1073: Within a few years of its creation, Robert d’Oilly built the first stone fortifications, including a stone keep which stood proudly on the top of the mound. Built by the Normans in the 11th century for William the Conqueror, Oxford Castle has been in almost continuous operation for 1,000 years. Oxford Castle was built 1071 by Robert D'Oilly for William the Conqueror. According to the Abingdon Chronicle, Oxford Castle was built by the Norman baron Robert D'Oyly the elder from 1071–73. The medieval remains of the castle, including the motte and St George's Tower and crypt, are Grade I listed buildings and a Scheduled Monument. Originally the castle was a moated, wooden motte and bailey castle, built by the Norman baron, Robert D’Oyly the elder, from 1071 to 1073. [58] The site is protected as a Scheduled Monument. [9] The motte was originally about 60 feet (18 m) high and 40 feet (12 m) wide, constructed like the bailey from layers of gravel and strengthened with clay facing. [33] In 1220 Falkes de Breauté, who controlled many royal castles in the middle of England, demolished the Church of St Budoc to the south-east of the castle and built a moated barbican to further defend the main gate. Further additions and renovations over the next century were required and in 1888 after the prison reforms it became HM Prison Oxford. [48] For most of the 18th century, the castle prison was run by the local Etty and Wisdom families and was in increasing disrepair. D'Oyly had arrived in England with William I in the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 and William the Conqueror granted him extensive lands in Oxfordshire. [27], Robert D'Oyly the younger, Robert D'Oyly the elder's nephew, had inherited the castle by the time of the civil war of the Anarchy in the 1140s. [45] In the event, Oxford saw no fresh fighting; early in the 18th century, however, the keep was demolished and the top of the motte landscaped to its current form. Artist John Baptist Malchair. In 1642 the English Civil War broke out and the Royalists made Oxford their capital. In the 14th century the military value of the castle diminished and the site became used primarily for county administration and as a prison. Oxford had been stormed in the invasion with considerable damage, and William directed D'Oyly to build a castle to dominate the town. Built by the Normans in the 11th century for William the Conqueror, Oxford Castle has been in almost continuous operation for 1,000 years. 1 of 7 - 20180808_Oxford_MaxDoyle_s02_0257_b87fe4c5_6f1e_4355_a042_c4e83674391e.png ";[6] the mill mentioned is presumably the Castle Mill, formerly adjacent to the still surviving St. George's Tower, rebuilt in 1781 before eventually being demolished in 1930. In central Oxford in Oxfordshire is a partly ruined Norman Medieval castle called… Oxford Castle! [54] In the 1770s the prison reformer John Howard visited the castle several times, and criticised its size and quality, including the extent to which vermin infested the prison. [32], In the Barons' War of 1215–17 the castle was attacked again, prompting further improvements in its defences. Christ Church Cathedral (1160–1200) Many college chapels are impressive, but the Oxford college … Robert also built Oxford’s first bridges (Magdalen, Folly, and Hythe). Oxford has built a reputation on finding the finest materials and combining with modern design trends - and its signature fine tailoring service. [50] The chapel and/or associated buildings are also shown, from a range of angles, in views by other artists including Samuel and Nathaniel Buck's Antiquities (drawing dated 1729),[51] a 1773 engraving included in Francis Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales, 1786,[52] a painting by Michael Angelo Rooker dating from 1779,[53] and a view by the artist John Baptist Malchair dating from 1784. The last public hanging at the prison was in 1863 and the last hanging within the prison walls was in 1952. The prison closed in 1996 and was redeveloped as a hotel and visitor attraction. The castle was built on the west side of the Saxon town that had offered resistance to … [63], The full extent of the original castle is somewhat obliterated today, especially with the intrusion of the newer County Hall into the eastern side, while New Road runs over the location of north-east portion of the curtain wall with its two square towers; nevertheless the position of its outer perimeter moat is approximated by portions of New Road, Castle Street and Paradise Street (refer map at right), while the remains of the original