Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Lively history of city’s medieval castle
Plans to host live events at Canterbury Castle would mark the latest era in its almost 1,000-year history...
The Gazette reported last week how the city council is increasingly confident it will be successful in its bid for £33 million from the government’s Levelling Up funding pot.
The cash would be used to turn Canterbury Castle into an events space, among several other projects.
It would mark a welcome resurgence for the crumbling keep - which was almost completely demolished in the 1800s - at the Wincheap roundabout.
Built almost 1,000 years ago, it remains, along with the Westgate Towers, the most prominent landmark of the city’s medieval defences.
Construction of the stone castle began around 1086, 20 years after Canterbury surrendered to William the Conqueror. The square keep was not completed until around 1120.
Later in the 12th century, the development of Dover Castle by Henry II meant that Canterbury Castle significantly reduced in importance and became a county prison. The prisoners were housed on the ground floor with only small slits for lighting.
In 1380 the castle was attacked during the Peasant’s Revolt. Prisoners were released and county records burnt.
The castle was strengthened under the supervision of the King’s Master Mason Henry Yevele at the same time
that he worked on Westgate around 1390.
In 1609 the castle passed into private hands and the surviving County Sessions House was built in 1730.
Demolition of the upper sections of the keep started in 1770 but was halted in 1825 - further work being discouraged by the low value of the stone in the rubble walls.
It was then sold to the Canterbury Gas Light and Coke Company who removed all the internal walls of the keep and used it as a coke store and later built a water tank on the walls.
It was finally acquired by the city council in 1928 and is maintained as a heritage site.
■ Source: Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society (CHAS).