by James Wright FSA
Introduction
In 2016 the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded a collaborative doctoral award researching Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, which has been run by the University of Nottingham and the site’s landowners – the National Trust. The castle doubled its visitor numbers to 59, 741 between 2008 and 2018 (Visit England 2018) and a reassessment of the site is anticipated to underpin future strategic decisions on presentation of the site to the public. Although Tattershall has featured widely in castle studies (Goodall 2011, 354-6; Emery 2000, 308-16; Johnson 2002, 55-62), with particular regard to great houses in the late mediaeval period, there has been no substantive new research on the site since the 1920s (Curzon & Tipping 1929). Consequently, a need arose to reconsider the castle using the multidisciplinary approach of modern buildings archaeology.
Once the completed thesis is available online a link will be placed to it on this webpage.
Tattershall Castle
The castle is located in a remote area of Lincolnshire, approximately 21 miles south-east of Lincoln and 15 miles north-west of Boston. In the mediaeval period the site was well-connected to the fenland and coastal environments via the River Witham. A stone polygonal enclosure castle, studded with round towers, was first built for the regionally important baron, Robert de Tateshale, in the 1230s (Goodall 2011, 183). The model for this building is likely to have been at Bolingbroke, approximately 10 miles to the north-east, which was built in the 1220s for Earl Ranulph de Blondeville – itself inspired by innovative architecture emanating from France and the Holy Land (Soden 2009, 124-5).
Tattershall passed through the Driby and Bernack families until it was inherited, in 1419, by Ralph 3rd Lord Cromwell. The Cromwells were socially rising landowners at a time of great political turbulence initially caused by the minority of Henry VI and, later, his inability to establish strong governance (Johnson 2019, 555-9). Cromwell was appointed as Lord Treasurer of England, in 1433, and by the following year had begun an ambitious programme of remodelling at Tattershall which lasted until c 1450 (Simpson 1960).
The building accounts of the great brick and stone castle partially survive and give a vibrant impression of the construction process (Simpson 1960). Building materials were brought in, by land and river, from Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire to be worked by labourers and craftsmen including dikers, masons, carpenters, plumbers and smiths. Whilst the name of the master mason is unknown, Cromwell’s principle brickmaker, Baldwin Docheman, was probably a continental specialist brought over to work the clay on nearby Edlington Moor (Simpson 1960, 46, 56, 73). By 1446 the project was well-advanced and work was underway on the great tower. Analysis of the underlying geometry has revealed that the tower’s ground plan was based on a 3 x 4 grid of 20 foot (approximately 6.09m) squares and that the principle western elevation conformed to the common mediaeval proportional ratio of 1:1.73 (Hislop 2012, 19-20).
Cromwell’s builders added two L-shaped wards to the older enclosure complete with brick moat revetments. Each of the three wards had its own gatehouse which allowed a processional access through the castle similar to those at Caister and Kenilworth (Johnson 2002, 50-1; Creighton 2002 76). The Outer and Middle Ward contained well-appointed lodging ranges including the “Guardhouse” – a two-storey retainers lodging with garderobes and fireplaces. The floor and roof structure were recently found to be constructed from timbers felled between 1446 and 1451 (Robert Howard, Nottingham Tree-ring Dating Laboratory, pers. comm. 07/2/2017).
Antiquarian illustrations (Society of Antiquaries) and archaeological excavations (Curzon & Tipping 1929, 169-173) have revealed that the Inner Ward once contained a chapel, great hall, two-storey pentice, services, solar, and gatehouses which permitted access to gardens to the south and services to the west. The castle is dominated by the 33.5 metre high great tower which plunges directly into the moat on three sides. The rectangular structure has projecting octagonal corner turrets, which rise above the parapet and were once crowned with lead spirelets (Emery 2000, 309-10). Brick diaperwork helps to offset the rather austere window tracery and a symmetrical show-front is presented on the west elevation. The tower has a unique double-height parapet with a machicolated and arcaded gallery supporting a wall walk complete with heated rooms in the turrets.