Barbican lie underneath the modern Westgate shopping centre. [66], St George's Tower, Oxford Castle, viewed from the Castle Mill Stream. Excavations at Oxford Castle: Oxford’s Western Quarter from the Mid-Saxon Period to the Late Eighteenth Century (Based on Daniel Poore’s Tom Hassall Lecture for 2008). Oxford Castle is a medieval Norman castle on the western edge of the city centre that was rebuilt in the late 12th/early 13th century. *SPOILER ALERT* When a prisoner was ‘sent down’ it meant he or she was sent down a tunnel leading from the County courtroom into Oxford Prison. There are only two of these tunnels in England. Constructed by Baron Robert D’Oyly the elder in 1073, Oxford Castle was originally a wooden, motte-and-bailey castle. Built in 1071 by Robert d'Oilly, Oxford Castle was in existence as a prison up until as recently as 1996. [20][21][22] The date of the remaining towers is uncertain although the southernmost, round tower, of which the base still remains, is dated to 1235 in various documentary sources, including Woolnoth's The Ancient Castles of England and Wales of 1825; in at least one source, it is referred to as "Henry III's Tower".[23]. [25] Robert had died in the final weeks of the siege and the castle was granted to William de Chesney for the remainder of the war. University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. The castle had several owners between the 14th and 18th centuries. The Motte was built within 5 years of the Conquest, and sited in a position to control the town and areas to the west. It saw action during the Anarchy where it was the scene of Matilda’s dramatic escape from King Stephen in the midst of a snow storm. http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1976/hassall.pdf, http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1952-3/jope.pdf. Robert d’Oilly was appointed the first Norman governor of Oxford and was responsible for building Oxford Castle, of which all that remains is the motte (mound) and the tower of the Church of St. George in the castle. The original 11th century earthwork mound was added to with stone fortifications and a stone keep and in 1074, St George’s Chapel was built. [33] The inmates included children, the youngest being a seven-year-old girl sentenced to seven days hard labour in 1870 for stealing a pram. [15] This was the tallest of the castle's towers, and is now believed to be a survival from late Saxon times (c. 1020) as a watch tower associated with the west gate of the Saxon city. ", Booth, Paul, et al. [13] The chapel originally had a nave, chancel and an apsidal sanctuary. The surviving rectangular St George's Tower is now believed to pre-date the remainder of the castle and be a watch tower associated with the original Saxon west gate of the city. [58] The work was completed under Daniel Harris in 1805. [31] At the end of the war the constableship of Oxford Castle was granted to Roger de Bussy before being reclaimed by Henry D'Oyly, Robert D'Oyly the younger's son, in 1154. It was built between 1165 and 1173 by Henry II of England to consolidate royal power in the region. Built by Robert d'Oilly in 1071, the original wooden motte and bailey castle was rebuilt in stone during the 11th century. Oxford Castle and Prison Guided Tour (From $18.37) City Sightseeing Oxford Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour (From $22.54) Oxford Private Guided Walking Tour (From $350.31) Improve your confidence in speaking English on 2-weekend courses in Oxford, UK. The castle has played an important role in the history of Oxford and of England. [36] Due to the presence of Beaumont Palace to the north of Oxford, however, the castle never became a royal residence. (1998) "Malchair and the Oxford Topographical Tradition," in Harrison (ed) 1998. [57] The wider castle site had already begun to change by the late 18th century, with New Road being built through the bailey and the last parts of the castle moat being filled in to allow the building of the new Oxford Canal terminus. One such scholar was Welsh monk Geoffrey of Monmouth who in 1136 wrote the stories from which the legend of King Arthur emerged. The college then leased it to a number of local families over the coming years. (eds) (1979) Victoria County History: Gravett, Christopher and Adam Hook. [42] A map of the castle prepared for Christ Church College in 1615 shows the keep on its mound, St. George's Tower with associated buildings and sections of the curtain wall remaining to the north and south, and the next tower to the south, plus a single remaining tower to