Warkworth Castle
Warkworth Castle is a medieval castle and is found with Warkworth village in a loop of the River Coquet, under a mile from the river estuary.
In 875 Warkworth village was burned to the ground by Halfden the Dane who sailed into the Coquet estuary and attacked from the East (now Helsay Farm) although there was no mention of a castle at this time it is likely there was some form of fortified structure. Similarly, during Anglo-Saxon times it is likely there was some form of building here for the nobility prior to 1066. The raising of the first Motte and Bailey is thought to have been done in 1139 by Henry, the son of David I of Scotland when he became Earl of Northumberland. This Norman defensive structure comprised the Motte, a raised area of ground supporting a wooden keep, with an associated courtyard, the bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and fence.
Around 1156, the Manor at Warkworth was granted by Henry II to one of his trusted knights, Roger fitz Richard the custodian of Newcastle. Roger the son of (i.e. fitz) Richard was a member of the Clavering family and held the castle and barony of Warkworth as fee for his knightly service and dropped the Clavering surname. In 1173, William the Lion of Scotland destroyed the ‘weak’ wooden castle during one of his raids into Northumberland; the following year, 1174, Duncan Earl of Fife with a large Scottish army also raided the town burning it to the ground and then massacred three hundred inhabitants in St. Lawrence’s Church where they sheltered.
Roger fitz Richard died in 1178 and was succeeded by his son Robert fitz Roger who rebuilt the castle in stone, some of which remains today in parts of the outer walls, the postern and barbican (Keep). The Castle was split into the two Motte and Bailey areas.
The keep or Barbican had:
- a ground floor with porters lodge, entrance hall and numerous service and storage areas
- a first floor with the Great Hall, a kitchen, pantries, chapel and chamber
- a second floor with the Dukes rooms and living accommodations
The enclosed three sided Bailey contained along the west wall a Great Hall with two towers an associated kitchen, buttery and pantry; the Carrickfergus tower protected the South West corner. A chapel wrapped onto the corner of the South Wall while in it’s centre was the Guardhouse and Portcullis gate. Stables occupied most of the East wall from the Montagu Tower to the Grey Mares Tail tower. Across the middle was to be a church which was never completed and between this and the keep was a brewery and bakehouse
The castle remained an important stronghold in the North with the Clavering family for several centuries passing into the Percy family in 1332 when John fitz Robert died without a male heir. The Percy’s had an on-off relationship with the King of England, having helped the usurper Bolingbroke Duke of Lancaster on the throne as King Henry IV. However, this relationship soured and after several unsuccessful rebellions against him, King Henry IV determined to crush the upstarts in Northumberland.
In June 1405 he raised an army of 37000 men with the biggest collection of siege engines ever seen, including for the first time canon, and marched on Northumberland.
The Earl of Northumberland left Warkworth for Scotland taking Hotspur’s 12 year old son with him and leaving Warkworth castle under the charge of faithful soldiers John de Middleton and John Creswell. These stalwarts had improved the castle defenses and were prepared for a long siege but not for the onslaught of combined catapults, trebuchets, mangonels and the newly invented canons. The canons were ranged against the South Wall between the Barbican and Montague Tower; the largest ‘bombard’ was able to fire hewn stone balls of 30 inches in diameter and after firing just 7 times the devastation was immense and the castle surrendered.
After Warkworth Castle fell in 1405, Henry IV made his third son, John of Lancaster, Warden of the east marches and he stayed at Warkworth Castle for a while; however, John was short of funds and the Castle fell into a state of disrepair. Later, Sir Robert Umfraville was gifted the castle by King Henry IV and held it until Henry V gave it back to Hotspur’s son in 1415 making him the Second Earl of Northumberland at the age of twenty-seven. He completely restored his favourite castle and took up the old family occupation of harrying raiders on the Scottish border; he became the hero and victor of ‘Chevy Chase’ at Piperden in 1430.
The Percy’s, conscious of the debt they owed to Henty IV, remained loyal to the House of Lancaster during the War of the Roses which claimed the lives of the second and third Earls of Northumberland. In 1461, Warkworth Castle was taken by Edward IV who gave it to his brother the Duke of Clarence but his tenure was short lived as it was overrun by the Lancastrians; however, in 1462, the castle fell easily to the Earl of Warwick who used it as his base for controlling the region for the King.
King Edward IV restored the Earldom and estates to Henry Percy in 1469 who had a chequered career. He staunchly supported Richard III on his succession when Edward IV died, but swapped sides to Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII. This fourth Earl of Northumberland had Warkworth Castle thoroughly restored and being a benefactor of churches had Warkworth Church enlarged and started the construction of a college church in the castle grounds. This was never completed and only the bases of some pillars remain today.
The Castle remained in the Percy family over the coming generations although the fifth Earl preferred to stay in castles further from the border and the continual Scottish raiding parties, although Warkworth Castle remained impregnable to them. The sixth Earl did stay at Warkworth Castle although he did complain to King Henry VIII about the constant raids. In 1534, work was undertaken on the South wall between the Montague tower and Barbican though this remained unfinished due to disagreements between the two Constables of the Castle; in the same year a new drawbridge was erected across the dry moat. In 1537, the castle returned into the ownership of the Crown on the death of the heirless sixth Earl but was left unmaintained by Henry VIII. However, in 1543, Lord Parr, Catherine Parr’s brother became Warden of the Marches and planned to take up residence in Alnwick Castle; however, an epidemic raged across Alnwick forcing him to repair Warkworth Castle to a habitable condition. However, the Castle reparations were not maintained afterwards and by 1550 the record of the Marches notes that Warkworth Castle was once more in disrepair.
