Cherie's Place » Warkworth Castle

Warkworth Castle – Church Foundations

CherryPie — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:58:58 +0000

At the bottom of the photo you can see the foundations of a church laid out in a cruciform.

Warkworth Castle – Little Stair Tower

CherryPie — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 18:07:56 +0000

The Little Stair Tower has a rather distinctive spire. The tower was a secondary porch to the fourth earl’s residence in the bailey:

It served the great chamber much as the Lion Tower served the great hall. It was heavily reconsolidated and partly rebuilt in the 1920s.*

*From the English Heritage guide book.

Warkworth Castle – Great Tower

CherryPie — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:29:41 +0000

The great tower was commissioned by Henry Percy after he was made the first earl of Northumberland in 1377. The building is styled in the shape of a Greek cross, with four polygonal wings radiating from a central block. *

*Information from the English Heritage guidebook.

Warkworth Castle – The Lion Tower

CherryPie — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:09:04 +0000

The Lion Tower was built by the fourth earl of Northumberland in about 1480 and was the main porch to the new bailey residence.

Its spectacular display of heraldic sculpture celebrated his dynastic prowess. Symbolic of the Percy family is the great lion over the door. Above this helm with a ‘cap of estate’ and crest, respectively expressing the rank and identity of the wearer. Around the helms are representations of mantling, or decorative swathes of cloth. One of the badges at the top of the tower has tentatively been identified as the padlock of fetterlock of the house of York. If so, this would date the porch to before the Tudor victory at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

The third picture shows the Percy Lion whose collar displays the family war-cry. ‘Espurance’, meaning ‘ hope’. Above the lion to the left is depicted, the arms of Percy ‘ancient’, abandoned by the family in 1343, when the seal bearing these arms was smashed at Warkworth. Above the lion to the right are the three ‘luces’, or fishes, of the arms of the Lucy family which are a play on their name. The Percys inherited substantial estates from the Lucys in the 1380s.*

*Information taken from the English Heritage guidebook.

Warkworth Castle

CherryPie — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:45:29 +0000

A brief overview of the castle from the English Heritage guide book:

The castle was probably laid out in its present form by Roger fitz Roger in about 1200 and was developed by its subsequent owners, the Percy family, the earls (and later dukes) of Northumberland. The scale and ambition of this great building embody the power and pretensions of this noble family, among the greatest landowners in northern England.