Piel Castle
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Piel Castle, also known as Fouldry Castle or the Pile of Fouldray, is a
castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
situated on the south-eastern point of
Piel Island Piel Island lies in Morecambe Bay, around off the southern tip of the Furness peninsula in the administrative county of Cumbria, England. It is one of the Islands of Furness, three of which sit near to Piel at the mouth of Walney Channel. T ...
, off the coast of the
Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria, England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, Historic counties of England, historically an exclave of Lancashire. On 1 April 2023 it became part of the new unitary author ...
Peninsula in north-west England. Built in the early-14th century by John Cockerham, the
Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...
of neighbouring Furness Abbey, it was intended to oversee the trade through the local harbour and to protect against Scottish raids. The castle was built using stones from the local beach, and featured a large
keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...
with surrounding inner and outer baileys. It was used as a base by the
Yorkist The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, th ...
pretender Lambert Simnel in 1487, but by 1534 it had fallen into ruin and passed into the hands of the Crown. Sea erosion began to cause significant damage to the castle in the early 19th century. In the 1870s the castle's owner, the
Duke of Buccleuch Duke of Buccleuch ( ), formerly also spelt Duke of Buccleugh, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created twice on 20 April 1663, first for James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, and second ''suo jure'' for his wife Anne Scott, 4th Countess of ...
, carried out extensive restoration work and erected
outwork An outwork is a minor fortification built or established outside the principal fortification limits, detached or semidetached. Outworks such as ravelins, lunettes (demilunes), flèches and caponier A caponier is a type of defensive structur ...
s to protect it against further damage from the sea. In 1920 the castle was given to the town of Barrow-in-Furness and is now in the care of
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 ...
. The castle is at threat from continued coastal erosion.


History

Piel Castle was built on
Piel Island Piel Island lies in Morecambe Bay, around off the southern tip of the Furness peninsula in the administrative county of Cumbria, England. It is one of the Islands of Furness, three of which sit near to Piel at the mouth of Walney Channel. T ...
, overlooking the
deep water port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manche ...
of Piel Harbour outside of Barrow Haven, now called
Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...
. There may have been an earlier 12th-century fortification on the island, possibly built by the local monks in the reign of King Stephen, but this is uncertain. The castle was built by John Cockerham, the
Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...
of Furness Abbey around 1327, when
Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...
gave the abbey a licence to crenellate on the site. Comprising a
keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...
with an inner and
outer bailey An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary bui ...
, the castle was intended to oversee the trade through the harbour, and to provide defence, as the Abbey had faced raids from Scotland in 1316 and 1322. Architectural historian Anthony Emery argues that the castle was built in three phases, starting with the central keep, which he believes was intended as a largely unfortified summer residence for the Abbot. With the increased threat from Scotland and the granting of the licence to crenellate, Emery suggests that the inner bailey wall was then constructed to better defend the keep, followed by the outer bailey wall in a final phase of work. In 1408, the Abbot John Bolton decided that the cost of maintaining the castle was excessive, and attempted to pull down the defences, but was prevented from doing so by Henry IV; this was followed by a period of rebuilding around 1429. The castle was used for smuggling by the Abbey, leading to complaints from merchants in English-controlled
Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...
that they were illegally trafficking wool, which in this period could only legally be sold through the French port. In 1487 the
Yorkist The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, th ...
pretender Lambert Simnel landed on Piel Island. He sought help from potential local supporters and held court at the castle, before advancing inland and ultimately being defeated at the
Battle of Stoke Field The Battle of Stoke Field, which took place at East Stoke, Nottinghamshire, on 16 June 1487, may be considered the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, since it was the last major engagement between contenders for the throne whose claims deriv ...
. By 1534 the castle had fallen in ruin and was described in a report as "sore decayed". In 1537, on the dissolution of the Abbey, it became the property of the Crown, and after 1660, was given to the
Duke of Albemarle The Dukedom of Albemarle () has been created twice in the Peerage of England, each time ending in extinction. Additionally, the title was created a third time by James II in exile and a fourth time by his son the Old Pretender, in the Jacobit ...
. By the late 18th century, the island had become used as a base for
maritime pilot A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who has specific knowledge of an often dangerous or congested waterway, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots know local details s ...
s, and the castle passed into the possession of the Dukes of Buccleuch. In 1811, the poet
William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...
visited the area and wrote a poem entitled "Peele Castle" describing the site. The sea caused significant
erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...
during this period, and one side of the keep collapsed in the early 19th century.
Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...
, the Duke of Buccleuch, purchased the rest of the island and carried out an extensive and expensive restoration of the castle between 1877 and 1878, destroying most traces of the medieval occupation of the site in the process. The restoration involved constructing outworks to prevent further sea erosion, replacing damage to the
ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...
stone features of the castle and protecting the tops of the stone walls.


