Saltwood Castle

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Saltwood Castle ca. 1830 before the gatehouse was restored.
Saltwood Castle ca. 1830 before the gatehouse was restored.

Saltwood Castle is a castle in Saltwood village— which derives its name from the Castle— 1 mile (2 km) north of Hythe, Kent, England. It is famous as the site where the plot was hatched to assassinate Thomas Becket (1170) and more recently as the home of the art historian Sir Kenneth Clark, created Lord Clark of Saltwood, and then his son Alan Clark, the Conservative politician (a minister in Margaret Thatcher's government), and the foremost political diarist of his generation.

It was probably erected on a Roman site, though Bronze Age implements and copper ingots discovered in Hayne's Wood, 1874,[1] show the site had long been inhabited. It first appears on a charter in 833. The castle was conveyed to the Church by a deed dated 1026 and it was replaced by a twelfth century Norman structure, with work extending over the next two centuries. A fourteenth-century chip-carved chest with arcading and rosettes along the front, with a later panelled top, formerly in the parish church, was reputed to have come originally from Saltwood Castle.[2]

During the reign of Canute, the manor of Saltwood was granted to the priory of Christ Church in Canterbury, but during the twelfth century it became home for a period to Henry d' Essex, constable of England.[3]

Thomas Becket had asked Henry II on behalf of the Church for the restoration of the castle as an ecclesiastical palace. Henry instead gave it to one of his loyal barons named Ranulf de Broc.[3] This leads to the implication that some complicity was possible in the murder of Becket by the baron Ranulf de Broc.[4][5] It was during this time at Saltwood, on December 28, 1170, that four knights are presumed to have plotted the death of Becket, which took place the following day at Canterbury Cathedral, about 15 miles (24 km) away. Hugh de Moreville was one of the four knights that committed the assassination, along with Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracey, and Richard le Breton.[3]

After Becket's assassination, the castle was returned to the control of the archbishop of Canterbury. Gun-ports in the gatehouse that date to the period 1385-94 are attributed to Henry Yevele (fl. 1353-1400), called the "English father of the science of artillery fortification" by B.H. St John O'Neil.[6] The Wycliffite William Thorpe's account of his interrogation at Saltwood in 1407 is a familiar document because it was published by sixteenth-century Reformers.[7]

Saltwood remained a church property until the reign of Henry VIII when Hythe and Saltwood were seized by the Crown. It became uninhabitable as the result of the earthquake of 6 April 1580, but was restored in the nineteenth century, as a residence once again of the Archbishop of Canterbury.[8] The gatehouse has been used as a residence ever since.[9] The castle was the childhood home of Bill Deedes and was purchased in 1955 by Kenneth Clark, whose son Alan Clark subsequently lived there. It remains in the Clark family today.[10] Alan Clark is buried in the grounds of the castle.

[edit] References

  1. ^ J. G. Waller, "Bronze Implements" The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 3 (1874, pp. 230-231) p. 230.
  2. ^ Illustrated by Martin Conway, "Some Kentish Chests" The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 15 No. 78 (September 1909), pp. 362-363, illustrated p. 363.
  3. ^ a b c Local History. Saltwood Church of England Primary School. Retrieved on 2006-06-12.
  4. ^ Shirley, Janet (1975). Vie Saint Thomas Le Martyr De Cantobire. Garnier’s Becket pp 132-165.. Scott Ian McLetchie. Retrieved on 2006-06-12.
  5. ^ Castles Mentioned in Pillars of the Earth. Kristin's Medieval Castles of England. Retrieved on 2006-06-12.
  6. ^ O'Neil, Castles and Cannon: A Study of Early Artillery Fortification in England (Oford University Press) 1960 p. 21.
  7. ^ Anne Hudson , Two Wycliffite Texts: The Sermon of William Taylor, 1406; The Testimony of William Thorpe, 1407 (Oxford University Press) 1993.
  8. ^ H. D. Dale, St. Leonard's Church and the Ancient Town of Hythe 1931.
  9. ^ Taylor, Charles. Saltwood Castle. ecastles.co.uk. Retrieved on 2006-06-12.
  10. ^ The Real Alan Clark. Real Lives. Channel4.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-12.

[edit] External links