Once Pontefract, in West Yorkshire, was the site of one of the most impressive castles in Britain.
The castle is mentioned in the Domesday
Book, and one of its many famous prisoners was Richard
II, who languished here after his overthrow in 1399. Richard subsequently
died in the castle.
Today all that remains are a few lumps of wall. The rest was reduced to
rubble after the English
Civil War of the 1640s. The scale and speed of the demolition is testament
to how hated castles became during the course of the conflict.
A tale of three sieges
Founded shortly after the Norman
Conquest, Pontefract grew over six centuries to become one of the most
impressive castles in Britain. A picture of the castle painted between 1625
and 1630 gives some idea of how magnificent it must have looked on the eve
of the its destruction. Today, aerial photographs give a good impression
of the enormous size of the castle's site.
Pontefract was besieged three times during the English Civil War. In each
case it was held by a Royalist garrison and besieged by a Parliamentary
army. The first two sieges (really one long siege with a 10-day interruption)
ended in the summer of 1645. After the fall of the castle, Parliament
decided to repair and garrison Pontefract rather than destroy it. This
proved to be a mistake, as the castle was retaken by local Royalists in
July 1648.
Third time unlucky
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We know a great deal about the third siege because, many years later,
one of the Royalists, Captain Thomas Paulden, then aged 78, wrote a detailed
account of what happened. In a letter to a friend, Paulden explained how
he and his comrades had first tried to take the castle by climbing over
the walls using scaling ladders under cover of darkness. This plan, however,
failed when they were spotted and the alarm was raised.
Realising that a Royalist plot was afoot, the Parliamentary governor of
the castle summoned more troops from the town, and at the same time ordered
more beds for them to sleep on. Paulden and his friends then disguised
themselves as bed delivery men and walked straight into the castle. Once
inside, they threw off their disguises and imprisoned the surprised parliamentary
garrison in the castle's cellar. Some of their names can still be seen
carved on the cellar walls.
Enter Cromwell
Parliamentary troops immediately began to besiege the castle, but their
initial efforts were frustrated by the incompetent and divided leadership
of local commanders. The situation did not improve until the arrival of
Oliver Cromwell in October 1648. Cromwell was under no illusion about
the difficulty of breaking Pontefract. 'The castle is very well known
as one of the strongest in the kingdom,' he wrote to Parliament, at the
same time ordering 500 barrels of gunpowder, 1,800 cannon balls, six cannon
and three mortars.
Remarkably, even when Cromwell's mighty arsenal arrived, the garrison
inside the castle refused to give up. However, their position became increasingly
hopeless after the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649, and by March
they had been persuaded to surrender.
Demolition work
Immediately after the siege, Parliament voted to demolish the castle and
went to work with astounding thoroughness. In this they were helped by
the people of Yorkshire, who greatly desired to see the castle destroyed
after the misery it had brought them throughout the Civil War.
The castle today
The castle site was converted into a park in the late 19th century and
opened to the public as an ancient monument in 1988 after extensive archaeological
investigation. The site is still owned by the Queen.
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