Berkhamsted Castle

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Walmer Castle was begun amid fears of imminent European invasion in May 1539 by Henry VIII following his divorce and break with the Roman Catholic Church. It formed one of a chain of gun forts built to the latest military designs across the south of England to protect the most important stretches of coast. With its neighbouring forts to the north Deal and Sandown it guarded the shallow semi-sheltered anchorage known as the Downs. By October 1540 it was garrisoned and ready to face the cannons of Europe. The invasion never came but Walmer remained garrisoned until into the 19th century. The only military action it saw however was in 1648 during the Civil War when for three weeks Royalists held the castles of the Downs.Walmer was the responsibility of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports a post dating back to at least the 12th century. It was made the Warden’s official residence by Lionel Sackvile and adapted by him for domestic use in the 1730s and subsequently by successive Lords Warden many of whom are famous in English history. William Pitt the Younger’s ‘improved’ castle and gardens made Walmer into a home for entertaining by the sea masking its role at the height of the Napoleonic Wars as a locus of informal political and military planning a role that continued into the First World War. The hero of Waterloo the Duke of Wellington often stayed here when Warden and it was here in his room overlooking the sea that he died in 1852.During the First World War Prime Minister Asquith held receptions and informal meetings at Walmer and the young Winston Churchill (who would become Lord Warden during the Second World War) was one of his regular guests.Now in the care of English Heritage Walmer Castle has been re-dressed to reflect significant eras in the life of the castle.Key Features:48 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2015

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Mount Grace Priory is the best preserved of the ten Carthusian monasteries in England. Founded in 1398 by Thomas de Holand Duke of Surrey and nephew of Richard II and refounded in 1415 by Thomas Beaufort Earl of Dorset and later Duke of Exeter it was the last monastery established in Yorkshire before the Reformation an expression of the fashion for piety and strict living that followed the Black Death. Unlike other monks who lived communally the Carthusians lived as hermits. They worked meditated and said daily offices in solitude in their own cells encountering each other in church only for daily Matins and Vespers and less frequently at the convent mass.The priory was closed in 1539 at the Suppression of monasteries its monks pensioned and most of its building dismantled. In the 17th century the north guest house was converted into a comfortable residence. At the end of the 19th century the industrialist Sir Lowthian Bell extended the house in the Arts and Crafts style and began repair of the priory ruins.Today visitors can see the layout of the whole priory including a reconstructed and furnished cell the typically small Carthusian church its service buildings and the house that occupies the shell of the priory’s original guest house.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2014

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Longthorpe Tower was built in about 1290-1300 by Robert Thorpe a lawyer landholder and an official of Peterborough Abbey. The first floor of the tower is decorated with one of the most complete and interesting examples of medieval domestic wall painting in northern Europe. Dating from about 1330 the scenes depict religious secular and mythical subjects along with heraldry and images of birds and animals abundantly displaying the erudition devotion and importance of the owner. The room was probably used as a study and private place to receive special guests and clients.Added to an earlier house the tower belongs to a type known today as 'solar towers'. These were attached to grand but otherwise unfortified houses to provide extra rooms (a 'solar' being a private room) a measure of security and a powerful symbol of status. Longthorpe is interesting for its mimicry of the 'great towers' of 'keeps' of the 12th century and for being among the earlier examples built for a man of less than noble status.Illustrated with new photography reconstruction drawings plans and historic images Longthorpe Tower guidebook provides a comprehensive guide to the wall paintings and a history of the tower its inhabitants and how the paintings were discovered and restored.Key Features:24 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2014

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Middleham Castle stands above the small market town of Middleham in North Yorkshire. To the south-west is an earth mound all that is left of the first castle which was built during the Norman Conquest by Alan the Red one of William the Conqueror’s right-hand men. By the late 13th century the Nevilles held Middleham and over the next 200 years while they dominated the north of England they turned it into a castle fit for a king. Indeed after the death of the Earl of Warwick the mighty ‘Kingmaker’ during the Wars of the Roses the castle passed to Richard Duke of Gloucester later King Richard III. Richard had spent many years of his childhood at Middleham as part of Warwick’s household. It was Warwick’s younger daughter Anne Neville whom he married and it was at Middleham that their only son Prince Edward died.Middleham’s fortunes declined after Richard’s death at Bosworth in 1485. It was probably leased out for farming and industrial purposes and in 1926 came into the care of the State. Yet its great tower one of the largest in the country and its staunch walls recall its days as the residence of some of the most powerful men in the land.This beautifully illustrated new guidebook to Middleham Castle gives a full tour and history of the remains of this important site once home to England’s most controversial king.Key Features:48 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2015

