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Author
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Topic: Castles now
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Cristobal
Member
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posted 04-21-99 11:14 AM
  
I need some information regarding to how have been made with the castles in order to give them some utility in the global development of a city. I need books, documents....ideas. All kind of information.
Thanks!
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Philip Davis
unregistered
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posted 04-21-99 04:47 PM
Although all English castles were originally privately owned many have come into the ownership of city authorities. I can think of four main ways in which these castle sites have been used.
1. The castle has been total, or near totally, demolished and the site used for city authority offices (ie Cambridge) or sold for other developement (ie A rail station at Northampton)
2. The castle has been used as a jail. (ie Norwich, Lancaster)
3. The castle site has been turned into a public park. (ie Chicester, Wakefield)
4. In more recent times the castle has become a city museum. (ie Colchester, Norwich).
It is only fairly recently that some castles have been seen as a tourist attraction in their own right. (With the exception of the Tower of London which has a long history as a tourist attraction.)In general where the castle came into the ownership of the city at an early period it was demolished and the site was built on (unless the castle site was unsuitable for building, perhaps because of being on a steep motte). Although some castles avoided this by being useful as jails.
Where the castle came into city ownership in more recent times the site was 'made safe' (ie some ruins were demolished) and the site was used as an open space or, where the building was fairly intact, turned into a city museum. Of the major cities of England Birmingham and Manchester have both had their castles totally demolished and built upon; Bristol has had it's castle demolished and the site is now a park; Norwich castle survived as a jail and is now a museum; Much of Southampton castle fell into ruin and was built on, although some walls do remain; Liverpool never had a castle. The Tower of London survived as an army barracks, vault, prison, zoo, mint and other things. I would be interested to hear if the fate of castles has been different in other parts of the world.
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znachy
Senior Member
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posted 04-22-99 01:20 AM
Well, I think the situation in other countries is similar. In Czech Republic the castles have been very often demolished, especially in towns so they did not survive untill these days. Some of the castles have been also used as jails. Some were rebuilt into chateaux. Some of them have been used as breweries. Sometimes the castle is now used as a museum or gallery.[This message has been edited by znachy (edited 04-22-99).]
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Philip Davis
unregistered
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posted 04-22-99 12:55 PM
Castle surviving as a brewery. Only in the Czech Republic. Sounds like a wonderful combination of two of my favourite things.
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Andrew Muller
Member
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posted 04-30-99 08:18 AM
Specific to Philip Davis---I'm afraid Liverpool DID have a Castle and it was knocked down late last century. A replica 'folly' version was built near Rivington Reservoir (a bit north of Bolton) which shows that quite a lot remained of it back then. Not all Castles were privately owned either, some (Rochester, Dover, Deal for instance) were owned by the Crown and garrisoned. Indeed, Northampton was a Crown-Castle, although the fate of it was unusual. Most Crown Castles survived fairly well, at least up until the Civil War.
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Philip Davis
unregistered
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posted 04-30-99 11:40 AM
I wasn't aware of Liverpools castle. I presume this is not West Derby which is rather outside Liverpool. Could you please give me a reference to your source of information?The issue of crown ownership is a tricky one. Generally I consider that when the Crown was independent of parliamentary financial control the crown castles were the private property of the monarch. Certainly the Norman castles are best considered, in my humble opinion, as the private property of the monarch. By the time Deal was built parliament had considerable financial control of the monarchs expediture and Deal can be considered a state fortress. This appears to be a view held by some respected castle writers; R Allen Brown writes "The castle was the private fortress and residence of a lord, whether king or baron" In writing a response to what I took to be a request on information about castles in contemporary city planning I did not make it clear that I was refering to the fate of castles in the last two hundred years. This having been said many castles were in a ruinous state well before the 17th century English civil war. The crown castle at Carlisle had parts which were 'like to fall' in a survey of 1529.
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