Elmley Castle Site, Worcestershire
Photo © Philip Halling, 6 april 2008
Elmley Castle Site, Worcestershire
Photo © Philip Halling, 6 april 2008
Elmley Castle was a castle to the south of the village of Elmley Castle in Worcestershire.
This was a late 11th century earthwork castle which received stone
additions in the 12th and possibly the 13th centuries. The ruins of
an important Norman
and medieval
castle, from which the village derives
its name, are located in the Deer
Park, one kilometer to the south on Bredon
Hill. The castle is supposed to have been built for Robert Le Despenser,
Steward to William
the Conqueror and scion of the famous Despenser or Despencer family,
later to be created successive holders of the title Baron
le Despencer. It then descended to the Beauchamp family a few centuries
on, who later became Earls
of Warwick, and Elmley Castle was for a time their chief stronghold.
The castle became property of the crown in 1492, on the death of Anne
Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick (the wife of Warwick
the Kingmaker). In 1544, Henry
VIII sold it to Sir William
Herbert and Christopher Savage, by which time it had fallen into
complete disrepair. John
Leland writing at about this time says, "Ther stondithe now but
one Tower, and that partly broken. As I went by I saw Carts carienge
Stone thens to amend Persore (Pershore)
Bridge about ii miles of. It is set on the Tope of a Hill full of Wood,
and a Townelet hard by."
Only earthworks
now remain on a site high above the village on public land.
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