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Kenilworth Castle is one of the great historical sites of the United Kingdom. It was a royal castle for most of its history and its walls enclose a series of outstanding works of medieval and early Renaissance architecture. The first castle was established in the 1120s. In the early 13th century King John’s modifications to the castle created one of the most formidable fortresses in the kingdom proved beyond doubt in 1266 when Kenilworth withstood the longest medieval siege on English soil. This revised third edition expands on the medieval history of the castle with a feature on the infamous French gift of tennis balls sent to Henry V at Kenilworth in 1415 provoking the invasion of Normandy which culminated in the spectacular English victory at the Battle of Agincourt. The high point of the castle’s history came when it was bought by the Dudley family in the 16th century. Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester transformed the castle into a lavish palace fit to entertain Elizabeth I who visited Kenilworth in 1572 and 1575. The Elizabethan garden and structure known as Leicester’s Building were particularly magnificent. The guide includes an extended section on the building newly re-opened with viewing platforms that allow access to its upper storeys including the queen’s apartments on the principal floor.This beautifully illustrated guide includes a detailed tour of the site and its long history. Complete with plans historical images and maps the story of Kenilworth Castle is explored from its origins to the present day.Key Features:52 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2015

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Conisbrough Castle's magnificent 12th-century great tower rising above the ruined walls of its inner bailey and its tree-covered hill is one of England’s most striking landmarks.In the 11th century the castle was the centre of a great lordship given by William the Conqueror to one of his most trusted followers William de Warenne. In the mid-12th century the castle was inherited by Isabel de Warenne one of the greatest heiresses of her age. She married Hamelin of Anjou Henry II’s illegitimate half-brother and it was probably Hamelin who built the great tower in the 1170s or 1180s. Remarkably preserved the tower still dominates the castle and town of Conisbrough.Conisbrough passed to King Edward III’s son Edmund of Langley and the castle played a role in the 15th century Wars of the Roses. Abandoned by the early 16th century Conisbrough became a picturesque ruin and inspired the novelist Sir Walter Scott to write his most famous novel Ivanhoe published in 1819.This new guide gives a full tour and history of Conisbrough Castle and is beautifully illustrated with newly commissioned reconstruction drawings plans photographs and comparative historical images.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2015

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Hidden in deep woodland on the banks of the river Coquet Brinkburn Priory is a surprising place to find one of the finest early Gothic priory buildings in England. The church begun about 50 years after the priory’s foundation in 1135 as a house for Augustinian canons is the only complete surviving building of the monastery.After the Dissolution parts of the monastic buildings were adapted to form an elegant manor house which remained a family home until 1953: features of the original monastery can still be traced in its walls. The church became the parish church and after years of neglect was sympathetically restored to its former glory in the mid-19th century.This guidebook brings together the full history of Brinkburn and takes the visitor on a tour of the church priory remains and manor house.Key Features:24 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2015 (revised reprint)

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Lanercost’s peaceful setting today belies an unusually turbulent history for a monastery. Lying close to the Scottish border the priory was vulnerable to attack during the Anglo-Scottish wars of the 14th century and Robert Bruce himself raided it. Edward I and his retinue stayed here for five month in 1306-7 shortly before the king’s death.After the priory’s dissolution the nave of the church continued in use as the parish church which it remains today. Parts of the monastic buildings were turned into a residence for the Dacre family and the finest part of their home Dacre Hall still remains in use as the village hall. By contrast the ruined choir and transepts form a dramatic silhouette.This guidebook provides a full tour of all the buildings and traces the evolution of the priory and the history of its inhabitants from medieval times to the present day.Key Features:32 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2014 (revised reprint)