The building is accessed from the east via three ground floor doorways. The southern door leads to a spiral stair in the south-eastern turret (with an elaborate recessed handrail carved in stone), the central to a basement and northern to the ground floor chamber. Blocked doors, wall scars and beam slots (associated with a former two-storey pentice that lay beyond the demolished great hall) indicate that more private access was once possible from the former solar block.
Internally, the tower is deceptively simple in layout. It consists of a five storey stack of large central chambers with intramural passages to the east and chambers in three of the turrets. Each of the storeys above grew in status vertically, becoming steadily larger and more lavish, in a fashion memorably described by John Goodall (2011, 354) as ‘gathering magnificence’:
- Basement: Storage
- Ground floor: Lesser household hall
- First floor: Private dining hall
- Second floor: Great chamber accessed via an elaborately vaulted processional corridor and heated anteroom
- Third floor: Bedchamber
All four principle chambers have garderobes and finely sculpted chimneypieces; whilst the first, second and third floors also have corbels at their high ends which once supported tester frames.
The castle was carefully designed to act as a theatrical backdrop to symbolise the prestige of its patron. Everything about the site demanded respect and awe from visitors and occupants alike. From the circuitous access to the overpowering dominance of the great tower, Tattershall was intended to demonstrate the status of its lord.
A Landscape of Lordship
Beyond the castle gates, Cromwell imposed his power on a wide landscape of lordship. This included a large moated enclosure containing gardens, warrens, fishponds and a mill, alongside the foundation of a collegiate church, school and almshouses provided for in his will. The settlement of Tattershall was reorganised as a proto-town with a substantial marketplace with a stone cross symbolic of Cromwell’s economic power. Beyond this, part of Tattershall Chase was emparked and provided with hunting lodges at Woodhall Spa and Whitwell (Simpson 1960, xiii-xv).
By the mid-1440s Cromwell received vast incomes from over 140 estates (Friedrichs 1988, 217) and had commissioned a substantial new house at South Wingfield (Derbyshire) alongside works to existing manor houses at Collyweston (Northamptonshire), Lambley (Nottinghamshire) and Depham (Middlesex). These lavish building projects, conducted simultaneously with Tattershall, led Anthony Emery (2000, 313) to characterise Cromwell as demonstrating ‘the seeds of megalomania’. This architectural dominance created a unified brand across landscapes that repeatedly emphasised his status in society.
Ralph Cromwell
Ralph Cromwell was born in 1393 into a family of supporters of Henry of Bolingbroke (later Henry IV). By 1407 he had been placed in the household of Thomas, duke of Clarence, the younger son of the king. He was present on Henry V’s campaign of 1415, was probably knighted at Azincourt and served during the later invasion of Normandy. He distinguished himself as an able administrator and diplomat and, by 1420, had caught the attention of the king who entrusted him as a negotiator at the treaty of Troyes. By 1423 Cromwell was named royal councillor and ten years later he was appointed as Lord Treasurer of England – a post that he held until 1443 (Friedrichs 1988, 208, 212).
Cromwell was typical of a group of rising men, active in France, who received royal patronage and invested their wealth in buildings which symbolised and projected their status in society. However, as a new man, he lacked the influence of higher-ranking members on the council such as the rivals Humfrey, duke of Gloucester and Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester. Cromwell gravitated towards Beaufort’s circle and was well-rewarded when the latter was ascendant, but that patronage was regularly cut when Gloucester held the upper hand (Friedrichs 1988, 209-12).
The construction of Tattershall Castle began soon after Cromwell’s appointment as Lord Treasurer. It featured repeated lordly symbols such as clustered towers, crenellations, machicolations, prominent chimneys, brick vaults and armorials. Even the choice of the newly fashionable brick as a building material served such purposes – diaperwork patterns of a heraldic shield, Calvary cross and Marian imagery collectively demonstrated the societal demand to be seen as a pious lord (Creighton 2002, 110).
