TUTBURY CASTLE

Staffordshire

Tutbury is a tremendous ruin, very atmospheric and beautifully positioned above the one of Staffordshire's most pleasant towns.  The Castle was started within four years of the Norman Conquest and was initially a motte and bailey of some large dimensions; probably built by Henry de Ferrers, Earl of Derby who also founded the priory church in the town.

The de Ferrers were not very good judges of whose side to pick and sided twice against the Crown, once in 1173 and then by siding with Simon de Montfort in 1264.  On both occasions Tutbury Castle was besieged by the King's forces and damaged badly.  On the second occasion the de Ferrers forfeited all their lands and Henry III granted Tutbury to Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, one of his sons.

The Castle was sacked once again in 1322 and via John of Gaunt passed to his son, who became Henry IV.  Mary, Queen of Scots spent two extremely uncomfortable periods of incarceration here on her slow progress towards Fotheringhay Castle.

The Civil War arrived in 1643 and a Roundhead attack was repelled.  They returned three years later to finish the job and this time succeeded in entering the Castle after a long, heavy bombardment.  What was left was then slighted.

A folly keep crowns the motte, constructed in the 18th century.

Tutbury Castle is not dissimilar in its layout to the even more ruined Chartley Castle and the slightly less ruined Stafford Castle.  The Castle is open to the public during the summer and is well worth a visit.

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2002