[AJR]

From the BBC Website, 14th February 2005

Cultural quarter for ancient town

Plans to develop a cultural quarter around a historic castle are being unveiled in Pontefract on Tuesday.
The town's castle, where Richard II was jailed in 1399, was once one of the most impressive in England before it reduced to rubble during the Civil War.
Council chiefs want to make better use of the castle and its little known siege works as well as All Saints Church and St John's Priory.
A spokesman said he hoped residents would have their say about the plans.
Councillor Wayne Jenkins, cabinet member for culture on Wakefield Council, said: "We hope people who live in Pontefract and those who are interested in history and heritage will make their suggestions.
"It is an opportunity for people to have an impact on how the castle and surrounding area is managed and used in the future."
The plans include a repair and conservation programme which will see better visitor access and facilities built on the site.
Council chiefs believe that even in its ruined state the castle should be a landmark and could boost Pontefract's regeneration plans.

[Duncan]

The print you have up on this castle is really good. I've never seen one better and only a few that were much worse in the skills of the artist.
My question is have you ever seen a floor plan for this castle or know why the crown had it destroyed?
Something really seems odd about this castle and its history.

[AJR]

Plan of Pontefract Castle - well, of what is left anyhow.

[AJR]

and a couple more imprints of Pontefract Castle.

Attached image(s)

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[AJR]

It was destroyed during the Civil War, presumably to ensure that no-one could ever use it again.

[Duncan]

Thanks for all the images and work you put into it.
I've heard it was destroyed in the 1930's, something to do with the castle it self and its history but not to do with the dilapidation.

[AJR]

Pontefract Castle – a basic history

Pontefract was the centre of a lordship of 162 manors granted by William I to Ilbert de Lacy around 1076. He probably founded the castle immediately and it is mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086. His son Robert was forfeited by Henry I in 1106 and Pontefract was granted first to Hugh de Laval and then William Maltravers. The latter was murdered in 1135 and King Stephen then returned to Ilbert de Lacy II, who was succeeded by his brother Henry in 1141. It was probably Henry, and his son Robert, who succeeded in 1177, who enclosed the inner bailey with a stone wall with several square towers. Robert was succeeded by his aunt’s great-grandson Roger Fitz-Eustace who then adopted the de Lacy surname. Roger only obtained possession of the castle on the accession of King John, since Richard I had retained it for his own use. The stone keep was either begun by Roger after his return from duty in 1204-04 as commander of Chateau Gaillard, or by his son John, perhaps in the 1230s after he was created Earl of Lincoln by Henry III. The last of this line was John’s grandson Henry, who died in 1311, his heir having drowned in the well of the fine castle he was erecting at Denbigh in North Wales.

Earl Henry left a daughter Alice, who was married to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. He is thought to have improved the castle. After Earl Thomas was defeated and executed in 1322, Edward II took possession of the castle and carried out some work upon it, including the construction of a new tower. Shortly after his accession in 1327 the young Edward III returned Pontefract to Thomas’s brother Henry. When his son Henry, Duke of Lancaster died in 1361, the castle and honour passed via his daughter Blanche to her husband John of Gaunt, fourth son of Edward III, by whom he was created Duke of Lancaster. In 1374 work began on heightening the keep, using stone quarried from the ditch around the bailey. The castle was garrisoned in 1382 when John of Gaunt fell out with his nephew Richard II. In 1399 Richard II banished John’s son Henry Bolingbroke, but the latter returned and forced Richard to abdicate. Henry then took the throne and imprisoned Richard at Pontefract, where he died (or more likely was murdered) in 1400. The castle has belonged to the Crown ever since as part of the Duchy of Lancaster. Henry IV carried out a rebuilding of several of the towers and perhaps the domestic buildings. Henry VI repaired the great hall and barbican in 1439 and built a new larder in the 1440s. By 1609 the castle was decayed, but Prince Charles had it repaired in 1619-20.

Pontefract Castle was held for King Charles during the Civil War and suffered three well-documented sieges by Parliamentary troops. The first siege began on Christmas Day 1644. A heavy bombardment of the south-west side resulted in the collapse of the Piper Tower, but the main enceinte remained impervious. The attackers then tried mining under the walls, but since the castle was built upon rock faces, (probably then not exposed) this proved to be unsuccessful. Excavations in the kitchen area have found three shafts thought to have been dug by defenders as countermines in order to detect by listening (and intercept if need be) attackers’ tunnelling. The siege was raised at the beginning of March 1645 when a Royalist force under Sir Marmaduke Langdale arrived and defeated the attackers in battle at Chequerfield.

By mid-March 1645 the castle was again under siege. No attempt was made to breach the defences, which were simply encircled by entrenchments to starve the garrison out. At first the defenders were able to go out foraging and in June, they cut a trench from the east gate down to All Saints’ Church as a covered way for that purpose. Two days later the attackers’ siege works were completed and after a month the garrison agreed terms that allowed them to march out to Newark. The castle was then repaired and garrisoned by Parliamentary troops.
In 1648 the castle fell to a local Royalist rising led by Colonel John Morris. Cromwell was busy dealing with a threat posed by the Scottish army under the Duke of Hamilton, and although the castle was soon blockaded by Parliamentary troops, it was some while before Cromwell and Lambert arrived to press the siege with vigour. A contemporary letter written by Cromwell acknowledges the castle as being one of the strongest in England, “well watered; situated on rock in every part of it; and therefore difficult to mine. The walls are very thick and high, with strong towers; and if battered, very difficult to access, by reason of the depth and steepness of the graft.”

The castle was again surrounded by a series of small forts, artillery emplacements and trenches. After nearly five months the garrison surrendered in late March 1649, two months after King Charles I had been executed and long after all Royalist resistance elsewhere on the mainland had been quashed. Coins struck in the castle to pay the garrison still survive, the later ones acknowledging Charles II as king. Three days after its fall Parliament ordered the defences to be destroyed, the work lasting several weeks and costing nearly £800. The only part to remain in use was the barbican, the guard-house of which was used as a prison for debtors and offenders. French prisoners-of-war were kept within it in 1673. In the eighteenth century the corporation rented out the castle grounds to Dunhills for cultivating liquorice. In the 1880s the castle grounds became a park and excavations began to be made.

From "The Castles & Tower Houses of Yorkshire" by Mike Salter

[AJR]

I moved this topic to English Castles Forum because I thought it would be better suited here.

[Duncan]

Thanks, it makes sense to do that.
Well the history is much clearer but I'm left with where did that other alternate info come from

[AJR]

What WAS the alternative info?
(ps. I am still in the process of typing out more details on the castle, and will add them as soon as possible)