Tamworth Castle

2003

Tamworth is finely situated at the confluence of the rivers Tame and Anker, in the country of Stafford. The parish is, however, divided by the Tame into two parts, one in this county, and the other in Warwickshire, whence it is accounted to belong to both. The early history of the town is very eventful. In the time of the Mercians it was a royal village, and a favourite residence of their monarchs. The celebrated Offa dates a charter to the monks of Worcester in 781, from his place at Tamworth. At this period it was fortified on three sides by a vast ditch 45 feet in breadth, the rivers serving as a defence on the forth side. Upon the invasion of the Danes, Tamworth was totally destroyed. Ethelfrida, however, daughter of the illustrious Alfred, rebuilt the town in the year 913, after she had, by her foresight and valour, succeeded in freeing her brother’s dominions from the grasp of the invaders. This heroic lady likewise erected a tower on a part of the artificial mount which forms the site of the present Castle; and here she generally resided until the period of her death, in 920. About two years later, Tamworth witnessed the submission of all the Mercian tribes, together with the Prince of Wales, to the sovereign power of Elfrida’s brother Edward. Leyland tells us that at the time of Henry VIII. “the toune of Tamworth is all builded of Tymber.” Michael Drayton, the fine old English poet, was born in this neighbourhood on the banks of the Anker; which he celebrated in his most beautiful sonnet. Drayton is the name of a place on  the western border of Staffordshire, near which is Bloreheath, where the party of York, under the Earl of Salisbury, defeated the Lancastrians, commanded by Lord Audley. Queen Margaret beheld the battle from a neighbouring steeple. Drayton Bassett and Drayton Manor are the names of two of the finest seats in the country. The church at Tamworth is famous for its Saxon work, “round arches with zigzag mouldings.” The monuments are many, “most of them beautiful alter-tombs, with recumbent figures of Knights in armour and their wives.”

The Castle of Tamworth, an eminent baronial residence, was founded by Robert de Marmion – a name adopted by Sir Walter Scott as the title of one of his soul-stirring metrical tales:--

“They hailed Lord Marmion,

They hailed him Lord of Fontenaye,

Of Lutterward and Scrivelbaye;

Of Tamworth tower and town”

Marmion, canto i. st. xx

The poet however, acknowledges the Lord Marmion of his romance to be entirely a fictitious personage. “In earlier times, indeed,” continues he, “the family of Marmion, Lords of Fontenay, in Normandy, was highly distinguished.  Robert de Marmion, Lord of Fontenay, a distinguished follower of the Conqueror, obtained a grant of the Castle and town of Tamworth, and also the manor of Scrivelsby, in Lincolnshire. One or both of these noble possessions was held by the honourable service of being the royal champion, as the ancestors of Marmion had been to the Dukes of Normandy. This Robert being settled at Tamworth, expelled the nuns he found here to Oldbury, about four miles distant. A year after this, he gave a costly entertainment at Tamworth Castle to a part of friends, among who was Sir Walter de Somerville, Lord of Wichover, his sworn brother. Now it happened as he lay in his bed, St. Edith appeared to him in the habit of a veiled nun, with a crosier in her hand, and advertised him that if he did not restore the Abbey of Polesworth (which lay within the territories of his castle at Tamworth) unto her successors, he would have an evil death, and go to hell; and that he might be more sensible of this her admonition, she smote him on the side with her crosier, and so vanished away. Moreover, by this stroke being much wounded, he cried out so loudly that his friends in the house arose; and finding him extremely tormented with the pain of his wound, advised him to confess himself to a priest, and vow to restore the nuns to their former possession. Furthermore, having done so his pain ceased, and in accomplishment of his vow (accomplished by Sir Walter de Sommerville and others), he forthwith rode to Oldbury, and craved pardon of the nuns for the injury done, brought them back to Polesworth, desiring that himself and his friend, Sir William de Sommerville, might be regarded their patrons; and hence burial for themselves and their heirs in this Abbey – viz, the Marmions in the chapter house and the Sommervilles in the Cloister. However some circumstances in this story may seem fabulous, the substance of it is perfectly true, for it appears by the very words of his charter that he gave to Osanna, the Prioress.”

