• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Big Days Out

great free and pay for places to visit in the British Isles

  • England
    • Avon
    • Bedfordshire
    • Berkshire
    • Buckinghamshire
    • Cambridgeshire
    • Cheshire
    • Cornwall
    • County Durham
    • Cumbria
    • Derbyshire
    • Devon
    • Dorset
    • Essex
    • Gloucestershire
    • Hampshire
    • Herefordshire
    • Hertfordshire
    • Huntingdonshire
    • Isle Of Wight
    • Kent
    • Lancashire
    • Leicestershire
    • Lincolnshire
    • London
    • Merseyside
    • Middlesex
    • Norfolk
    • Northamptonshire
    • Northumberland
    • Nottinghamshire
    • Oxfordshire
    • Shropshire
    • Somerset
    • Staffordshire
    • Suffolk
    • Surrey
    • Sussex
    • Tyne & Wear
    • Warwickshire
    • West Midlands
    • Wiltshire
    • Worcestershire
    • Yorkshire
  • Ireland
    • Co. Londonderry
    • County Antrim
    • County Armagh
    • County Cork
    • County Down
    • County Fermanagh
    • County Kerry
    • County Mayo
    • County Tyrone
  • Scotland
    • Angus
    • Ayrshire
    • Borders
    • Dundee
    • Edinburgh
    • Glasgow
    • Invernessshire
    • Kincardineshire
    • Perthshire
    • South Lanarkshire
    • Stirling
  • Wales
    • Cardiff
    • Clwydd
    • Dyfed
    • Gwent
    • Gwynedd
    • Mid Glamorgan
    • Powys
    • South Glamorgan
    • West Glamorgan
You are here: Home / England / Kent / Chilham Castle

Chilham Castle

February 3, 2010 By Big Days Out Leave a Comment

Octagonal castle keep constructed in 1160 with a 14th century curtain wall. Originally with a bailey enclosing circa 8 acres. The castle stands in the grounds of a country house (also called Chilham Castle) completed in 1616 with alterations dating to 1861-3 and 1922. A timber-framed building accommodating a donkey wheel was added in the 18th century. A private residence, only open for corporate functions. Tessa and Stuart Wheeler bought Chilham Castle in April 2002. Stuart Wheeler was the founder of the spread betting company IG Index.

This ruined castle stands on high ground, over the valley of the Stour, about seven miles S.W. from Canterbury. It is surrounded by a deep ditch enclosing an area of eight acres. Originally a stronghold of the Saxon kings of Kent, it was founded by one of these, a convert to Christianity, in what had been a Roman camp. The Conqueror granted the place and lands to Bishop Odo, and after his fall they were given to a Norman knight named Fulbert, who, being one of the eight knights of Dover, assumed that name, his family name being Lucy (Barris). His son Richard dying s.p., King John, by charter in his sixteenth year, restored Chilham to Fulbert’s daughter and heir, Roesia do Dover, who was harried to Richard Fitzroy, the king’s son. They had two daughters, one of whom, Lora, was wife to William Marmion, and the other, Isabel, married (first) David de Strathbolgy, Earl of Athol, with issue, and (secondly) Sir Alexander de Baliol, who was summoned to Parliament, jure uxoris, as the lord of Chilham. Isabel died at Chilham in 1292, seised of the barony of Chilham and the church of Charlton, and is buried in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral (Weever). John, Earl of Athol, her son by her first husband, was condemned for treason (34 Edward I.), and hanged by that king at Canterbury upon a gibbet fifty feet high, he being “of nobler blood, being of the king’s blood;” he was cut down alive and beheaded, and his body burnt, and his estates, inclusive of Chilham, which he inherited at his mother Isabel’s death, as the caput baroniae, were confiscated by the Crown. Edward II., in his fifth year, granted the castle and manor to “the rich lord;’ Bartholomew de Badlesmere, of Leeds, or Ledes, Castle, Kent (q.v.), and on his attainder, they were given to David de Strathbolgy, the grandson of the former Earl, during his lifetime, reverting at his death to the Crown. Afterwards, coming into the possession of William, Lord de Roos of Hamlake, when his descendant Thomas, Lord Roos, was attainted after Towton (1 Edward IV.), the property was again seized and given for life to Sir John Scott, a Privy Councillor. Reverting again to the Crown, at last Henry VIII. granted the Honour, Castle, Lordship, and Manor of Chylham to Sir Thomas Cheyney, Warden of the Cinque Ports. This knight resided long here, and added much to the buildings, strengthening the defences, and increasing the comfort of the Castle.

The present house, which is close to the old fabric, is a good specimen of a Jacobean mansion, built in 1616. In 1752 it came to the Colebrooks, and thence to the Herons and Wildmans; it was now the property of Lieut.-Col. C. S. Hardy.

The only part of the old Norman castle now standing in at all a perfect state is the ancient octagonal keep, three storeys in height, in the N.W. angle. (Castles Of England, Sir James D. Mackenzie, 1896)

Website

Coordinates: 51.2423592~0.9585600

Map

Chilham, England, CT4 8DB, GB

View Larger Map

Filed Under: Kent Tagged With: Castles

Previous Post: « Walton Castle
Next Post: Colebridge Castle »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Location Search

Popular

  1. Chilham Castle
  2. Hanwell Castle
  3. Shirburn Castle
  4. Contact Big Days Out
  5. About Big Days Out

Locations

Tags

Anglo-Saxon Art Galleries Attraction Battlefield Castles Cathedrals - Ecclesiastical Country Park Documents And Archives English Heritage Free Gardens Green Flag Award Winners hotel Houses Industrial History Iron Age Medieval Military Museums National Trust Roman Sandford Award Winners Sports And Leisure Steam Railway Theme Park Tudor World Heritage Sites Zoos And Wildlife Parks

Footer

 

 

 

 

 

  • About Big Days Out
  • Contact Big Days Out
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie policy (UK)

Copyright © 2025 ยท Log in

Manage Cookie Consent
We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. We do this to improve browsing experience and to show (non-) personalised ads. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional cookies Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}