Westenhanger Castle is a fortified manor house once owned by royalty, located next to Westenhanger railway station and the grandstand of Folkestone Racecourse in Kent. The castle has endured a period of steady decline to near ruination in recent years, but the current owners have engaged a programme of consolidation, conservation and restoration to the castle and adjoining buildings. It is now being used as a conference and wedding venue.
In its heyday, Westenhanger Castle was a fortified 14th century quadrangular manor house reflecting the opulence of its owners at that time. However, its history began almost 1,000 years ago, in 1035, when King Canute owned the estate.
The de Criol family was initially responsible in 1343 for the building of a permanent structure on the site. The castle stayed in the family until the Wars of the Roses when Sir Thomas de Criol or Kyriell was beheaded the day after the Second Battle of St Albans by order of Queen Margaret of Anjou. Sir Thomas de Criol had no sons, and Westenhanger came to his son-in-law, Sir John Fogge. The manor house at the time contained 126 rooms.
Westenhanger has a rich history with royalty and nobility, being connected with Henry II, Rosamund de Clifford, Edward Poynings, Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Customer Smythe and Lord Strangford.
In 1588, under the ownership of Customer Smythe, Queen Elizabeth used the castle as the command centre for Kent’s 14,000 troops who were to defend the south coast from the Spanish Armada.
In 1656, the exiled Charles II was persuaded to return to England, and Westenhanger, ideally located close to the English coast. Thousands of armed men were instructed to hide in the surrounding woodlands and when the King entered the house, word would be given for them to rush in and murder the King and his followers. However, the King was forewarned as he was about to leave for England.
Through the centuries, the castle has been reduced in size and suffered serious neglect. Since the mid-1990s, the current owners have been working with English Heritage to consolidate the stonework and prevent further deterioration of the manor house, castle walls and associated buildings. The impressive medieval barns which stand intact outside the curtain wall have recently been reunited with the castle under one ownership and work is ongoing to restore these barns to something near their original state.
It is now being hired out as a conference and wedding venue. Access is via the entrance to the racecourse, off the Westenhanger segment of Stone Street.
Westenhanger Castle is now home to a replica of the Discovery, one of the three ships that entered Chesapeake Bay on May 13, 1607. Sir Thomas Smythe, the founder of the expedition, was the son of Thomas ‘Customer’ Smythe, who was granted Westenhanger (or Ostenhanger, as it was then) as a reward for his service as the Queen’s collector of imports. The younger Thomas commissioned the construction of Discovery for the East India Company in 1600 and, along with the Susan Constant and Godspeed, the ship sailed for Virginia on December 19, 1606 under captain John Smith, arriving on May 13 the following year.
As a result of this expedition, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in the New World was subsequently established at Jamestown, Virginia, forming a base for what would later become the United States of America.
On December 19, 2008 the replica of the Discovery was presented to Westenhanger Castle by the Jamestown UK Foundation, a charity set up to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in 1607.
Castle or fortified house, now partly ruinous. C14, early and late C16, and late C18 or early C19, restored in 1980s. C14 walls of coursed ragstone. Front elevation of house red brick in Flemish bond, left gable end and rear elevation red brick, largely in header bond. Plain tile roof.
Rectangular plan (courtyard 130 feet across), with circular bastions to west and north- east corners, and rectangular bastion to south-east. Rectangular tower to centre of each side to north, south and east. Gateway to centre of west side. Formerly continuous range of buildings to each side of courtyard; C16 fragments remain to north-west corner.
Early C16 L-plan house to north- east corner, (probably for Sir Edward Poynings before 1521) with east curtain wall as its long right wall; main range at right-angles to wall, rear range parallel to it between main range and north-east bastion. Part of house, including front elevation, rebuilt in late C18.
