Nottingham Castle
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Nottingham Castle is a castle in Nottingham, England. It is located in a commanding position, with 130 foot cliffs to the south and west.
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[edit] Mediaeval history
There is some uncertainty whether a castle existed on the site before the Norman Conquest. If there was it would have been smaller and far less elaborate in design than the one that stood there afterwards, keeping in line with Anglo-Saxon architectural tradition.
The first Norman castle was a wooden structure and of a motte-and-bailey design, which was built in 1067, a year after the Battle of Hastings, on the orders of William the Conqueror. This wooden structure was replaced by a far more defensible stone castle during the reign of Henry I (1100-1135), and was imposing and of a complex architectural design.
For centuries the castle served as one of the most important in England for nobles and royalty alike. It was in a strategic position due to its location near a crossing of the River Trent; and it was also known as a place of leisure being close to the royal hunting grounds at Tideswell, which was the “Kings Larder” in the Royal Forest of the Peak, and also the royal forests of Barnsdale and Sherwood Forest.
Whilst Richard the Lionheart was away on the Third Crusade, and a great number of English noblemen were away with him, it was said that Nottingham Castle was left derelict and it was occupied by the Sheriff of Nottingham. In the legends of Robin Hood, Nottingham Castle is the scene of the final showdown between the Sheriff and the hero outlaw in many tales.
In 1194, a historic battle took place at Nottingham castle when the supporters of Prince John captured it. The castle was the site of a decisive siege when King Richard I, returned to England and designed the castle with the siege machines he had used at Jerusalem. Richard was aided by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester, and David of Scotland, 8th Earl of Huntingdon.
The castle was expanded by many of the following monarchs until rendered obsolete in the 16th century by artillery. A short time following the break out of the English Civil War, the castle was already in a semi-ruined state after a number of skirmishes occurred on the site. Towards the end of the Civil War, Charles I chose Nottingham as the rallying point for his armies, but soon after he departed, the castle rock was made defensible and held by the parliamentarians. Commanded by John Hutchinson (Colonel), they repulsed several Royalist attacks, and they were the last group to hold the castle. After the execution of Charles I in 1649, the castle was razed to prevent its re-use.
[edit] The present 'Ducal Mansion'
After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, the present 'Ducal Mansion' was built by Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle between 1674 and 1679 on the foundations of the previous structure. Despite the destruction of the keep and fortifications, some rock cut cellars and medieval pointed arches survive beneath the mansion, together with a long passage to the bottom of the rock, commonly known as Mortimer's Hole.
The mason for the Mansion was Samuel Marsh of Lincoln, who also worked for the Duke at Bolsover Castle. His designs are generally thought to have been strongly influence by Rubens's published engravings of the Palazzi di Genova. [1] The Duke's mansion is a rare surviving example in England of Artisan Mannerist architecture.
However, it lost its appeal to the later Dukes with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, which left Nottingham with the reputation of having the worst slums in the British Empire outside India. When residents of these slums rioted in 1831, in protest against the Duke of Newcastle's opposition to the Reform Act 1832 they burned down the mansion.
The original exterior stairs on the eastern facace of the mansion were subsequently demolished to create a parade ground for the Robin Hood Rifles.
The mansion remained a derelict shell until 1878. It was restored in 1875 by Thomas Chambers Hine, and opened in 1878 by the Prince of Wales, (laterKing Edward VII) as Nottingham Castle Museum, the first municipal art gallery in the UK outside London. The new interiors ignored the original floor levels and fenestration in order to accommodate a top-lit picture gallerey modelled after the Grande Galerie of the Louvre. The obtrusive new pitched roofs gave rise to adverse comment, and a characteristically Victorian stone balustrade was added a few years later, which originally allowed visitors to promenade on the roof. The mansion is still used as a museum today.
Some tourists are disappointed to find a mansion house expecting to see a mediæval castle instead. There have been suggestions for many years to demolish the mansion house and build a replica of the original castle but there has never been any serious funding sought for such a scheme.
On Christmas Day 1996 a landslip caused by a leaking water main led to 80 tonnes of earth and retaining wall from the Restoration terrace next to the Mansion falling to the bottom of the Castle rock. This revealed some remains of the original castle foundations and the bedrock. After a lengthy controversy on the best conservation/restoration approach, the terrace was reinstated in 2005 with a traditional stone facade. This conceals a concrete structure which allows the medieval masonry to remain accessible to visitors.
In 2005, the Castle was the only venue outside the USA to host the 'Waking Dreams' touring exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite art. The show attracted visitors from all over Europe and brought the Castle to international attention as a gallery space.
[edit] External links
- Nottingham Mansion Castle on the Nottingham City Council website
- 360 degree virtual tour of the present mansion at the BBC wesbite
- History of Nottingham Castle
- Page containing a sketch of the mediæval castle
- another rendition of the mediæval castle
- Nottingham Castle - The Open Guide to Nottingham
- From Blackened Ruin to Museum and Art Gallery - article on Nottingham Civic Society website
[edit] References
- ^ Sir John Summerson Pelican History of Art: Architecture in England 1530-1830,Harmondsworth 1953 p104