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The striking ruins of Kirkham Priory in North Yorkshire have a fascinating history. This community of Augustinian priors survived an early attempt to transfer them to the more widespread Cistercian order. The size and wealth of the Priory rivalled some of the more famous nearby Cistercian houses such as Rievaulx Abbey.During the 13th century the priory prospered under the patronage of the de Roos lords of Helmsley whose heraldry can be seen elaborately carved into the facade of the gatehouse and there were several phases of building that can still be traced in the detail of the extensive ruins.This guidebook offers a richly-illustrated guided tour explaining the main features of the remains of the priory buildings as we as a lively anecdotal history.Key Features:28 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2015 (revised reprint)

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This remarkable hexagonal castle in a remote valley in Wiltshire was built in the late 1390s for John the 5th Lord Lovell one of the richest barons in Englnad and a kinsman of Richard II (r.1377-99). Lovell's castle now in partial ruin was then as sophisticated as any building in Europe its design drawing on the king's magnificent new Westminster Hall begun that same year. Wardour was a symbol of Lovell's status his closeness to Richard II's opulent court his wealth and his cultural sophicstication.By 1578 however the new owner of the castle Sir Matthew Arundell saw the need to modernize it. He had one of the leading mason-architects of his day Robert Smythson convert it into an up-to-date Elizabethan residence; but less than 70 years later it was partially blown up in the Civil War.Wardour was never reconstructed after this disaster. Instead Arundell's 18th-century descendants turned it into a romantic ruin embellishing it and creating a surrounding parkland and lake. The resulting combination of medieval splendour Elizabethan enrichment and Georgian landscaping makes it one of the most memorable of the properties administered by English Heritage.Publication date: May 2012Paperback 48pp 98 illustrations

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Clifford's Tower is all that remains of York's medieval castle which was once the main northern stronghold of the kings of England. At first there was a timber tower here where one of the most notorious events in the history of the castle took place in 1190 when the Jews of York who had taken refuge in the Tower died in tragic circumstances. The stone tower was built soon afterwards and was used as a treasury and royal exchequer. In the 17th century a fire destroyed the interior of the tower and the building was reduced to a shell. Many of the rest of the castle buildings were swept away in the 18th and 19th centuries. This guidebook contains a tour of the tower and the other remains of York castle together with a history of the site illustrated with new reconstruction drawings photographs plans and historical images.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2012

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Orford Castle was built by Henry II in the 12th century to protect himself against foreign invasion and uprisings by the barons of East Anglia particularly the powerful Hugh Bigod who owned Framlingham Castle. Designed as a visible symbol of royal power it was both an innovative military stronghold and a grand residence with comfortable rooms and a sophisticated layout. Its construction encouraged the development of a new church street-plan and improved port in Orford itself.Orford remained an important royal castle for over 150 years and was still defending the coast in the Second World War when it served as a radar station. Today the keep offers a fascinating insight into castle life in the 12th century. From the roof there is a sweeping panorama of the town coast and surrounding landscape.This guidebook includes a new reconstruction painting of the castle and its earthworks based on recent research which has revealed the probably position of the lost castle walls for the first time.Key Features:32 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2009 (revised reprint)

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Pickering is a fine example of a motte-and-bailey castle first built in earth and timber by William the Conqueror in the years following the Norman Conquest. It was rebuilt in stone and extended by subsequent kings notably Henry III and Edward II in response to the threat posed at different times by rebellious barons and the Scots.In 1267 the castle was granted to Edmund Early of Lancaster whose son Thomas led a revolt against Edward II. Thomas was ultimately defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge not far from Pickering and the castle was returned to royal hands.This guidebook provides a full account of the history of the castle including its various functions as administrative centre royal hunting lodge law court and prison; and includes a tour of the extensive remains that can still be seen today.Key Features:36 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2015 (revised reprint)

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Carisbrooke Castle was the key to the defence of the Isle of Wight for more than six centuries this guidebook is beautifully illustrated and written by leading English Heritage experts.Carisbrooke Castle has been the most important stronghold on the Isle of Wight from at least Saxon times. The keep and main walls were built soon after the Norman conquest and the castle was frequently updated over the centuries under the threat of Spanish invasion in Elizabeth I's reign it was transformed into a state-of-the-art artillery fortress. During the Civil War it was used as a prison most famously housing Charles I who twice attempted and failed to escape while he was held here in 1647-8. The castle also served as a magnificent residence for the lords and governors of the Isle of Wight including Princess Beatrice Queen Victoria's youngest daughter who used Carisbrooke as her summer home until 1938. This guidebook provides a full tour and history of the castle and its occupants.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2013

