Sleaford Castle

The Lincquest team recently joined a Heritage Open Day talk at the site of Sleaford Castle. Following the talk we dowsed the site.

The history of the Castle.

When William I moved the Cathedral of the See from Dorchester-on-Thames to Lincoln he gifted several manors and farms to Lincoln cathedral, Sleaford was one of those manors and it is believed

it was sited here.

Sleaford Castle was built about 1130 by Bishop Alexander of Lincoln, AKA Alexander the Magnificent1. Alexander was also responsible for the building of castles at Newark and Banbury; Banbury’s fate is even worse than that of Sleaford, it has a shopping centre built on it!

We normally think of castles built on hills or on a motte, Sleaford castle was built on low-lying land but it had the advantage of good views over the surrounding countryside, giving early warning of an attack. The castle was never attacked, its function was that of an administrative centre, similar to Somerton and Wellingore, receiving payments and tithes for its rented lands. Several soldiers were on the site, probably to protect the castle and its valuable food store rather than to mount a defence against attack.

During the period known as the Anarchy, Stephen forced Alexander to give up the keys to the castles of Newark and Sleaford as he was not sure of his loyalties. Both castles were later restored to Bishop Alexander. In the 1320s Edward II also took possession of the castle, again it was soon restored to the bishop.

Two kings visited the castle, King John in 1216 on his journey from Norfolk, he died 4 days later at Newark Castle. Henry VIII visited at Sleaford Castle in 1541, with his queen Catherine Howard, and held a State Council at the Castle.

There is a record of repairs to the castle in about 1509, including details of payment for carriage of stores, wages of workmen, lime kilns, materials etc.

The Bishops of Lincoln remained in possession of the castle until 1544 when it came into the possession of the Lord Protector of England, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. Seymour was involved in a plot to change the government and Edward Seymour, his nephew, noted his death in January 1552 in his Chronicle: "the duke of Somerset had his head cut off upon Tower Hill between eight and nine o'clock in the morning". Letters patent granted the Castle and manor of Sleaford to Edward Fiennes, Lord Clinton in 1556; it was stated that the castle was defensible and inhabitable about this time. Robert Carr noted in 1604 " the late fair castle at Sleaford," which indicates the castle was dismantled sometime during the previous 48 years.

The authors of “Magna Britannia” writing in 1720 noted the castle as being reduced to rubbish and ruins, and that nothing remained apart from the northeast corner, which still remains 200 years after.

NE Tower in the 18th century, then and much as it is now

The north wall and north west tower in about 1720

The Dowse

Plan of Sleaford Castle showing the results of our dowse

We use three different tools for dowsing, a modern version of the forked stick - two thin plastic bars strips together, L-shaped metal rods and a pendulum. Generally, we use the first two, the pendulum is mostly used for map dowsing.

The Results

The castle’s curtain walls were only 6 feet thick, evidence that they were there to protect the contents of the castle rather than sustain a full-scale attack. It may be that it was a fortified manor house and not a castle; the overall size of the keep/manor house was 60 x 40 feet.

The towers, one on each corner and one in the middle of the north and south walls, making a total of six, some of the towers were 20 feet in diameter, we need to do more here as some others maybe square.

We discovered the towers of the barbican, these were also 20 feet in diameter, leading out of the castle is a drawbridge over the inner moat, further on is a second drawbridge over the outer moat, onto a fixed bridge to the exit of the site.

Between the inner and outer moat:

• West of the castle: stables and blacksmith’s workshops.
• South west of the castle: a barn for storing produce, possibly a Tithe Barn.
• South of the castle: Kitchens and food preparation areas and a drawbridge over the inner moat.
• North east of the kitchens is a round hole which was suggested as being a dovecote, we detected heat from here, it could have been a lime kiln used during the repairs of the early 16th century.

The site of wooden buildings east of the castle

East of the castle, outside the outer moat, a series of wooden buildings providing accommodation possibly for the bishop's entourage during his visits. South of here were fishponds.

Further east was a field that is now part of the girls' high school, this could be the location of the castle's orchard.

The outer moat was continuous around three sides of the castle, the south side is now below the railway tracks, the fourth side of the moat was the 9-foot river. The moat was fed by a pond on the west side of the present Castle Causeway further to the north of the castle, the pond was fed by the River Slea. In the late 18th/early 19th centuries the 9-foot river was extended further west to receive a better flow of water in preparation for the building of the Sleaford Navigation.

Location of the drawbridge between the castle and the kitchens

We puzzled over why the castle was built in this location, why wasn’t it built the centre of the town? Later map dowsing showed a road/track from Holdingham to London Road, Sleaford, Castle Causeway is all that remains of the route. We know that until the later medieval period Ermine Street was a major route for London to Lincoln, the Sleaford route was probably a more convenient route from the lower River Witham area.

We dowsed for about two hours, I think the excitement of what we were finding kept us going, normally we would take regular breaks during dowsing, we were exhausted and had to stop. We will be returning - more to follow.

1 The soubriquet “Magnificent” describes his ostentatious and luxurious lifestyle. He was consecrated bishop of Lincoln in 1123 and died in office in 1148.


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