the north-east, as well as the Castle Mill and a southern entrance to the castle complex;[43][44] according to this map, by 1615 houses and their gardens had been built up to over half of the Castle Ditch or moat, which appears to still contain water. Ralph Agas's map of Oxford in 1578 shows that by then, while the curtain wall, keep and towers remained, the barbican had been demolished to make way for houses. Assizes were held there until 1577, when plague broke out in what became known as the "Black Assize": the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, two knights, eighty gentlemen and the entire grand jury for the session all died, including Sir Robert D'Oyley, a relative of the founder of the castle. [56], In 1785 the castle was bought by the Oxford County Justices and rebuilding began under the London architect William Blackburn. [25] Stephen would have had difficulty in supplying his men through the winter period, and this decision shows the apparent strength of Oxford Castle at the time. In 1611 King James I sold Oxford Castle to Francis James and Robert Younglove, who in turn sold it to Christ Church College in 1613. [45] Ingoldsby improved the fortification of the castle rather than the surrounding town, and in 1649 demolished most of the medieval stonework, replacing it with more modern earth bulwarks and reinforcing the keep with earth works to form a probable gun-platform. Poore et al. The prison was closed in 1996 and the site reverted to Oxfordshire County Council. MacKenzie, p.149; Gravett and Hook, p.43. [34] The remaining wooden buildings were replaced in stone, including the new Round Tower which was built in 1235. In due course D'Oyly became the foremost landowner in Oxfordshire an… [25] The keep enclosed a number of buildings, leaving an inner courtyard only 22 feet (7 m) across. It was almost demolished in 1805, and was only saved as … Oxford Castle & Prison 44-46 Oxford Castle, Oxford OX1 1AY T: 01865 260666. Munby, Julian. D'Oyly had arrived in England with William I in the Norman Conquest of England and William the Conquerorgranted him extensive lands in Oxfordshire. [10], The initial castle was probably a large motte and bailey, copying the plan of the castle that D'Oyly had already built 12 miles (19 km) away at Wallingford. [12] There has been debate over the sequencing of the motte and the bailey: it has been suggested that the bailey may have built first (thus utilising the pre-existing St. George's Tower as the first keep) which would make the initial castle design a ringwork rather than a motte and bailey. Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle on the western side of central Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. In 1785 a new prison complex was built on the grounds of the castle, which was expanded upon in 1876 and was later to become HM Prison Oxford. [59] Harris gained a reasonable salary as the new governor and used convict labour from the prison to conduct early archaeological excavations at the castle with the help of the antiquarian Edward King.[60]. Heritage Projects (Oxford Castle) Ltd Registered in England No: 5763243 Registered Office: St. Edmund's House, Margaret Street, YORK, YO10 4UX The development of Oxford Castle began in 1071 when, having fought alongside him during the Norman Conquest of 1066, Robert d’Oilly built Oxford Castle for William the Conqueror. Oxford Delineated: A sketch of the history and antiquities. [61] In 1888 national prison reforms led to the renaming of the county prison as HM Prison Oxford. Today, the remains of the Saxon St.George's Tower, Motte-and-Bailey Mound, the Prison D-Wing and Debtor's Tower make up the Oxford Castle & Prison tourist attraction. According to a medieval chronicle of the 12th century called the … [14] The new curtain wall incorporated St George's Tower, which is built of coral rag stone, 30 by 30 feet (9 m × 9 m) at the base and tapering significantly toward the top for stability. The local justices ordered a rebuild in 1785 which included a Debtor’s Tower and it was finished by 1805. [65] As at 2018, guided tours of the surviving medieval and 18th century portions are available to visitors via a commercial operator, Heritage Projects (Oxford Castle) Ltd, with opening hours and pricing available via their website. In fact, it stopped being a castle during the reign of Henry VIII and it became a full-scale prison, which operated until 1996, with the last hanging happening in the middle of the ’50s. The well-preserved keep, described by historian R. Allen Brown as "one of the most remarkable