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Pevensey Castle has a long history. The Roman fort at Pevensey was built in the late third century and later served as one of the 'Saxon Shore' forts. After the Norman Conquest a castle with a strong keep was built within the ruined fort and the Roman wall repaired. The castle was besieged four times but was never captured by force only twice surrendering through famine. Pevensey last saw active service during the Second World War when it was refortified as a command and observation post. This guidebook illustrated in full colour provides visitors with a description of the castle as it can be seen today and a brief history of the castle and those connected with it.Key Features:28 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2011 (revised reprint)

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Superbly sited high above the River Wye Goodrich Castle is one of the finest and best preserved of all medieval English castles. This guidebook is richly illustrated with photographs maps and historic images and includes a tour of the extensive castle remains and a full history of the castle and its owners.Key Features:48 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2005

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At the centre of a landed estate Prudhoe Castle has been occupied continuously for more than nine centuries. This guidebook includes a tour of the medieval castle and 19th-century gentleman's house and a history of the site and surrounding area from the Norman Conquest to the present day. It contains full-colour maps plans and photographs and an eyewitness account of the castle's recent history.Key Features:32 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2006

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Framlingham is a magnificent example of a late 12th-century castle set in a beautiful location in the Suffolk countryside overlooking Framlingham Mere. Built by Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk one of the most influential people at the court of the Plantagenet Kings the castle together with the mere was designed both as a stronghold and a proclamation of power and status. The castle was briefly owned by Mary Tudor and was used as a rallying point for her support in the turbulent days after the death of Edward VI. In the mid-17th century a poorhouse was built within the walls of the castle. This guidebook includes a tour of the castle and its inhabitants illustrated with new drawings photographs plans and historical images.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2009

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Scarborough Castle stands on a massive promontory of rock that rises above the North Sea. The site has been intermittently inhabited and fortified for nearly 3000 years. With its own anchorage now the harbour Scarborough has long been an important gateway to north-east England. In the fourth century the Romans built a fortified signal station here one of a coastal chain that watched for seaborne raiders.A castle was first established here by William le Gros Earl of York in the mid-12th century. In 1155 he was forced to surrender it to Henry II who built the great tower and began developing a town beneath the castle walls.Scarborough Castle figured prominently in national events throughout the Middle Ages and Tudor period and was besieged on several occasions. The castle was briefly abandoned in the early 17th century but was reoccupied during the Civil War and twice besieged by Parliamentarian forces. Subsequently the castle was garrisoned and it remained occupied by the army until the late 19th century. The town meanwhile prospered from the 1660s as a spa and seaside resort. In 1914 the castle and town were shelled by German warships. The castle became a popular visitor attraction and was taken into State guardianship in 1920.This beautifully illustrated English Heritage guidebook gives a full tour and history of the remains of this important medieval castle complete with new photography phased plans and reconstruction images.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2013

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Rochester Castle stands within the walls of the Roman city above the rive Medway in Kent. There has been an important crossing of the road to London since the 1st century AD and it was the Normans – as they advanced across the country from the south coast building strongholds from which to exert their power over the locals – who first built a wooden castle here after their victory at the Battle of Hastings. Between 1087 and 1089 the castle was rebuilt in stone – one of the earliest such buildings in the country – by Gundulf Bishop of Rochester and in 1127 the present keep was erected under Henry I son of William the Conqueror.Rochester Castle has endured the great siege by King John in 1215 and some years later the siege of the barons rebelling against his son Henry III. It has stood for nearly a thousand years surviving the machinery of early warfare fire revolt and neglect serving as the prison of Elizabeth Queen of Scots and becoming a visitor attraction in Victorian public gardens. It remains a towering ruin confronting Rochester Cathedral at the heart of the city a sight to remind visitors today as it would have done in earlier times of those two powerful authorities of medieval England: the Crown and the Church.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2012