Internally, the architectural detail of the great tower was also geared towards an exposition of how Cromwell wished the world to see him. In particular, the elaborately carved chimneypieces and vaulting bosses are resplendent with family armorials which relate Cromwell’s, often distant, lineage. Significantly, no attempt was made to link himself with the heraldry of contemporary political patrons – potentially due to the uncertainty of his shifting allegiances. Intermingled with the armorials are more statements of lordly piety including carvings relating to the battle between good and evil – St Michael and the dragon and Samson and the lion. Most revealing of all are the repeated carvings of the Treasurer’s purse, signifying the source of wealth and power, which is often found in association with a rebus of the Gromwell plant and Cromwell’s curious motto: ‘Nay je droit’ (Have I not the right?).
This motto is both truculent and anxious at the same time. It reveals a tension in Cromwell’s architecture which may be symptomatic of his personal characteristics. He was a newly made man that had experienced a meteoric rise, but was still subordinate to more powerful men. We might consider the repeated heraldic devices as Cromwell over-emphasising the antiquity of his lineage to bolster his position. This was further supported by the repeated carvings of purse rebus and motto which hint at a prickly and jealous pride that was exposed in his political actions.
Cromwell’s latter years were mired in partisan disputes which often spilled over into open hostilities. He resigned the post of Treasurer in 1443 and, after the death of Beaufort in 1447, struggled to maintain a strong profile on the council in the face of the dukes of Suffolk and Somerset. He was beset by the murderous schemes of his neighbour, William Tailboys, and the equally volatile duke of Exeter (Friedrichs 1988, 221-3). As Henry VI slipped into catatonic stupor in 1453 and the country slid towards civil war, Cromwell found himself politically isolated and began to drift into the orbit of the Yorkist faction. He arranged the marriages of his heiresses, Joan and Maud Stanhope, to relatives of the earl of Warwick and duke of York in an attempt to seal new alliances. However, when war broke out in 1455, Cromwell failed to arrive at the battle of St Albans (whether by fate or design) and was vilified in person by Warwick as a primary instigator of the Wars of the Roses.
Cromwell died in January 1456 at Wingfield Manor (Friedrichs 1988, 224-6). He had been a diligent and tenacious member of the council and had weathered the aggressive faction-fighting which marred the middle years of the fifteenth century.
Inspirations and Influences
The design of Tattershall owes a debt to both contemporary European castles and to older English examples. The use of brick became fashionable in eastern England from the late fourteenth century, for example at Thornton Abbey and Boston Guildhall in Lincolnshire, primarily as a result of strong trading connections with the Hanseatic League (Campbell 2003, 103). Sites such as Malbork in Poland and Schloss Kempen in the Lower Rhineland had an electrifying effect on English builders through the use of wide moats, diapered brickwork with stone detailing and a resurgence of the great tower as an architectural focus (Goodall 2011, 356; Simpson 1960, xxiv). The latter was also current in late mediaeval France, where Cromwell’s own experience of castles such as Vincennes may have directly influenced the design of Tattershall (Emery 2016, 252, 330). Finally, Tattershall looked back to Norman great towers including Castle Rising, Dover and Newcastle filtered through later developments at Nunney, Stafford and Wardour (Goodall 2011, 183).
Tattershall subsequently had a remarkable effect on English architecture for over a century. The construction of brick and stone great towers with projecting turrets and featuring recessed stair handrails, false machicolations and diaperwork became essential motifs in elite building. Within Cromwell’s own lifetime members of the Lincolnshire gentry commissioned structures influenced by Tattershall, including the Hussey Tower (Boston) and Ayscoughfee Hall (Spalding). The style was also advanced by his peers at Herstmonceux Castle (East Sussex), Rye House (Hertfordshire) and Middleton Towers (Norfolk). In the late fifteenth century a number of bishop’s houses showed a clear line of thought back to Tattershall, in particular those built by the mason John Cowper for William Waynflete, executor of Cromwell’s will, at Esher and Farnham (Surrey). Other stark examples of the style include Buckden (Cambridgeshire), Oxburgh (Norfolk) and Kirby Muxloe (Leicestershire). During the Tudor period Tattershall’s legacy was cemented at Holme Pierrepont (Nottinghamshire), Layer Marner (Essex) and Hampton Court (Surrey); with its reach even lasting into Elizabeth’s reign at Burghley (Lincolnshire) and Kenilworth (Warwickshire).