Conservation and investigation

In 1919 John Scott decided to sell the island and castle; the local mayor, Alfred Barrow, intervened and the following the year the Duke instead agreed to give the castle and island to the local authorities as a
memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...
to those who had lost their life in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.; The castle passed into the care of central government in 1973, and is now controlled 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 ...
, who operate the site as a tourist attraction. An archaeological survey was commissioned by English Heritage in 1984, carried out by Rachel Newman of
Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...
; the findings of the survey led to a program of restoration work, completed in 1991. It is protected by law as 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 ...
. By 2022, much of the low-lying island the castle sits on has been lost to the sea, and the keep of Piel Castle itself is at risk of destruction due to
coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of Wind wave, waves, Ocean current, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts ...
worsened by
climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
. In response, English Heritage launched a fundraising campaign in September 2022 to protect and strengthen Piel Castle (and five other at-risk castles).


Architecture

The castle is built to an
Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...
concentric design, with a keep in the south-eastern corner, protected by an inner and outer bailey with stone curtain walls extending out to the north-west.; The castle is built using stones from the local beach bonded with a liquid mortar, with the finer stonework, such as the doorways and windows, made from red ashlar sandstone imported from the mainland.; Much of the surrounding island has been eroded by the sea and some of the castle has been lost, with fallen stone fragments still visible on the beach below. The three-storey keep stands on a low mound of
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
, similar to that making up the base of the rest of the castle, and is high, by across, reinforced with protruding
buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...
es, and a tower on the south-eastern corner. The original entrance would have been at ground level, but a
gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most ...
, by , was then built along on the north side, raising this to the first floor. A carved female figure can be seen above the entrance arch, which may have been a representation of
Salome Salome (; , related to , "peace"; ), also known as Salome III, was a Jews, Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New T ...
. The keep had large windows on the first and second floors, although the lower level of these was later blocked up, and was unusually divided into three sections, creating a central hallway on each level. The eastern side of the keep has collapsed as a consequence of land erosion. Anthony Emery argues that the term "keep" is inappropriate for the building, which should be seen more as a residential
tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...
, similar to that at
Langley Castle Langley Castle is a restored Middle Ages, medieval tower house, in the village of Langley, Northumberland, Langley in the valley of the River Tyne, River South Tyne. The castle is south of Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, in Northumberland, Engla ...
. The inner and outer bailey walls have also been damaged by sea erosion, but they originally formed concentric squares around the keep and were protected by ditches. The outer bailey wall, thick in places, is no longer very substantial, but even when first built it may have been quite weak; it is protected by a
moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...
, up to wide and deep. Both the baileys are protected by towers; the outer bailey towers are each wide. The inner bailey wall is thick, protected by a wide moat. Its towers were a later addition to the original design, and a gatehouse in the inner bailey wall was also built shortly after the construction of the castle. The fortifications would have been slightly old fashioned for the period. The outer bailey holds a stone building called "the chapel," by in size. Its original use is unknown and it appears to have been built late in the castle's history, possibly after it became ruinous. Local legends exist of a tunnel between the castle and Furness Abbey, allegedly used by the monks as escape route from the mainland. No such passageway exists.


In the arts and literature

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...
's poem "Peele Castle" is recorded under History above. A poetic illustration by
Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...
, in which she refers to the castle's 'half-forgotten name', is to an engraving of a painting by G. Pickering entitled "Pile of Fouldrey Castle". This was published in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832.


See also

* Castles in Great Britain and Ireland * List of castles in England * List of English Heritage properties


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *


External links


English Heritage site
{{English heritage cumbria 1327 establishments in England Buildings and structures completed in 1327 14th-century fortifications Castles in Cumbria English Heritage sites in Cumbria Furness Barrow-in-Furness Ruins in Cumbria Tourist attractions in Barrow-in-Furness Grade I listed buildings in Cumbria Buildings and structures in Barrow-in-Furness Morecambe Bay