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Solitary beneath the wide Northumbrian sky and sprawled across the jagged rampart of the Whin Sill escarpment the Roman fort at Housesteads represents the northern margin of an empire which once reached as far as the Caucasus and the Atlas Mountains. One of 15 forts built on Hadrian’s Wall which was started in AD 122 it is situated about midway along the Wall’s length.An infantry regiment about 800 strong – the First Cohort of Tungrians raised in eastern Belgium – garrisoned the fort for much of the period of Roman rule here. The visible remains – including the finest preserved latrines known from Roman Britain – reveal the changing needs of the garrison up to the early fifth century. From then the fort seems to have been largely abandoned until the 16th century when it was taken over by a lawless community on the Anglo-Scottish border.Renowned since the early 19th century as the ‘Grandest Station’ along the Wall Housesteads has been the focus of archaeological research for almost 200 years. The inscriptions and sculptures scattered around the site attracted early antiquarian visitors. Excavations throughout the 19th century and especially 1898 provided one of the earliest examples of a complete plan of a Roman fort known anywhere in the empire.Key Features:48 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2012

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Beginning with their introduction in the eleventh century and ending with their widespread abandonment in the seventeenth Marc Morris explores many of the country's most famous castles as well as some spectacular lesser-known examples. At times this is an epic tale driven by characters like William the Conqueror King John and Edward I full of sieges and conquest on an awesome scale. But it is also by turns an intimate story of less eminent individuals whose adventures struggles and ambitions were reflected in the fortified residences they constructed. Be it ever so grand or ever so humble a castle was first and foremost a home.To understand castles who built them who lived in them and why is to understand the forces that shaped medieval BritainKey Features:280 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2012

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Hurst Castle was built between 1541 and 1544 by Henry VIII as one of a chain of artillery defences protecting key ports and landing places round southern England from Continental attack. It was sited to guard the Needles Passage the narrow western entrance to the Solent and gateway to the trading port of Southampton and the new naval base at Portsmouth.The strategic location of Hurst saw it develop into a powerful fortress. On occasion it was also used as a prison most famously when Charles I was briefly held captive here during the Civil War. During the Napoleonic Wars at the start of the 19th century Hurst's keep was strengthened. It was altered again most conspicuously in the 1860s when the great wing batteries were added as part of a huge programme of new defences around Portsmouth and Spithead that turned this part of the coast into one of the most heavily fortified areas in the world. In the First and Second World Wars the castle was fully garrisoned its searchlights and guns guarding the western entrance to the Solent against attack from the sea and the air. It retained a limited military role until the abolition of the Coastal Artillery arm of the Army in 1956.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2013 

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For 650 years the Jewel Tower has stood beside the heart of government in England. Built in 1365 within the private palace of King Edward III the tower began as a secure repository for the most valuable possessions of the royal household. Inside it clerks stored the king’s goods sent them for repair and dispatched them to other castles and manors.As royal residence moved away from Westminster in the 16th century the tower became a Parliamentary record office preserving the records of the House of Lords. The building was repaired and protected against fire in the 17th and 18th centuries although much of the medieval fabric remained intact. In 1834 the tower and its contents survived the fire that destroyed much of the historic Palace of Westminster and the records of the House of Commons.In 1869 with the construction of a record store inside the new Houses of Parliament the Jewel Tower attained a third function as  attesting facility for the Board of Trade Standards Department determining the definitive value of weights and measures for Britain and its empire.Since 1987 the Jewel Tower has formed part of the Westminster World Heritage Site.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2013

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Dartmouth Castle sits on a promontory where the river Dart meets the English Channel. It was first built in 1388 by the townsmen of Dartmouth under their mayor the merchant and privateer John Hawley to guard the town against French raids during the Hundred Years War.A century later Hawley's 'fortalice' was strengthened with a purpose-built gun tower among the first in Britain equipped with iron guns and a chain stretched across the river to stop warships entering the harbour. A battery with heavier guns was later built facing out to sea. It was improved on several occasions culminating in the Victorian 'Old Battery' whose powerful guns were capable of firing far out into the Channel.Dartmouth Castle saw fighting during the Civil War when it fell to the king and then to Parliament. Thereafter it continued to safeguard the harbour its ships shipyards and quays which formed the town's life blood and was used during the frequent wars between the European powers until the 20th century.In 1909 the castle was released by the War Office as a historic monument but was soon requisitioned again to serve in both world wars. It was handed into the guardianship of the state in 1955 and is now in the care of English Heritage.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2013

