Saltwood Castle

Saltwood Castle
Kent in England
Saltwood Castle in 2013
Saltwood Castle Shown within Kent
Coordinates	51°4′54.64″N 1°5′3.72″E / 51.0818444°N 1.0843667°E / 51.0818444; 1.0843667Coordinates: 51°4′54.64″N 1°5′3.72″E / 51.0818444°N 1.0843667°E / 51.0818444; 1.0843667
Grid reference	grid reference NY530271
Site information
Owner	Private
Open to the public	No
Site history
Materials	Stone

Saltwood Castle is a castle in Saltwood village, one mile (2 km) north of Hythe, Kent, England. Of 11th century origin, the castle was expanded in the 13th and 14th centuries. After the Norman Conquest, the castle was appropriated by the Archbishop of Canterbury Lanfranc and remained the property of the archbishops, with some interruptions, until 1540, when Thomas Cranmer was compelled to cede it to Henry VIII. The castle is reputed to have been the meeting place of the four knights who carried out the assassination of Thomas Becket in 1170. By the 19th century, it was "largely ruinous" and restorations to make portions of the castle habitable were carried out in the 1880s and 1930s. In the late 19th century, the castle was bought by an ancestor of Bill Deedes, the journalist and politician, who grew up there. In the 20th century, it was sold to Sir Martin Conway who commissioned Philip Tilden to undertake a restoration. In 1953, the castle was bought by the art historian Kenneth Clark (1903–1983), and then became the home of his son, the politician and diarist, Alan Clark (1928–1999). It remains the private home of his widow, Jane Clark. The castle is a Grade I listed building.

The castle was probably erected on a Roman site, though Bronze Age implements and copper ingots discovered in Hayne's Wood, 1874, show the site had already long been inhabited.

The castle's site traces its history back to 488 CE, when Aesc, the son of Hengist and the King of Kent, built a castle on the site. It first appears, however, on a charter of King Egbert in 833. The manor of Saltwood was granted to the priory of Christ Church in Canterbury by a deed dated 1026. Under William of Normandy, Saltwood, held by the Archbishop of Canterbury and let, under knights’ service, to Hugo de Montfort, formed part of the string of large fiefs granted from Hithe to the New Forest, along the south coast of England. The structure was replaced by a twelfth-century Norman structure, with work extending over the next two centuries. It became the residence for a time of Henry of Essex, constable of England.