 Yarmouth Castle
Nestled into a corner at the edge of the town, and flanked on two sides by sea,
the redundant Yarmouth Castle has almost become lost among the outbuildings
of the George Hotel. Yet 450 years ago Yarmouth Castle played an important
role in affording the islanders protection against French raids. After
witnessing the sinking of his beloved flagship
Mary Rose in the Solent,
Henry VIII wasted little time in ordering the building of Yarmouth Castle
as one of a line of fortifications along the south and east coasts to prevent
further intrusions.
By 1547 Yarmouth Castle had been completed, using a
great deal of stone from two Hampshire monasteries recently dissolved
by the King. Yarmouth Castle was of a quite different style to many of Henry's previous forts,
and would have been at the forefront of 'castle' design at
the time of its commissioning. Whereas earlier structures, such as Deal Castle
in Kent, generally took the form of a series of concentric circular bastions
with a large circular keep at the centre, Yarmouth Castle was square
in plan with a pointed 'arrow-head' bastion in the south-east
corner. Protecting the vulnerable area on the landward side, and allowing
raking fire down the length of a moat situated along the south and east
flanks, this bastion is believed to be the earliest of its kind in England.
In modern times Yarmouth Castle appears cramped and
dysfunctional but this is purely as a result of the many alterations
over time. Originally, Yarmouth Castle would have been entered through a doorway in the east wall,
giving access to a central courtyard area, and the guns would have been
mounted on ramparts above the courtyard's perimeter ranges. Accommodation
blocks and provisions have always been situated along the southern perimeter
wall, but these would have been far less substantial when Yarmouth Castle
was first in use. The arrow-head bastion served as the kitchen and service areas.
During the late 16th/early 17th centuries,
the courtyard was filled with earth to create a level gun platform
and, to provide support for the extra weight, angular buttresses were built on the seaward
side of the west and north walls. Other building at this time included
a second storey extension with gabled roof to the 'arrow-head' bastion,
and an enlargement of the Master Gunners House in the south-east corner.
In 1632 further alterations were made to what it now referred to as the 'Long
Room', situated in the south-west corner of the site.
Controlled by the islands Captain (or Governor),
Richard Worsley, Yarmouth Castle's original armament comprised
three cannon and culverins, as well as twelve smaller guns. Throughout
the next 50 years several additions were made outside of the main castle to facilitate
extra ordinance, including an earthen bulwark with bastions and revelins,
which was constructed along the outer edge of the moat.
At the time of the English Civil War the Isle of Wight gentry were
entirely Royalist, and Captain Barnaby Burley had every intention
of holding Yarmouth Castle on behalf of the King. However, with only a tiny garrison under
his command, he concluded that discretion was the better part of valour
and surrendered Yarmouth Castle to the parliamentarians, who were to maintain
a substantial garrison there until the Reformation in 1660. Ten years later
the outer earthworks were removed, the moat was filled in, and a large
house (now the George Hotel) was built. A new entrance was also created
in the south curtain wall.
Little appears to have changed at the castle until 1813, when modifications
were made to the platform parapet, and the gun rails were laid to mount
the traversing platforms of four large naval guns. These guns were dismantled
in 1869 and the garrison finally withdrawn in 1875. Yarmouth Castle was
then used as a coastguard signalling station until 1901, and was utilised
on a small scale during both world wars. In 1984 Yarmouth Castle came under
the guardianship of English Heritage. |
