Herstmonceux Castle
| Herstmonceux Castle | |
|
Sussex | |
|---|---|
 Herstmonceux Castle, seen from the south-west | |
| Location | |
| Location: | 50°52’13"N, 0°20’12"W |
| History | |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Intact, used as a study centre |
| Owned by: | Queen's University, Canada |
| Website: | Herstmonceux Castle |
Herstmonceux Castle is a brick-built Tudor castle near Herstmonceux in Sussex. From 1957 to 1988 its grounds were the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Today it is used by the Bader International Study Centre of Queen's University, Canada.
Significance
Herstmonceux Castle is one of the oldest significant brick buildings still standing in Britain; brick was an unusual material for the time. The builders of Herstmonceux Castle concentrated more on grandeur and comfort than on defence.
Herstmonceux Castle is home to events throughout the year, including the annual England's Mediæval Festival on August Bank Holiday weekend.
History
Early history
The first written evidence of the existence of the village which became Herstmonceaux appears in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book which reports that one of William's closest supporters granted tenancy of the manor at Herst to a man named 'Wilbert'. By the end of the twelfth century, the family at the manor house at Herst had considerable status. Written accounts mention a lady called Idonea de Herst, who married a Norman nobleman named Ingelram de Monceux. Around this time, the manor began to be called the "Herst of the Monceux", and from this in time came 'Herstmonceux'.
A descendant of the Monceux family, Roger Fiennes, was ultimately responsible for the construction of Herstmonceux Castle. Sir Roger was appointed Treasurer of the Household of Henry VI and needed a house fitting a man of his position, so construction of the castle on the site of the old manor house began in 1441. It was this position as treasurer which enabled him to afford the £3,800 construction of the original castle. The result is not a defensive structure, but a palatial residence in a self-consciously archaising castle style.
In 1541, Sir Thomas Fiennes, Lord Dacre, was tried for murder and robbery of the King's deer after his poaching exploits on a neighbouring estate resulted in the death of a gamekeeper. He was convicted and hanged as a commoner, and the Herstmonceux estate was temporarily confiscated by Henry VIII of England, but was restored to the Fiennes family during the reign of one of Henry's children.[1]
The profligacy of the 15th Baron Dacre, heir to the Fiennes family, forced him to sell in 1708 to George Naylor, a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn in London. Naylor's grandson followed the architect Samuel Wyatt's advice to reduce the Castle to a picturesque ruin by demolishing the interior. Thomas Lennard, 16th Baron Dacre, was sufficiently exercised as to commission James Lamberts of Lewes to record the building. The castle was dismantled in 1777 leaving the exterior walls standing and remained a ruin until the early 20th century
20th century restoration
Radical restoration work was undertaken by Colonel Lowther in 1913 to transform the ruined building into a residence and completed for Sir Paul Latham in 1933 by the architect, Walter Godfrey. The existing interiors largely date to this period, incorporating architectural antiques from England and France. The one major change in planning was the combination of the four internal courtyards into one large one. The restoration work, regarded as the apex of Godfrey's architectural achievement, was described by the critic Nikolaus Pevsner as executed 'exemplarily'.
Royal Greenwich Observatory
The property passed through the hands of private owners until it was sold in 1946 to the Admiralty. In 1957 the Herstmonceux Castle grounds became the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and remained so until 1988 when the observatory moved to Cambridge.
Several of the telescopes remain but the largest telescope, the 100-inch aperture Isaac Newton Telescope was moved to La Palma, Canary Islands in the 1970s. The estate provides housing to the Equatorial Telescope Buildings, which have been converted to an interactive science centre for schoolchildren. The empty dome for the Newton Telescope remains on this site and is a landmark being visible from afar.
University study centre
In 1992, Queen's University alumnus Alfred Bader learned of the castle's vacancy and offered to purchase the castle for his wife; she declined, joking that there would be "too many rooms to clean".[2] Bader later contacted then Principal of Queen's University, David Chadwick Smith, asking if a castle might fit into the school's plans, possibly as an international study centre.
In 1994, after intensive renovations, the Queen's International Study Centre was opened. It hosts primarily undergraduate students studying arts or commerce through the Canadian University Study Abroad Programme, as well as graduate students studying Public International Law or International Business Law. In late January 2009, the ISC was renamed the Bader International Study Centre.
Appearances in fiction
The castle was used for filming part of The Silver Chair, a 1990 BBC adaptation of the book (one of The Chronicles of Narnia) by C. S. Lewis.
The castle and gardens were used by comedians Reeves and Mortimer for one of their Mulligan and O'Hare sketches.
In August 2002, the Coca-Cola Company rented the castle for use as part of a prize in a Harry Potter-themed sweepstakes -- the castle served as "Hogwarts" in a day of Harry Potter-related activities for the sweepstakes winners. A "painting" of the castle was used as a magical cursed object in the U. S. television show Charmed - episode 2.3 "The Painted World".
</gallery> File:Herstmonceux castle aerialview.jpg|Herstmonceux Castle File:Herstmonceux Castle Nord.jpg|The north front of Herstmonceux Castle and gardens File:The castle, Hurstmonceux, England-LCCN2002696815.jpg|The overgrown castle in the 1890s </gallery>
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Herstmonceux Castle) |
- Herstmonceux Castle
- Queen's University (Canada)'s Bader International Study Centre at Herstmonceux Castle
- The Observatory Science Centre, Herstmonceux
- England's Mediæval Festival
- A Personal History of the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux Castle, 1948-1990 by George Wilkins, a former member of staff
References
- ↑ Ranulph Fiennes, Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expedition Round My Family (2009)
- ↑ Royal Institute of Chemistry 1993, p. 922
- Royal Institute of Chemistry (1993), Chemistry in Britain (Chemical Education Trust Fund for the Chemical Society and the Royal Institute of Chemistry) 29
- John Goodall in Burlington Magazine (August 2004).
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Sussex, 1965 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09677-4