Cockermouth Castle () is in the town of

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Cumberland unitary authority area of Cumbria, England. The name refers to the town's position by the confluence of the River Cocker into the River Derwent. At the 2021 census, the built u ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

on a site by the junction of the Rivers Cocker and Derwent. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

History

The first castle on this site was built by the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

in 1134. Some of the stone was sourced from the Roman site of Derventio (now Papcastle). Significant additions were made in the 13th and 14th centuries. The castle played a significant role in the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...

, and in the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, when it was badly damaged. Various magnates held the castle, most prominently the Percy

Earls of Northumberland The title of Earl of Northumberland has been created several times in the Peerage of England and Peerage of Great Britain, of Great Britain, succeeding the title Earl of Northumbria. Its most famous holders are the House of Percy (''alias'' Per ...

from the 15th to 17th centuries. It passed to the Wyndham family, the current owners, in the 18th century. The castle was the home of the dowager Lady Egremont until her death in 2013.

Conservation and public access

File:Cockermouth castle (geograph 4037065).jpg, The castle in June 2014 File:Cockermouth_Castle,_December_2015.jpg, Photograph in 2015 from a news story in the ''Times and Star'' showing the bank washed away by flooding. Cockermouth Castle was one of 135 sites from North West England included on the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

, maintained by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

and later

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

. The entry in the 2008 register noted that the "Majority of Castle in good repair. The C13 Bell Tower is badly leaning and potentially dangerous. The C14 Kitchen Tower is suffering from water ingress". The conservation situation was exacerbated in December 2015, when northern England experienced historically heavy rainfall triggering flooding. The flood defences at Cockermouth were overwhelmed, and the weather caused a landslide near the castle, with the river washing away part its bank; Historic England noted that there was a clear risk to the historic structure. The riverbank was reinforced but a permanent solution has yet to be agreed as of 2022. The castle has been opened to the public as part of the Heritage Open Days scheme.

References

External links

* * *Fry, Plantagenet Somerset, ''The David & Charles Book of Castles'', David & Charles, 1980.
Leconfield Estate Cockermouth
Castles in Cumbria Enclosure castles Grade I listed buildings in Cumbria Grade I listed castles Scheduled monuments in Cumbria Ruins in Cumbria Wyndham family residences Cockermouth {{England-castle-stub

History

Conservation and public access

See also

References

External links