[Dave Lakin]

Ashby de la Zouch Castle

[Duncan]

Thanks for images and its a castle I've never heard of

[Gordon]

Great pics! Great earthworks. I'll see what history I can dig up.

[Gordon]

From the trusty Adrian Pettifer, 'English Castles'

Quote

ASHBY CASTLE Ashby-de-la-Zouche takes its name from the Zouche family, whose line died out in 1399. In 1464 Ashby was one of the estates granted to William, Lord Hastings, as a reward for his services to Edward IV. Hastings held the office of Lord Chamberlain and in 1474 he obtained a licence to crenellate his houses at Ashby and Kirby Muxloe. Unfortunately, Lord Hastings did not outlive his royal patron for long, falling victim to the coup organised by Richard, Duke of Gloucester. In a scene familiar from Shakespeare, Hastings was accused of treason and dragged off to summary execution in the Tower of London. His family, however, retained possession. During the Civil War Henry Hastings strengthened the castle with earthen redoubts and turned it into the chief centre of Royalist resistance in the county. The garrison endured over a year of siege before surrendering on honourable terms in February 1646. The Hastings Tower was slighted by order of Parliament but the rest of the castle remained habitable into the eighteenth century. It is now all ruined.

Before Lord Hastings there was only a manor house here, though it was a fine one in keeping with the status of the Zouches. Hastings made the older buildings the core of his mansion. They form a range centred upon a late Norman hall, flanked by the solar and a buttery and pantry wing. In the fourteenth century the massive kitchen was added to the complex. Lord Hastings modernised these buildings and extended the range with the addition of a fine chapel in the prevailing Perpendicular style. Following the licence to crenellate he built a curtain around the manor house and raised the mighty square tower which is named after him. The curtain cannot have been a very formidable obstacle - only a portion survives - but the Hastings Tower is still impressive. It is one of the best examples of a late medieval tower house, providing its owner with a dignified but secure residence. It stands detached from the manorial buildings, facing them across the courtyard. The tower is built in fine ashlar masonry, its four storeys consisting from the bottom upwards of a storeroom, kitchen, hall and solar. Additional accommodation was provided in the seven-storey annexe which is not quite as wide as the main body of the tower. The tower has its own well to ensure complete self-containment. The courtyard front of the tower stands to full height (ninety feet), with traceried corner turrets and a row of corbels which carried a machicolated parapet. The ground-floor entrance was protected by a portcullis. Unfortunately the courtyard front is now little more than a facade, because the rear of the tower was blasted down at the slighting. An underground passage links the tower with the cellar beneath the kitchen. This is a great rarity, since underground passages in castles are generrally the stuff of legend.
Access; Standard EH opening times in summer.

[AJR]

A print from my collection.

A steel engraving by E. Findon from the G. Cattermole's drawing of Ashby Castle, Leicestershire, by J. Skene.
Published by Chapman & Hall in London in Ivanhoe, November 1832.
Image size 119mm x 77mm.

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[AJR]

A couple of vintage postcards from my collection.

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[AJR]

The two prints by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, 1730.

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[Gordon]

I love the clarity on the first postcard, superb.

[AJR]

Floorplans

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[AJR]

Re.the postcards - I really must get down and re-scan some of them to show the pictures in a better light. Now, if I only had a secretary who would do this for me. LIZ - No chance!!!