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![]() When William the Conqueror crossed the English Channel and defeated Harold in 1066, he distributed the spoils of victory among those who had supported him. One of these was Ansculf from a village near Amiens, who was assigned a barony of more than 80 manors scattered across several counties. This fragmentation was William's deliberate policy to prevent his gifts being turned into mini-states to continue the pattern of feuding then found in France. In his collection, Ansculf was awarded Dudley and recognised that its hilltop site was ideal for Norman-style fortifications. At that point the Saxon fortress was held by Edwin, possibly a grandson of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, but the Conquest meant that Ansculf could simply dispossess him. Earthworks were constructed for the eventual castle in the form of a vast mote (basically a big dome-shaped heap of soil). But until they had settled and compacted, only wooden fortifications could be built on them. Even so, he set the character for the castle, for he arranged for a much larger bailey (a courtyard behind the mote, protected by an earth bank with an outside ditch) than was normally the practice, and later building would maintain its large, open oval. ![]() Next came Ralph's son, Gervase Paganel (after whom two streets were named when they were built nearby during the 1930s). Gervase founded the nearby Priory circa 1160 - but he also supported Prince Harry's rebellion against his father, King Henry II in 1173-4, and for this error Gervase saw his castle demolished by the King, though the Priory was left untouched. The remnants passed into the hands of the de Somery family - walls gone but earthworks still present - and they built an undefended manor house on the site. Mindful of history, King Henry III refused to allow fortification until Roger de Somery (2nd) fought for his king against the barons in 1265 and won the king's trust and a licence to crenellate. ![]() ![]() Above, another of David Clare's postcards illustrates the castle courtyard, with the older buildings (circa 1340) closest: the chapel at the right and the great chamber alongside it, both on the second floor. The section set back is the hall, built as part of the new residential section by the Duke of Northumberland in the 1540s onward. Below, the triple gateway, stripped of its three portcullises. ![]() ![]() Below, another postcard view of the courtyard, this time concentrating on the newer buildings. At left is the postern (north) gate, with the pantry to the right of the round tower. The twin peaked section had bedrooms over the kitchen, and the bow windows fronted the buttery and pantry. ![]() Northumberland foresaw that the boy King would soon die and had his own son Guildford Dudley married to Lady Jane Grey against her will at the age of 15 on 21st May 1553 in a bid to secure the succession for his own family. Three days after Edward’s death, on July 9th that year, she was informed that the late king had declared his sisters Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate and named her as his successor. By the 19th, however, Mary Tudor had her in the Tower of London. In due course Northumberland thus went to the axe for treason, taking an innocent Lady Jane Grey with him, and her own less innocent father as well (Lady Jane might have survived but for her father's misdeeds and her own unremitting Protestantism in the face of Mary's determination to re-establish Catholicism in England). The castle was forfeited to Mary Tudor, but Edward Dudley, son of the usurped and just-deceased John Lord Dudley earned sufficient favour with Mary to have the castle restored to his family. ![]() The last Sutton lord, Edward Dudley (3rd), was a wastrel among other faults, and the estate went downhill in his hands. After his son died only a granddaughter, Frances (born 1611), remained. Providence provided an extremely successful goldsmith, William Ward, when the estate was heavily in debt, and William’s son Humble married Frances in the 1630s in exchange for the estate and taking over its debts, and would soon be made Baron Ward as well. ![]() In 1646, the Royalist force decided that the Church of St Edmund provided too much cover for a possible attack, and had the church (and the tombs of Frances Sutton’s ancestors) demolished. This probably left Baron Ward with no liking for either side, but compelled to seek an accommodation with Parliament when the war went to them. Baron Ward made a petition to Cromwell that may have got him off the hook personally, but it didn’t save the castle. Parliament decreed as part of the castle's surrender that it should be sleighted (de-fortified), and while the residential side was left unharmed, the castle walls, turrets and gate were fairly comprehensively destroyed, leaving a wreck not greatly different from the one we see today. ![]() Some reconstruction of a partly demolished tower was done by William, 3rd Viscount Dudley to restore some dignity to the ruin; and clearance of rubble, recrenellation of the Keep and other such work were undertaken. In 1805 there were more discoveries, first in the shape of a tunnel linking the two towers in the gateway, and second of the old garrison well, whose rotted timber cover nearly sent a horse to its death when it gave way. After the Crimean War, two cannon captured at Sebastopol were brought to the castle, and these are the ones now to be seen in the Keep. ![]() The story itself isn't complete, though, for work has been done on the castle history in recent times, and some of the above may already be due for revision. |
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Please note: this plan is still evolving as a small anomaly and other minor points are being clarified. |
The artist Richard Rayner, with his sister Louise Rayner (who painted the well-known 1870 picture of Dudley market) visited Dudley in 1865, looking for things to sketch and paint, and we have a set of pages covering them and other members of the family. Click here for Richard's sketches of the castle and here for the main Rayner page and comment on the market painting. Above notes by Harry Drummond based on Chandler, G.I and Hannah, I.C., Dudley as it was and as it is today, published London: Batsford, 1947, with additions from Ruston, James H., Castle Dudley, The Blackcountryman, Summer 1969, vol.2, no.3. A very engaging description of the last ball at the castle (circa 1707) appears in another article in The Blackcountryman. For that, see Benbow, Richard, A glimpse of life at Dudley Castle, The Blackcountryman, Winter 1980, vol.13 no.1. |
![]() | Photos copyright © 2002 Harry Drummond. | ![]() |