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Belsay has everything: a hall inspired by the Classical architecture of ancient Greece a medieval castle with rare wall-paintings and magnificent gardens full of exotic plants and trees. This guidebook includes a tour and history of the hall castle and gardens including the unique quarry garden and contains full-colour maps plans eyewitness accounts and historic photographsKey Features:48 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2016

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Restormel Castle sits high above the valley of the river Fowey in Cornwall the picturesque ruins of the keep now the only remains of a luxurious castle that once belonged to the Black Prince. The first castle on the site was probably built shortly after the Norman Conquest but the present building dates from the 13th century. At this time the nearby town of Lostwithiel was an important centre of the tin industry and it became one of the main administrative centres of Cornwall.In 1337 Edward the Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall and Restormel was amongst the estates he was given. By the 16th century the castle was falling into decay and was later incorporated into the picturesque landscape garden of the neighbouring manor house.This guidebook provides the visitor with a tour of the castle explaining how it would have been used in its heyday and tells its history from its first foundation to the present day.Key Features:24 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2012 (revised reprint)

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The most romantic and reputedly the most haunted castle in Devon this Berry Pomeroy Castle Guidebook is beautifully illustrated and written by leading English Heritage experts.The dramatic ruins of Berry Pomeroy Castle stand amid deep woods on a spur above Devon's Gatcombe valley. Its romantic atmosphere fostered tales of hauntings but in reality it was once filled with life by great households. During the War of the Roses the Pomeroy family sought security from violent feuds by building the castle within their deer park. In the 16th century the uncle of Edward VI Lord Protector Somerset bought the castle. He was executed for treason soon afterwards but his Seymour descendants went on to build within the medieval walls the Elizabethan mansion much of which remains. They later added the magnificent north wing and its now-vanished long gallery among the biggest every built in England. This guidebook provides a tour and history of the castle and those associated with it illustrated with plans maps and historical images.Key Features:40 pagesPaperback​Published in 2011

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In a low-lying Northumberland valley where Hadrian’s Wall bridged the North Tyne lie the impressive remains of Chesters Roman Fort – the home of the ala II Asturum (Second Asturian Cavalry Unit) for more than 200 years. Uncovered in a series of 19th-century excavations by the influential antiquary John Clayton and his descendants the remains of many of the key buildings of the Roman fort can be seen including the impressive baths.Many of the important objects amassed by Clayton and his family are on display in the museum and reveal a fascinating story of life on the Roman frontier.This fully revised guidebook includes newly commissioned reconstruction drawings of the barracks headquarters building baths and bridge a new feature on John Clayton and his wider family and an expanded section on the Clayton Museum and the many important objects on display. Key Features:48 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2016

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Built in the 12th century by a Bishop of Durham the huge bulk of Norham Castle commands a strong defensive position above the River Tweed. After withstanding repeated attacks during the 13th and 14th centuries the castle gained a reputation for being indestructible. However in 1513 James IV stormed Norham and succeeded in largely destroying it.Key Features:28 pagesPaperbackFirst Published in 1998

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Yarmouth Castle was part of the coastal defences of Henry VIII. When completed in 1547 it embodied the latest fashion in military engineering. It is square in plan and is washed on two sides by the sea. During the Civil War the Isle of Wight was strongly royalist and throughout the Commonwealth period Cromwell kept a large garrison here.Key Features:20 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2012 (revised reprint)

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Standing on a rocky outcrop and surrounded by impressive defensive ditches the ruins of Helmsley Castle still dominate the adjacent town. A castle was first raised by Walter Espec by 1153 but was rebuilt in stone by the powerful northern baron Robert de Ros II later that century. The buildings that stand today largely date from this time and from the later Middle Ages when further building works were carried out by successive members of the de Ros family. The west range was converted into a Tudor mansion in the 16th century and interior fittings from this time including a carved fireplace still survive.The castle was besieged by Parliament during the Civil War with the buildings and defences partially demolished following its surrender. Many of the castle’s buildings still survive however including remains of the outer barbican and the substantial east and west towers. An exhibition in the west range displays many of the objects discovered at Helmsley during site clearances in the 20th century.This new guidebook includes specially commissioned reconstruction drawings of the late medieval and Tudor castle as well as maps plans and comparative images and an in-depth feature on the Helmsley Archaeology Store.Key Features:36 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2017