The Percy family were again restored to the Northumberland estates and Thomas Percy, a Roman Catholic, made seventh Earl of Northumberland by Queen Mary in 1557 and returned again to Warkworth Castle. The castle was in disrepair and the burgagers of the village who had depended on employment at the Castle had been left badly off during the ownership by the crown. In 1567 George Clarkson carried out a detailed inventory of every castle feature and warned the Earl of significant risk of ruin; he also recommended an additional fortified wall to extend from the Montague tower across the ford to Helsay, to better protect the castle. Unfortunately, these recommendations were not implemented and when Protestant Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne it was not long before the castle would once again change hands. In 1569, while the Earl marched South against the Queen, Sir John Foster of Berwick and Henry Percy, The Earl’s brother who had converted to Protestantism marched south and took Warkworth Castle after some subterfuge with the Castle leaders. The Castle was then plundered of any removable object by Foster that his actions were rebuked by the Queen’s Privy Council
Henry Percy became the Eight Earl but was soon imprisoned in the Tower of London for allegedly plotting with Mary Queen of Scots; on his apparent suicide in the Tower in 1585 he was succeeded by his son Henry who became the ninth Earl. He was a remarkably clever man, fitting out his own man of war to fight the Spanish Armada; in 1604 he acquired Isleworth and Syon House but a year later, through association with the Gunpowder Plot, was incarcerated in the Tower of London for 15 years. During this time Warkworth and Alnwick Castles were under the care of his cousin Thomas Percy, who was also implicated in the Gunpowder Plot; Thomas appointed John Ladyman, Vicar of Warkworth, as his deputy and so began a systematic stripping of Warkworth Castle. First was the Castle bell, apparently sold to a Scotsman and then in 1608, the lead from the wall tower roofs, which had fallen into disrepair after the ravages of John Forster. The Great Hall roof had similarly deteriorated and while the Earl approved the removal of the lead and timber for safekeeping, this too was sold off. The Keep still retained its roof although the doors and windows had been liberated. To save the Castle from complete ruin the ninth Earl leased the Castle to Sir Ralph Grey of Chillingham on the requirement that he lived there; however, Sir Ralph passed this duty to his Constable to do as he liked and Warkworth Castle became a refuge for the Constable’s sheep and goats. In 1617, King James I and his entourage viewed the Castle and while the carved lion remained tall the castle interior was in a squalid condition.
Apparently the tenth Earl never stayed at Warkworth castle but in 1664 Warkworth Castle had 200 Royalist troops garrisoned there with several pieces of artillery as King Charles troops retreated from the advancing Scots in the Great Rebellion. On the arrival of the Scottish force the garrison surrendered after just a single canon was fired. Four years later the external walls of the Castle were completely removed by the evacuating army so that it could never be used as a defensive position again.
The last male heir of the Percy line was Joscelyn who became the eleventh Earl but being of ill-health he moved and died in Italy leaving a young widow, the daughter of the Earl of Southampton and a daughter Elizabeth. The Countess had no attachment to Warkworth Castle and her steward, Joseph Clarke of Chirton, North Shields, gained her permission to dismantle the Keep to build a house for the Countess at Chirton. Some 272 wagons of lead and timber were taken from the Castle to Chirton. At this time the outer buildings seem to have become a communal quarry of building stone for the local population with many of the larger houses n Warkworth built from Castle stone; the local bridge was also repaired using this stone. This help-yourself quarry continued until 1750 when the last portion pulled down was the curtain wall between the Montague Tower and the Barbican.
Legal wrangles continued over the ownership of the Percy Estates but the majority passed to Elizabeth, the heir of the eleventh Earl; she married three times, the first two husbands dying very suddenly, with the third being the Duke of Somerset. Their eldest son, Algernon Seymour, inherited the estates that in turn passed on to his only offspring, Elizabeth who married Sir Hugh Smithson in 1740 and became the first Duke of Northumberland and the line from which the current castle owners are descendants. During these several generations, none of the owners returned to live in Warkworth Castle; there was a debate at the time of heiress Elizabeth and the Duke of Somerset about returning to the North but they chose Alnwick Castle to restore as the lands were significantly bigger than at Warkworth.
From the 1800s things began to look up for Warkworth Castle and some remedial work was carried out in 1853 – 58 under the 4th Duke of Northumberland, Algernon Percy. Restoration of the Keep was undertaken which while being of high standard was not in harmony with the older parts and was limited in extent. Two rooms in the keep were re-roofed and re-floored allowing the Duke to use them as a holiday apartment and for picnics.
In 1915 the castle was declared a ‘Scheduled Monument’ and in 1922 the Castle was given to the State for guardianship and HM Office of Works, Preservation of Ancient Monuments, started many years of restoration and preservation. This included clearing the original dry moat to its original level and in the process un-earthing the piers for the drawbridge at the Southern gatehouse.