Buckden Towers

Buckden Towers, or Palace, three and a half miles S.W. of Huntingdon, was a defensible palace of the Bishops of Lincoln, to whom the manor was granted temp. Henry I. by the Abbot of Ely, as a compensation for the privilege of turning his abbacy into a bishopric. It is constructed chiefly of brick, and is surrounded with a moat. Leland says it was built by Bishop Rotherham, in the fifteenth century, and it was finished by his successor, Bishop Russel. Large sums were expended on the fabric in later times by various prelates, as late as the reign of Charles II. The palace consists of two quadrangles ; the chief features being the fine entrance gatehouse, with its circular arched doorway, its battlements and watch-turret, and the keep, with octagonal turrets rising from the ground. There are several very spacious apartments, and the situation of the palace is pleasant and picturesque. (Castles Of England, Sir James D. Mackenzie, 1896)