Nottingham Castle

Nottingham Castle
Nottingham, England
Nottingham Castle – The Castle Gate House – Showing the medieval architecture of the bridge and lower towers with the Victorian renovation of the upper towers and gate house.
Nottingham Castle
Coordinates	52°56′57″N 1°09′17″W / 52.9493°N 1.1546°W / 52.9493; -1.1546
Type	Enclosure castle
Site information
Owner	Nottingham City Council
Site history
Built	1067 Remodeled in 1678
Built by	William the Conqueror William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle
In use	Museum and art gallery
Events	English Civil War

1067

William the Conqueror

Nottingham Castle is a castle in Nottingham, England. It is located in a commanding position on a natural promontory known as "Castle Rock", with cliffs 130 feet (40 m) high to the south and west. In the Middle Ages it was a major royal fortress and occasional royal residence. In decline by the 16th century, it was largely demolished in 1649. The Duke of Newcastle later built a mansion on the site, which was burnt down by rioters in 1831 and left as a ruin. It was later rebuilt to house an art gallery and museum, which remain in use. Little of the original castle survives, but sufficient portions remain to give an impression of the layout of the site.

There is some uncertainty whether a castle existed on the site before the Norman Conquest. If there was it would have been smaller and far less elaborate in design than the one that stood there afterwards, keeping in line with Anglo-Saxon architectural tradition.

The first Norman castle was a wooden structure and of a motte-and-bailey design, and was built in 1067, the year after the Battle of Hastings, on the orders of William the Conqueror. This wooden structure was replaced by a far more defensible stone castle during the reign of King Henry II, and was imposing and of a complex architectural design, which eventually comprised an upper bailey at the highest point of the castle rock, a middle bailey to the north which contained the main royal apartments, and a large outer bailey to the east.

For centuries the castle served as one of the most important in England for nobles and royalty alike. It was in a strategic position due to its location near a crossing of the River Trent; and it was also known as a place of leisure being close to the royal hunting grounds at Tideswell, which was the "Kings Larder" in the Royal Forest of the Peak, and also the royal forests of Barnsdale and Sherwood Forest. The castle also had its own deer park in the area immediately to the west, which is still known as The Park.