keeps in England", is of a unique design and probably based on Byzantine architecture. Built by the Normans in the 11th century for William the Conqueror, Oxford Castle has been in almost continuous operation for 1,000 years. [47] As with other prisons at the time, the owners, in this case Christ Church College, leased the castle to wardens who would profit by charging prisoners for their board and lodging. Although there is no hard evidence, Oxford Prison is believed by some to be one of the most haunted places in England and – unverified – reports include ghostly figures wandering through the castle, poltergeist activity, eerie white mists and disembodied footsteps…. Poore, Daniel, Norton, Andrew and Dodd, Anne (2009). [9] Oxford Castle was an "urban castle", overlying a portion of the Saxon town wall, but it remains uncertain whether local buildings were demolished to make room for it. [2] Oxford had been stormed in the invasion with considerable damage, and William directed D'Oyly to build a castle to dominate the town. Oxford Castle, Oxford, Oxfordshire Owned by: Oxfordshire County Council Large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle. Largely abandoned by the late 16th century – though it was briefly refortified in the Civil War – the castle ultimately evolved into a prison that operated until 1996. (There’s a surprise!) After the English Civil War in the late 1650s it was, like many of England’s urban castles, converted into a prison with a fearsome reputation for brutality; a reputation that endured until it ceased operation in 1996. Construction of Oxford Castle began in 1071 and was completed in 1073. Hassall, 1976, states that by 1600 the moat was almost entirely silted up and houses had been built all around the edge of the bailey wall,[40] although this is contradicted by the castle's appearance in John Speed's map of Oxford, 1605. The castle was built by Henry II between 1165 and 1173 to help maintain Royal control over that part of the country and to repel invaders. According to the Historia Ecclesie Abbendonensis (Abingdon Chronicle), Oxford Castle was built by the Norman baron Robert D'Oyly the elder from 1071–73. (2003), Hassall, T. G. (1971) "Excavations at Oxford," in, Hassall, T. G. (1976) "Excavations at Oxford Castle: 1965-1973," in, Jope, E. M. "Late Saxon Pits Under Oxford Castle Mound: Excavations in 1952," in. [30] The chronicler William of Malmesbury, however, suggests Matilda did not descend the walls, but instead escaped from one of the gates. The castle in Oxford, for example, is not exactly a castle anymore. About 1 200 castles were built in the 11th and 12th centuries, but the grandest were built when Edward I was king (1272–1307). Map drawn after Hassall 1971, p.2; Tyack, p.6, p.80. It dates back to the 11th century. The keep stands within the earth-bank remains of the castle's outer fortifications. Most of the castle was destroyed in the English Civil War and by the 18th century the remaining buildings had become Oxford's local prison. [33] Building the new prison included demolishing the old chapel attached to St George's tower and repositioning part of the crypt in 1794. Crossley, Alan and C. Elrington. This page was last edited on 22 October 2020, at 17:11. Culture castles castles Thick walls and strong towers are characteristic features of Britain's castles.When built, they were solid buildings with few comforts, designed for the defence of a town or region. The tour of the historic buildings takes in the Saxon stone-built St. George’s Tower, the atmospheric Norman crypt, the preserved Georgian prison wing and the man-made mound, with breath-taking birds'-eye views of the city. [49] A view of the castle published in 1769 in the work "England Displayed" by P. Russell and Owen Price is of interest in that it shows the appearance of the chapel attached to St George's tower prior to its demolition in 1794, as well as the motte and some then-surviving portions of the curtain wall including an arch or gateway in the wall immediately to the north of the tower. (2009),[19] who comment that "a single, massive stone tower does not seem to belong within the outer defences of an earth-and-timber castle", and other sources have concurred on architectural grounds, also noting that its orientation does not match that of the remainder of the castle, and that its height would have originally afforded an extensive view over the city, but which would have been superseded (and in fact, blocked) with the construction of the castle motte.

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