Description

TQ 75 NE
9/168

ALLINGTON
CASTLE ROAD (south east side)
Allington Castle

30.7.51.

GV
I
The first castle on the site was a moated mound built by William de Warenne. In the C12 further building took place to the north of this, but this castle was 'overthrown' in 1174, and a small manor house built on the site. Portions of both these constructions were incorporated in the subsequent castle.

The present building was erected by Stephen de Penchester, or Penshurst, between 1279 and 1299 and continued by his son-in-law and successor Sir Henry de Cobham in the early C14. It was altered by Sir Henry Wyatt after 1492. It was forfeited to the Crown in 1554 at Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion. It subsequently became two farm houses and eventually fell into ruins, from which is was rescued by Lord Conway who, with his architect W.D Caröe, thoroughly restored the Castle between 1905 and 1929.

It is a square fortified country house consisting of buildings ranged round the inside of the courtyard with a curtain wall connecting them and semi-circular towers facing the moat which connects with the Medway. In the south west corner is Soloman's Tower of four storeys, which is larger than the other towers. In the northwest corner is the Gatehouse with restored machicolation and battlements, and iron-studded medieval double doors, approached by a barbican and stone bridge over the moat. The lower portions of the Gatehouse date from the C12 manor house. The wing which divides the courtyard in half was built by Sir Henry Wyatt and contained a long gallery, which was probably one of the first long galleries in England to be constructed. This was later destroyed but was restored by Lord Conway. Sir Henry Wyatt added the timber-frame buildings in the southeast corner of the Castle which were the kitchen and offices. These are of two storeys and attic, the ground and first floors being of stone with two timbered gables above, rendered and overhanging on bressumers with moulded argeboards and pendants and one gabled dormer. Casement windows with small square leaded panes.

Sir Henry Wyatt also altered most of the windows of the Castle. His son Sir Thomas Wyatt, the poet, was born here in 1503. The latter's son, Sir Thomas Wyatt, also lived here till his insurrection in 1554. Henry VII visited the Castle in Sir Henry Wyatt's time; Henry VIII in 1527, 1530 and 1536; also Cardinal Wolsey in 1527 and Catherine Parr in 1544.

All the listed buildings at Allington Castle form a group.

Listing NGR: TQ7522157907

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Allington Castle at Wikipedia
• Allington Castle official website
• Wikidata Q4732691

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)