Robert, the son and heir of Robert de Marmion, being a great adversary of the Earls of Chester, who had his noble seat at Coventry, but a little distance from the Earls Castle, entered the Priory there, and expelled the monks, fortified it, digging in the fields adjacent divers deep ditches, lightly covered over with earth, to the intent that such as made approaches thereto, might be entrapped. Whereupon, it so happened, that as he rode out himself to view the Earl of Chester’s forces, which began to draw near, he fell into one of the ditches and broke his thigh, so that a common soldier seizing on him, cut off his head.

After the Castle and the demesne of Tamworth had passes through four successive Barons from Robert, the family became extinct in the person of Philip de Marmion, who died 20^th Edward 1., without male issue. Baldwin de Freville forth lord of Tamworth (Alexander’s descendent in the reign of Richard 1.), by the supposed tenure of his Castle, claimed the office or royal champion, and to do the service appertaining; namely on the day of the coronation, to ride completely armed, upon a barbed horse, into Westminster Hall, and there to challenge the combat against any one who should gainsay the King’s title. But this office was adjudged to sir John Dimock, to whom the manor of Scrivelby had descended by another of the coheiresses of Robert de Marmion, and it remains in that family, whose representative is Hereditary Champion of England at the present day. The family and possessions of Freville have merged in the Earl of Ferrers; descended, says Burton from an ancient Saxon line, long before the conquest. It has subsequently been in the possession of the Marquess Townshend, in right of the heiress of the Comptons.

The architecture of the present Castle is of various periods; the old Castle stood below the site of the present fortress, which, by its elevation throws around it an air of considerable grandeur. The exterior is kept to tolerable repair. The hall is large and of ancient state, but exceedingly rude and comfortless. By Leyland’s account, the greater part was built since his time, his words are, “the base court and great ward of the castle is cleane decayed, and the wall fallen downe, and therein be now the houses of office of noe notable building. The dungeon hill yet standeth, and a great round tower of stone, wherein Mr. Ferrers dwelleth, and now repaireth it”. Such was the state in the time of Henry VIII. The dining and drawing rooms have fine bay windows have fine bay-windows and command rich views over the river, which runs at the foot of the castle mount to the meadows and woodlands, where formally was the park. Around the dining-room are emblazoned the arms of the Ferrers family. In the hall was formally a rude delineation upon the wall of the last battle between Sir John Launcelot of the Lake , a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table, and another knight, named Sir Tarquin. The figures were a gigantic size, and tilting as described in the romance;  resting their spears, and pushing their horses at full speed against each other.

Tamworth is Shakespearean ground; for on it’s plain near the town, the Earl of Richmond halted on his march to Bosworth Field, thus to inspire his forces for the coming fight:--

“This foul swine

Lies now even in the centre of this isle,

Near to the town of Leicester, for as we learn,

From Tamworth thither is but one days march,

In God’s name cheerly on, courageous friends,

To reap the harvest of perpetual peace,

By this one bloody trial of charp war.”

Richard III., act v scene 3

Tamworth possesses a very interesting memorial of our own times, a bronze statue of the late Sir Robert Peel, erected in the market-place by public subscription, in the summer of 1852. Tamworth, for which borough Sir Robert sat in parliament many years, owned this debt of gratitude to the fame of the deceased statesman, and it has been rendered with every evidence of sincerity: from the highest to the lowest, nearly everybody subscribed for the statue. It is placed with its back to London and the world, and its face directed towards the place of Sir Robert’s birth; on the right is the church in which he worshipped, and on the left (Drayton Manor) which he erected, but did not live long to inhabit. The sculptor of the statue is Mr. E M. Noble, and we have the testimony of a son of Sir Robert Peel to its excellence as a work of art, whether in the general outline, the correctness of the proportions, in the resemblance of the features, or in the ease and gracefulness of he posture.

From Abbeys Castles & Ancient Halls of England & Wales their legendary lore & popular history

by Timbs & Gunn - circa 1870