posted 05-27-2000 01:35 PM            

"Almost nothing remains of Sleaford Castle. It was built between 1123 and 1139 by Bishop Alexander of Lincoln. It never withstood an armed attach or siege but was an agricultural focus for the Bishop’s estates in Sleaford and elsewhere. King John spent one of the last nights of his life here after the loss of his baggage train and jewels in the Wash in October 1216.

The castle’s decline to its current state began in the sixteenth century. An engraving of the castle made early in the eighteenth century shows a ruin, but with a considerable amount of stonework still visible. All that now remains, however is one small, toppled portion of a wall in the north-east corner of the inner bailey."

posted 05-27-2000 03:27 PM           

Usually I quite like these vague ruins that require you to imagine what the castle was like but the rather sad piles of rubbish at Sleaford made the visit rather glum. Sleaford castle certainly could do with some friends.

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And as I rode by Dalton-Hall Beneath the turrets high, A maiden on the castle-wall Was singing merrily: The Outlaw by Sir Walter Scott
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