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Standing at the mouth of the Rivers Orwell and Stour Landguard Fort is an impressive monument to the long history of coastal defence in the British Isles. This guidebook provides a tour and a history of the fort richly illustrated with new and historic photographs plans and maps.Key Features:36 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2006

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Overlooking the valley of the Cor Burn in Northumberland Aydon Castle is an outstanding surviving example of a 13th century English manor house. It was built by Robert de Raymes a prosperous Ipswich merchant. Unfortunately his arrival in the north coincided with the outbreak of fierce hostilities between England and Scotland and the castle was pillaged and burned by the Scots in 1315. By the time Robert died in 1323 the war had destroyed him financially.His descendants struggled largely unsuccessfully to restore the family’s fortunes and the condition of the castle deteriorated. In the 17th century it became a farmhouse and was later owned by the Blackett family of Matfen who used it as a family home until 1966.This guidebook tells the complex story of the castle and describes how the building has been adapted through history to suit its occupants’ needs.Key Features:32 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2016 (revised reprint)

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Lindisfarne Priory is the site of one of the most important centres of early Christianity in England. This fully illustrated guidebook includes a tour of the church and monastic buildings and a history of the site from Anglo-Saxon times. It contains full-colour maps plans eyewitness accounts and historic images.Key Features:40 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2006

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Calshot Castle was built in 1539-40 on the end of a short shingle spit to guard the entrance to Southampton water. It formed part of Henry VIII's chain of coastal defences to counter the threat of invasion by the Catholic powers of Europe. In 1913 the castle became the nucleus of one of the first Royal Naval Air Stations. From 1945 it was a coastguard station until it was handed over to English Heritage.Key Features:24 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2005 (revised reprint)

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Upnor Castle was built by order of Elizabeth I in 1559 on the banks of the Medway in Kent. Its purpose was to defend the royal fleet and its new dockyard developing near the village of Chatham just a little upstream. The castle was enlarged at the end of the 16th century and in 1667 helped prevent Dutch warships from reaching Chatham during their otherwise victorious raid on the Medway. This June is the 350th anniversary of the Dutch Raid and the new guidebook to Upnor pays particular attention to the famous event and the impressions it made on contemporaries.It was after the Raid that the castle was turned into a powder magazine to supply the Navy and new fortifications being built nearby. By 1691 Upnor had become the largest gunpowder store in the country. To protect this mass of explosives a small company of soldiers was employed and soon after 1718 was housed in the new barracks – one of the earliest in the country. Responsibility for the care of the castle and barracks was assumed by the State in 1984. Both are managed by Medway Council.Key Features:32 pagesPaperbackPublished in 2017

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Deal Castle is the greatest of the three artillery forts created in the 16th century by Henry VIII to protect the important naval anchorage known as the Downs off the Kentish coast. This guidebook which was published to coincide with the opening of a major new interpretation scheme at Deal Castle gives a full tour and history of this extraordinary coastal fortress with full-colour illustrations new maps and plans and new photographs throughout.Key Features:Paperback

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Portchester Castle’s remarkable history begins in the 3rd century when the Romans built a fort here to combat attacks by barbarian pirates. In the 5th century it was transformed into a Saxon stronghold or burgh to protect this part of the coast from Viking raids.After the Norman Conquest in 1066 a castle was built inside of the Roman walls. It later became a royal residence. Occupied until the 17th century it was converted into a prison during the Napoleonic Wars.This guidebook contains a tour of the castle buildings and the Roman fortifications. It also gives a vivid account of the extraordinary history of the castle and its occupants.Key Features:40 PagesPaperback

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Even in its ruinous state Peveril Castle is one of the most dramatic Norman castles in England. Its remote hilltop position at the head of Peak Cavern Gorge above Cave Dale is spectacular commanding views across the Dark and the White Peaks and over the Hope Valley below; when it was built it was both defensively strategic and a clear statement of power.The castle was built soon after 1066 by William Peverel a baron who played a key role in extending the Norman settlement into Derbyshire and it served chiefly as a centre for exercising lordship over the Forest of the Peak and local lead mines. Later it helped to augment the incomes of royal favourites and members of the royal family until in 1372 it was given to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and his heirs. By the 16th century it was described as ruinous although local courts still met here. In the 19th century some repairs were made and the castle began to interest historians. Since 1932 it has been in State guardianship and has been preserved as both an attraction and a familiar landmark in the Peak.This new edition of the guidebook to Peveril Castle gives a full tour and history of this unique fortress with full-colour illustrations and photographs throughout.Key Features:Published: September 2018Paperback

