Herstmonceux Castle Totally Explained

Everything about Herstmonceux Castle totally explained

Herstmonceux Castle in Herstmonceux, East Sussex, United Kingdom, is the home of the International Study Centre of Canada's Queen's University.

History of Herstmonceux

The first written evidence of the existence of the Herst settlement appears in William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book which reports that one of William’s closest supporters granted tenancy of the manor at Herst to a man named ‘Wilbert’. By the end of the twelfth century, the family at the manor house at Herst had considerable status. Written accounts mention a lady called Idonea de Herst, who married a Norman nobleman named Ingelram de Monceux. Around this time, the manor began to be called the “Herst of the Monceux”, a name that eventually became Herstmonceux.
   A descendant of the Monceux family, Roger Fiennes, was ultimately responsible for the construction of Herstmonceux Castle in the County of Sussex. Sir Roger was appointed Treasurer of the Household of Henry VI of England, and needed a house fitting a man of his position, so construction of the castle on the site of the old manor house began in 1441. It was this position as treasurer which enabled him to afford the £3,800 construction of the original castle. The castle was dismantled in 1777 and remained a ruin until restoration work was undertaken by Colonel Lowther in 1913 and Sir Paul Latham in 1933 (architect: Walter Godfrey). The one major change introduced in the restoration was to combine the four internal courtyards into one large one.
   Today it's one of the oldest significant brick buildings still standing in England. The castle was built of brick, a relatively unusual material for the time in Britain, and the builders of Herstmonceux Castle concentrated more on grandeur and comfort than on defence to produce a truly magnificent estate.
    The property passed through the hands of a number of private owners until it was sold in 1946 to the Admiralty. In 1957 the Herstmonceux Castle grounds became the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and remained so until 1988 when the observatory moved to Cambridge. Several of the telescopes still remain but the largest telescope (The Isaac Newton Telescope) was moved to La Palma, Canary Islands in the 1970's. The estate still provides housing for the Newton Telescope and the Equatorial Telescope Buildings, which have been converted to an interactive science centre for schoolchildren.

Queen's International Study Centre

In 1992, Queen's alumnus Alfred Bader learned of the castle's vacancy. He offered to purchase the castle for his wife, but she declined on the grounds that there would be "too many rooms to clean". Bader later contacted then-Principal of Queen's University, David Chadwick Smith, asking if a castle might fit into the school's plans, possibly as an international study centre. In 1994, after intensive renovations, Bader's dream became a reality and the Queen's International Study Centre opened its doors to the first students.
The International Study Centre hosts primarily undergraduate students. In the summer, approximately 60 law students call the centre home during an intensive program studying either International Business Law or International Public Law.

Appearances in Fiction

The castle was used for filming part of the The Silver Chair, a 1990 BBC adaptation of the book (one of The Chronicles of Narnia) by C. S. Lewis.
Both the castle and its gardens were used by comedians Reeves and Mortimer for one of their Mulligan and O'Hare sketches.
In August 2002, the Coca-Cola Company rented the castle for use as part of a prize in a Harry Potter-themed sweepstakes -- the castle served as "Hogwarts" in a day of Harry Potter-related activities for the sweepstakes winners.

Owners of Herstmonceux Manor/Castle

1066 - Edmer, a priest.
1086 - Wilbert, tenant-in-chief.
c.1200 - Idonea de Herst (married Ingelram de Monceux).
1211 - Their son Waleran de Monceux.
1216 - His son William de Monceux.
? - His son Waleran de Monceux.
1279 - His son John de Monceux.
1302 - His son John de Monceux.
1316 - His son John de Monceux.
1330 - His sister Maud de Monceux (married Sir John Fiennes)
1351 - The eldest son William Fiennes.
1359 - His son Sir William Fiennes.
1402 - His son Sir Roger Fiennes (built Herstmonceux castle)
1449 - His son Sir Richard Fiennes (married Joan de Dacre Baroness Dacre of Gilsland)
1483 - His grandson Sir Thomas Fiennes.
1533 - Sir Thomas Fiennes.
1541 - His eldest son Thomas Fiennes.
1553 - His brother Gregory Fiennes.
1594 - His sister Margaret Fiennes (married Sampson Lennard).
1612 - Their son Sir Henry Lennard.
1616 - His son Richard Lennard.
1630 - His son Francis Lennard.
1662 - His son Thomas Lennard.
1708 - Estate purchased by George Naylor for £38,215.
1730 - His nephew Francis Naylor.
1775 - His half-brother Robert Hare who demolished the castle in 1776.
? - His son Francis Hare Naylor.
1807 - Purchased by Thomas Reed Kemp.
1819 - Purchased for John Gillon MP.
1846 - Purchased by Herbet Barrett Curteis MP.
? - His son Herbert Mascall Curteis.
? - His son Herbert Curteis.
1911 - Purchased by Lieutenant-Colonel Claude Lowther (restoration begins).
1929 - Purchased by Reginald Lawson.
1932 - Purchased by Sir Paul Latham (completes restoration).
1946 - Purchased by the Admiralty for The Royal Observatory.
1965 - Transferred to the Science Research Council.
1989 - Purchased by James Developments, transfers to a receiver, the Guinness Mahon Bank.
1993 - Purchased for Queen's University, Ontario (Canada) as a generous gift from Drs. Alfred and Isabel Bader.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Herstmonceux Castle'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://herstmonceux_castle.totallyexplained.com">Herstmonceux Castle Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.