The Castle

The Castle

Castle remains situated on Castle Hill Road in Alton, overlooking the Churnet Valley. A castle existed here by 1176, with some remains dating to the late 12th century and additions from the first quarter of the 13th century. The stonework comprises ashlar with diagonal tooling and rubble core.

The castle was positioned on a hill naturally protected to the north by a precipitous cliff. To the south, a rock-cut ditch and curtain wall enclosed an irregularly shaped site on an east-west axis. The gatehouse lay towards the west end of the south curtain, with two wall towers towards the centre.

The South Curtain, mainly of the late 12th century, stretches from the south-east angle of St. John's Preparatory School to the western apex of the site, interrupted by the eastern wall tower. Towards the east end of the curtain is a pilaster buttress. At the western apex, immediately north of the gatehouse, stands the base of a square buttress or turret. The parapet has been destroyed, though its height and position can be discerned on the west side of the eastern wall tower.

The Eastern Wall Tower dates to the late 12th century and is bonded into the curtain wall. It is a square, open-backed tower with a battered base and a string course at ground level. A blind pointed arch springs from the string course, indicating the position of a barrel-vaulted chamber entered from the enclosure. Above this is a central arrow loop of circa 1190 with a cross slit and fishtail-shaped base; to the rear of the loop is a round-arched embrasure. From the level of this loop upwards, the corners of the tower are chamfered. The left-hand side has a rectangular loop set high up immediately in front of the former south curtain parapet, its position indicated by a break in the ashlar work. On the right-hand side, corbelling spans the angle between tower and curtain at parapet level.

The Western Wall Tower dates to the early 13th century and is D-shaped. Only foundations survive. The tower was served by a newel staircase situated in its north-west angle.

The Gatehouse, also early 13th century, comprises twin D-shaped towers surviving to a height of approximately 10 feet. The eastern tower has a battered and offset plinth. Originally the towers flanked a central gate passage with a portcullis at its outer (southern) end. The lower part of a portcullis groove of square section survives on the east side of the passage. A mural staircase entered from a door on the west side of the passage gave access to the upper parts of the gatehouse, now destroyed.

Below the level of the former gate passage and between the two towers is a sally-port with a round arch, giving access to a central corridor beneath the gate passage. At the north end of this corridor, a segmental-headed doorway to the west leads to the basement of the west tower and to a doorway in the north wall which probably communicated with the castle enclosure via a mural staircase. There is no indication of how the basement of the east tower was entered; it may have been via a trap in the floor of the room above. A short length of wall extends from the front of the western tower and probably terminated the rock-cut ditch to the west, flanking one side of the former approach road.

The site is scheduled as an Ancient Monument.