Post-Mediaeval Tattershall
Following Cromwell’s death, the castle passed to his nieces Maud and Joan Stanhope (and their various husbands) prior to confiscation by the crown. Tattershall was granted to Margaret Beaufort and then Charles Brandon (Curzon & Tipping 1929, 113-4, 121), with the latter possibly constructing a tiltyard in the former gardens. By the later sixteenth century the estate was purchased by Lord Clinton, whose descendants initially held the castle for Parliament during the English Civil War (Curzon & Tipping 1929, 133, 138). Although Tattershall was briefly possessed by the royalists, in 1643, the site saw little action but graffiti from the garrison can be found inscribed upon the walls of the great tower and there are impact scars from musketry on the west elevation of the collegiate church. The castle was probably slighted during 1650 on the orders of Parliament (Thompson 1987, 184).
In 1693 the castle was inherited by the Fortesque family who rented it out as a farm. Early eighteenth century illustrations by Buck and Millicent show the castle in a ruinous state (Society of Antiquaries). The great tower was used as a cattle shed and a dovecote was installed in Cromwell’s own privy chamber during this period! By the nineteenth century the floors of the tower had collapsed, the moats backfilled and much of the foundations of the castle had been robbed to feed lime kilns (Curzon & Tipping 1929, 140-1).
The castle was under threat from acquisition and wholesale removal by an American consortium in 1910, which led to an emergency purchase by Lord Curzon the following year. As a man deeply interested in the conservation of historic buildings, Curzon arranged for the excavation and consolidation of the site under advice from architect William Weir and architectural historian Alexander Hamilton Thompson. The narrowly averted threat to Tattershall led Curzon to successfully lobby Parliament for the Ancient Monuments Consolidation of Amendment Act of 1913 (Waterson 1994, 73).
Tattershall was left to the National Trust under the terms of Curzon’s will and remains in their care and open to the public to the present day.
Conclusions
Tattershall Castle stands as testament to the tremendous power and prestige of Ralph Lord Cromwell. The innovative architecture is firmly rooted in both continental and English building traditions and became the benchmark for English building for many decades to come. The messages imparted in both the overall plan and architectural details speak of a patron who was wealthy, proud and conscious of his status; however, there is also an underlying anxiety and tension inherent to the building which is reflective of a parvenu, who had reached far yet, who was still a lord of the second rank. The site has also been enormously important to the history of the conservation movement, in particular in the sensitive manner of Curzon’s restoration work and the use of the site in attaining legal protection for significant historic buildings.
Bibliography
Campbell, J. W. P., 2003 (2016 edition), Brick: A World History. Thames & Hudson. London.
Creighton, O., 2002, Castles and Landscapes. Equinox. Sheffield.
Curzon, G. & Tipping, H. A., 1929, Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire: A Historical and Descriptive Survey. Jonathan Cape. London.
Emery, A., 2016, Seats of Power in Europe During the Hundred Years War. Oxbow. Oxford.
Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Friedrichs, R. L., 1988, ‘Ralph, Lord Cromwell and the Politics of Fifteenth Century England’ in Nottingham Medieval Studies Vol. 32
Goodall, J., 2011, The English Castle. Yale University Press.
Hislop, M., 2012, Medieval Masons. Shire Archaeology. Oxford.
Johnson, L., 2019, Shadow King – The Life and Death of Henry VI. Head of Zeus. London.
Johnson, M., 2002, Behind the Castle Gate. Routledge. London.
Simpson, W. D., 1960, The Building Accounts of Tattershall Castle, 1434-72. Lincoln Record Society No. 55.
Soden, I., 2009, Ranulf de Blondeville – The First English Hero. Amberley. Stroud.
Thompson, M. W., 1987, The Decline of the Castle. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
Waterson, M., 1994, The National Trust – The First Hundred Years. BBC / National Trust. London.
Historic Illustrations
Society of Antiquaries, Coleraine Collection of British Topography Vol. 2
Websites
Visit England: https://www.visitbritain.org/annual-survey-visits-visitor-attractions-latest-results (Accessed 17/10/2019)
