COWDRAY CASTLE

Sussex

Cowdray is a stunning ruin, one almost always ignored by books on Castles because of its 'non-geniuneness' a kind of Castle snobbery!

The first building was built around 1273 by John Bohun.  A licence to crenellate was given in 1535 by Sir William FitzWilliam who added the handsome gatehouse that has survived the best. Both Edward VI and Elizabeth I visited Cowdray at its height.  Parliamentary troops were garrisoned here during the Civil War, although no siege happened.

One of Cowdray's most fascinating tales is of how it came to be a ruin.  A curse was put on the family of the then owner - Sir Anthony Browne - at the time of the Dissolution of Battle Abbey (in which he took part) that his family "by fire and watr should come to an end".  In 1793 the eighth viscount was drowned shooting rapids on the Rhine, a few weeks before this a workman at the Castle had left a charcoal pan burning in the north-west corner tower.  A fire had caught and it completely gutted the Castle (a lesson still not learned by such places as Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle in much more recent times!).

The estate then passed to the related Poyntz family and in 1815 the two sons of the family - and the only heirs - were drowned in a boating accident.

The ruins were repaired early this century and house a small museum.  The Castle is a "must see" for anyone who likes their Castles, if not 100% genuine, then certainly 100% fascinating!

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2009