Fortified Britain
Educate. Inspire. Preserve.
Newark Castle: Niwerc
Newark-on-Trent
Scheduled Monument – Monument Number 322211
Grade I Listed Building, Grade II Listed Gardens.
Early Medieval cemetery, roughly rectangular Medieval castle, gatehouse. The gatehouse measuring 45 ft by 30 ft with walls of 8-9 ft thick with buttresses at the corners and standing three stories high, within a rectangular bailey. The water gate in the west wall and the moat spanned by a bridge.
* Originally had a timber pallisade, and possibly a Saxon fortified manor.
* Finds include pottery.
1123-1133 Rebuilt by Bishop Alexander
1130 Motte and bailey constructed.
1133 Alexander gained permission to build a bridge from the castle across the River Tyne.
1138-1140 Rebuilt in stone and described by Henry of Huntingdon as ‘magnificent’.
1180 Visited by Henry II.
12th C Late: South west tower built.
1216 King John died at the castle.
1217 Robert de Gaugy refused to surrender the castle to the Bishop of Lincoln and it was seiged by the Dauphin of France under the orders of Henry III. The siege lasted for 8 days.
1218 Given back to the Bishop of Lincoln.
1290 Possibly rebuilt.
13th C Rebuilt and altered including a new tower to the north west and a new curtain wall.
1320-1340 During: River front central tower built, north west tower and curtain wall remodeled, possibly by Bishop de Burghersh.
1322 Held by Bishop Henry Burghersh, but Edward II gave it to Donald, Earl of Mar.
1323 Visited by Edward II.
1333-1348 Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln built the gatehouse, curtain wall and north west tower.
1335 Anarchy: Taken by King Stephen
14th C Rebuilt, including the Hall undercroft.
1435 Walls repaired.
1471-1480 During: Hall altered and an oriel window added for Bishop Thomas Rotherham.
1487 Visited by Henry VII.
15th C Altered.
1547 Passed to Henry VIII.
1587 Repairs carried out by Sir William Cecil.
1581 Central and south west towers altered as well as gatehouse and Hall windows, for the Edward, 3rd Earl of Rutland and was in urgent need of repair.
1590 Sir William Cecil, 17th Baron de Ros, was born at the castle.
16th C Mid: Deteriorated.
1603 Visited by James I.
1642-1651 Civil War: Royalist commander Sir John Henderson was the first commander of the castle.
1642 Civil War: Charles I’s Kings General fortified and garrisoned the castle.
1643 Civil War: February – Major General Thomas Ballard tried to take the city with 600 men and 10 guns. An unsuccessful counter attack led to a withdrawal.
1644 Civil War: February – Sir Thomas Meldrum, for Parliament, with 2,000 horse, 5,000 foot, 11 cannons and 2 mortars attacked but they surrendered when Prince Maurice and his troops turned up.
1645 Civil War: November – Parliamentarian General Poyntz and the Scots army laid siege to the town. The castle was held by Lord John Bellasis for the King. Poyntz dammed the river and cut off the water supply.
1646 Civil War: May – The castle surrendered to Parliament, and they removed the roof and slighted the building.
1845-1848 Restored by Anthony Salvin.
1889 Bought and restored by the Newark Corporation.
19th C Mid: Buttresses on gatehouse.
1953-1956 Excavated
1962 Field Investigation.
1970-1971 Excavated.
1972 Excavated by University of Nottingham.
1979-1990 Restored by the Department of the Environment.
1984 Excavated by Trent Valley Archaeological Research Committee.
1992 Geophysical Survey by Geophysical Surveys of Bradford.
1992-1995 Excavated by Newark Castle Trust.
1993-1994 Watching Brief by Trent and Peak Archaeological Trust.
1994 Excavated by John Samuels Archaeological Consultancy.
1994 Watching Brief by John Samuels Archaeological Consultancy.
1994 Scheduled.
1998 Excavated by Archaeological Project Services.
1999 Watching Brief by John Samuels Archaeological Consultancy.
2001 Watching Brief by John Samuels Archaeological Consultancy.
21st C Beginning: Tower, gatehouse and part of curtain wall remain.