House: front (south) elevation: 2 storeys and attics on chamfered rock-faced ashlar plinth. Plat band, not extending to corners. Dentilled brick eaves cornice. Right gable end formerly with crow-stepped gable). Hipped roof, right hip returning. Rear stack to right, to junction of main range and wing. 2 hipped dormers. Regular 7-window front of recessed 24-pane sashes with splayed brick voussoirs. Panelled door under third window from right. Late C20 porch. Rear (north) elevation of main range: chamfered stone plinth. Early C16 first floor window of two round-headed chamfered brick lights. Broad blocked early C16 rectangular ground-floor window with chamfered brick architrave and moulded brick cornice. Moulded stone plinth continues along west elevation of rear wing (with C19 red brick in Flemish bond above) returning to west at north end along base of a short section rebuilt in late C20. Right return elevation (east): battered stone plinth. Eaves of rear wing slightly lower than mainrange. Narrow 2-storey brick section towards centre of rear wing, probably in place of a removed garderobe shute. Partly blocked rectangular early C16 six-light stone mullion window to first floor of main range, with hollow-chamfered mullions and round-headed lights. Single cinquefoil-headed light with square hoodmould towards north end of first floor of rear wing. Later one, two and three-light leaded casements to both floors.
North-east bastion: converted to davecote, probably in early C16. Conical plain-tiled roof. Chamfered 2-light first- floor window to south-west. Three small casement windows to moat side of ground floor.
Ruins: Largely C14. Curtain wall continues south from east end of main range of house, with north jamb of doubly-chamfered splayed first-floor window belonging to range considerably taller than present house, and jamb of another to ground floor morticed for bars. Base of stone tower projecting east: from centre of east curtain wall. South end of wall non-extant. Base of rectangular south-east corner bastion set at angle to corner. South wall and south range of courtyard non-extant. East half of south-west corner bastion remains to height of about 2 metres, with base of blocked plain-chamfered north-east doorway. West wall continuous between south-west bastion and west gateway. North and south walls of west gateway, with 4 pairs of attached semi-octagonal stone shafts with moulded capitals and evidence for ribbed tunnel vault above them. Base of portcullis groove to west. Hollow-chamfered round-headed doorway with broach stops to west end of north wall, between gateway and north half of west range. West curtain wall continues north from gateway, standing to height of about 4 metres with recess, possibly for brick fireplace about 3 metres from gateway. Adjacent to north (formerly separated by wall of room) a small 4-centred-arched moulded brick fireplace with herringboned brick back- plate. North-west bastion with deeply-splayed west window or loop-light and pointed-arched doorway to east. Break in north wall to east of bastion. North end of stone east wall of west range remains, with base of hollow- chamfered brick window and with 4-centred arched hollow-chamfered stone doorway with broach stops. Chamfered stone plinth descends each side of doorway. East wall continues to south at height of about 1 metre, joining east end of west gateway. West end of north curtain wall non-extant. Wall resumes to west of central north tower and continues, at varied height, to north-east bastion. North tower of 3 low storeys with ledges in wall marking floors. Loop lights to north, east and west of each floor and larger opening to south. Garderobe shute within east wall. Doorway to south, now with brick jambs.
Interior of house: C15 chamfered brick fireplace with four-centred arched wooden bressumer with carved spandrels to east end first-floor room of main range. Staircase, possibly C16, to rear of rear wing. C18 open-well staircase with turned balusters, moulded handrail and shaped cheeks, to main range. Corridor to ground floor of rear range with 3 rectangular wooden doorways with rectangular leaded lights to rooms. Staggered butt purlin roof to rear wing. Dovecote (first floor of north-east bastion) entered from first floor of rear wing by 4-centred arched brick doorway. Room encircled by 15 tiers of ledged plastered brick nesting boxes. Licence to crenellate granted 1343 to John de Kiriel. Extensive work by Sir Edward Poynings before 1521 and by Sir Thomas Smythe 1585-91 (little of Smith's work remains). Castle largely demolished in 1701 for building materials. Moated site.