Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council and English Heritage
Open to the public
Yes
Condition
Ruined
Website
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name
Conisbrough Castle
Designated
26 November 1987
Reference no.
1192747
Site history
Built
11th century
Materials
Magnesian Limestone
Conisbrough Castle is a medieval fortification in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England. The castle was initially built in the 11th century by William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey, after the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Hamelin Plantagenet, the illegitimate, parvenu brother of Henry II, acquired the property by marriage in the late 12th century. Hamelin and his son William rebuilt the castle in stone, including its prominent 28-metre (92 ft)-high keep. The castle remained in the family line into the 14th century, despite being seized several times by the Crown. The fortification was then given to Edmund of Langley, passing back into royal ownership in 1461.
Conisbrough Castle fell into ruin, its outer wall badly affected by subsidence, and was given to the Carey family in the 16th century. Its derelict state prevented it from involvement in the English Civil War of the 17th century and the remains were bought by the Duke of Leeds in 1737. Sir Walter Scott used the location for his 1819 novel Ivanhoe and by the end of the 19th century the ruins had become a tourist attraction.
The state took over the management of the property in 1950, but by the 1980s the visitor facilities were felt to be unsuitable, leading to a three-way partnership being created between the local council, the state agency English Heritage and a local charitable trust to develop the castle. The keep was re-roofed and re-floored in the 1990s with the help of European Union funding. English Heritage took over control of the castle in 2008 and continues to operate the property as a tourist attraction.
The castle is made up of an inner and an outer bailey, the former surrounded by a stone curtain wall defended by six mural or fortified towers and the castle keep. The inner bailey would have included a hall, solar, chapel and other service buildings of which only the foundations survive. The design of Conisbrough's keep is unique in England, and the historians Oliver Creighton and Stephen Johnson consider it an "architectural gem" and "one of the finest examples of late Norman defensive architecture". The keep comprises a circular central tower with six massive buttresses; its four floors would have included a main chamber and a private chamber for the lord above it. Although militarily weak, the design would have been a powerful symbol of Hamelin Plantagenet's new social status as a major lord.
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ConisbroughCastle is a medieval fortification in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England. The castle was initially built in the 11th century by William...
Conisbrough (/ˈkɒnɪsbrə/) is a town within the City of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is roughly midway between Doncaster and Rotherham, and...
suggests remains of a keep were visible in 1819. ConisbroughCastle dates from the twelfth-century castle. Its remains are dominated by the 100 ft (30 m)...
located approximately two miles southwest of Doncaster and near ConisbroughCastle. Limestone began to be quarried at the site in ancient times. Levitt...
is thought to have built the early Norman stone fortifications at ConisbroughCastle and also begun to replace the wooden fortifications at Sandal with...
("Chapel on the Bridge"), Rotherham Clifton Park Museum, Rotherham ConisbroughCastle Cusworth Hall Doncaster Minster Doncaster Mansion House Elsecar Steam...
2012-01-27 at the Wayback Machine BLB. "ConisbroughCastle" Archived 2012-10-06 at the Wayback Machine PSC. "Tickhill Castle" Archived 2012-10-06 at the Wayback...
/ 51.23000°N 0.18778°W / 51.23000; -0.18778 "De Warenne's Castles | ConisbroughCastle". www.conisbroughcastle.org.uk. Archived from the original on...
Archers Way, formerly named Butt Hole Road, is a street in Conisbrough, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The short residential street gained fame...
Suffolk and Norfolk, near Orford. Castles in Great Britain and Ireland List of castles in England ConisbroughCastle Pounds, p.55; Brown (1962), p.191...
are in the town of Conisbrough, and the villages of Denaby Main and Old Denaby. The most important buildings are ConisbroughCastle and St Peter's Church...
Italy Abbey Church of St James, Lébény, Hungary (1208) The keep of ConisbroughCastle, England Romanesque architecture was the first distinctive style to...
(8.9 km) from Conisbrough to Wath-upon-Dearne via Mexborough and Denaby Main. In the east, it starts at, and passes ConisbroughCastle. A short section...
'Coningsburgh', which is based upon ConisbroughCastle, in the ancient town of Conisbrough near Doncaster (the castle also being a popular English Heritage...
the Norman Conquest, Nigel Fossard refortified the town and built ConisbroughCastle. By the time of Domesday Book, Hexthorpe in the wapentake of Strafforth...
oldest extant example of a chimney in Britain being in the keep of ConisbroughCastle in Yorkshire, dating from 1185 AD), when they replaced the open fire...
of the wapentake is unknown, but may have been the future site of ConisbroughCastle. The Earldom of Strafford takes its name from a variant of this district...
Dearne. It encompasses the towns of Wombwell, Wath-upon-Dearne, Swinton, Conisbrough and Mexborough, the large villages of Ardsley, Bolton on Dearne, Goldthorpe...
earliest surviving example of an English chimney is at the keep of ConisbroughCastle in Yorkshire, which dates from 1185 AD. However, they did not become...
Heritage properties containing links for any stately home, historic house, castle, abbey, museum or other property in the care of English Heritage. List of...
royalist forces there in 1648. (Conisbrough, long disused as a fortress by this time, escaped such a fate.) Today, Tickhill castle remains an impressive ruin...
or half-brother. His father's will was written on 24 June 1347 at ConisbroughCastle. Edward was left twenty pounds in this will. He had not yet been Knighted...
and Conisbrough in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. The village falls within the Doncaster MBC ward of Conisbrough and...
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