following year. It was used as the county prison until 1900, when the remaining prisoners were transferred to Wakefield Prison
Wakefield (HM Prison)
HM Prison Wakefield is a Category A men's prison, located in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is the largest maximum security prison in the United Kingdom...
, and from then onwards the facility was used as a military prison
Military prison
A military prison is a prison operated by the military. Military prisons are used variously to house prisoners of war, enemy combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by the military or national authorities, and members of the military found guilty of a serious crime...
instead.
By the early 19th century, dredging and other improvements to the river Foss had made it possible to import flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
into York by river, reducing the economic significance of the castle mills. In 1856, the castle mills were finally demolished as part of a further sequence of improvements to this part of the river. The King's Pool that formed part of the castle's water defences was drained. With the construction of several new bridges near the castle, the site became "surrounded by roads instead of moats".
In 1890 the Prison Commissioners agreed to declare Clifford's Tower a national monument and to conserve it as a historic location. In 1902 Clifford's Tower was given to Yorkshire County Council
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, together with a grant of £3,000 (£242,000 at 2009 prices) arranged by Lord Wenlock
Beilby Lawley, 3rd Baron Wenlock
Beilby Lawley, 3rd Baron Wenlock GCSI, GCIE, KCB, VD, PC was a British soldier, Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1880 and administrator who was the Governor of Madras from 1891 to 1896.-Early life:...
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. Sir Basil Mott
Basil Mott
Sir Basil Mott, 1st Baronet FRS was one of the most notable English civil engineers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was responsible for some of the most innovative work on tunnels and bridges in the United Kingdom in the 40-year period centred on World War I.Basil Mott was born in...
, a leading Victorian engineer, installed concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
underpinnings to stabilise the structure beneath the gatehouse. By the early 20th century, Clifford's Tower was regularly open to visitors, and in 1915 it was passed to the Office of Works
Office of Works
The Office of Works was established in the English Royal household in 1378 to oversee the building of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings...
as a national monument.
Today
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
, while the former Debtors' Prison and Female Prison, together with a modern entrance area, are now the Castle Museum
York Castle Museum
York Castle Museum is a museum located in York, North Yorkshire, England, on the site of York Castle, originally built by William the Conqueror in 1068...
. The circular grassed area between these buildings that was once known as the "Eyes of the Ridings" is now known as Castle Green, or the "Eye of York". 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. Fragments of the bailey wall, parts of the south gatehouse and one of the corner towers also survive.
The castle is classed as a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled monument. The site, managed by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, is open to the public. Until the 1970s, the pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
of 1190 was often underplayed by official histories of the castle; early official guides to the castle made no reference to it. In 1978, however, the first memorial tablet to the victims was laid at the base of Clifford's Tower, and in 1990 the 800th anniversary of the killings was commemorated at the tower. Recently, commercial interests have sought to introduce retail development to the area surrounding it. Citizens, visitors, academics, environmentalists, local businesspeople and Jewish groups have opposed the development with some success, winning a lengthy and bitter public inquiry
Public inquiry
A Tribunal of Inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body in Common Law countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland or Canada. Such a public inquiry differs from a Royal Commission in that a public inquiry accepts evidence and conducts its hearings in a more...
in 2003.