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Birdoswald was one of 16 Roman forts built to guard Hadrian’s Wall – the north-western frontier of the Roman Empire. This strategic location on a high promontory overlooking the Irthing valley was home to a garrison of auxiliary troops for nearly 300 years. From the early third century this was the cohors I Aelia Dacorum an infantry unit from modern-day Romania. A thriving settlement grew up around the fort and people from across the Empire made their homes here.  After Roman rule in Britain collapsed in the late fourth century Birdoswald was not abandoned but continued as the base for a local élite who lived within the fort walls in a series of grand timber halls. In medieval times and later people living in this troubled Border region took advantage of the remaining fort defences and the ready supply of stone to build a tower house and a bastle house. These were succeeded by the farmhouse which still stands today.  This fully revised guidebook includes a new feature on the Roman landscape around Birdoswald new reconstruction illustrations maps and plans and all new site photography and tells the complete story of how this site developed over nearly 1900 years. Key Features:Published - July 2018Paperback

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Orford Castle overlooking Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast is the subject of the latest addition to the Red Guide series. Orford was built by Henry II (r.1154-89) in 1165-73 as a highly visible symbol of royal power in East Anglia where for nearly 200 years the belligerent Bigod family periodically contested the Crown for supremacy. Its foundation and building are recorded in the Pipe Rolls now in the National Archives and it is the earliest castle in England for which such documents survive.Orford’s polygonal keep is a masterpiece of 12th-century architecture. In its early days the castle served as the base for a garrison and it was visited periodically by the sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk. By the end of the 16th century however it was abandoned and fell into disrepair. The ruin was acquired by Francis Seymour-Conway later 1st Marquess of Hertford in the 18th century and passed through his family until the late 19th century. Acquired by the collector Richard Wallace – the owner of nearby Sudbourne Hall and whose collections of fine and decorative arts later formed the basis of the Wallace Collection in London – it was used as a venue for visits and shooting lunches. In 1928 it was presented by its owner Sir Arthur Churchman to the Orford Town Trust which opened the castle to the public in 1930.This fully illustrated guidebook includes a full tour and history of the castle from its 12th-century origins to the present day and contains new features on the building and folklore of the castle and on the leading figures associated with it. New photographs reconstruction maps and plans bring the history of the site to life.Key Features: Published: September 2018Paperback285mm x 160mm

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Gisborough Priory in Yorkshire is the subject of the latest addition to English Heritage’s acclaimed Red Guide series. This fully illustrated guidebook includes a complete tour and a history of the priory from its origins to the present day. New photographs maps and plans bring the history of the site to life.Today the ruined east wall of the priory church soars dramatically over the remains of the monastic precinct an impressive landmark in the landscape and a reminder of the priory’s former importance and scale. The priory was founded in about 1119 and richly endowed by the powerful Norman lord Robert I de Brus ancestor of the 12th-century King of the Scots Robert the Bruce.In 1289 the priory church was badly damaged by a fire that took hold during works to the roof and a major rebuilding project resulted in the church that survives in fragments today. Following the English defeat in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 Gisborough’s estates in the north of England were devastated and the priory’s debts built up. It took several decades of wool production by the community – and several generous gifts of money by rich patrons – for the priory’s financial fortunes to improve but by the time of its suppression by Henry VIII in 1539 Gisborough was the fourth richest religious house in Yorkshire. The splendidly carved Brus Cenotaph today on view in the parish church is testament to the priory’s wealth in the years before its closure. The prior who commissioned it in the early 16th century James Cockerell opposed Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy and was removed from office later being executed for his resistance to the king’s break with Rome.In the wake of the Suppression many of the priory buildings were destroyed and the site was bought by the Chaloner family who in the 18th century created a garden in what had been part of the priory’s lands. The east end of the church became a landscape ornament and has continued to serve as an inspiration for artists antiquarians and admirers of the Picturesque.Key Features: Published: March 2019Paperback