Astley Castle

Astley Castle was near Nuneaton, being once the principal residence of the family of that name, whose barons flourished in the reigns of Edward I., II. and III.; for want of male succession the lands and castle fell to a daughter and heiress, who became the second wife of Reginald Grey, Lord of Ruthin, from whom descended the Greys, Marquises of Dorset, some of whom are buried in the neighbouring church, founded by Thomas, Lord Astley. Their descendant Henry, Duke of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey, was betrayed here by his own park-keeper, after the insurrection of Sir Thomas Wyatt, in 1553, in which he had been enlisted, and being taken to London he was attainted and beheaded 1554). At this time it appears that the castellated mansion was dismantled and so fell into ruin. It was rebuilt at a later date, and the lines of the old structure can be traced by the moat which surrounded it, along the inner edge of which are ranged the remains of massive walls; the area is not extensive.

The existing castle is probably not older in date than Queen Mary’s reign. The entrance into the court is by a stone bridge with embattled parapets, and a similar crenellated parapet runs along the top of the building, which is a plain square block with heavy mullioned windows, the rooms cold and gloomy as in most of the sixteenth-century structures. On the staircase are still kept the writing table and chair found in an old oak tree in which the Duke of Suffolk hid after the failure of the Kentish rising under Wyatt. (Castles Of England, Sir James D. Mackenzie, 1896)