Leeds Castle

Leeds Castle is a stone castle of early-to-mid 12th-century date, with alterations spanning the 13th to 16th centuries. It was partly rebuilt in 1822 by Fiennes Wykeham-Martin, and its interiors were remodelled in the first half of the 20th century. The roofs are plain tile.

The castle consists of a motte-and-bailey structure with a shell keep, moated from at least 1272. It occupies two islands. The larger island, aligned north-east to south-west, contains a south-west gatehouse linked to an inner barbican by a stone bridge, with one parapet wall extending south-east as a retaining wall of the south-east causeway. The Watergate and Maidens Tower stand to the south and east. An 1822 block occupies the north-east end. All buildings are connected by a bastioned enceinte wall. The smaller island, known as the Gloriette, is aligned north-south and reached by bridge from the 1822 block. It has an extended D shape with a small courtyard, and is accessed via a bridge of two pointed arches with a ramped parapet.

The gatehouse to the Gloriette has a core possibly of early-to-mid 13th-century date, altered and extended in the late 13th century. Machicolations were added in the late 14th or early 15th century, with further alterations in the 16th and 17th centuries. The structure stands two storeys on a battered plinth, with a deep gateway flanked by two parallel ranges of obliquely receding wings. The wings and the south-west section of the gateway have hipped roofs. The gateway is battlemented to the north-east. The south-west elevation displays blocked loop lights, two pointed-arched windows, and 16th-century two-light windows with squared hoodmoulds. The north-east face has paired trefoiled lancets and windows with Y tracery. A depressed-pointed south-west arch of two orders contains a portcullis groove, similar to barbican gateways, with deep machicolations above. Various two-centred arched doorways face north-east. The bridge and gateway are paved with setts.

The Watergate is possibly of early-to-mid 13th-century date, though it may have been converted to a bath in the late 13th century or built then. It stands beneath the outer enceinte wall as a rectangular, vaulted structure with two vaulted passages to the moat and internal stone stairs to an upper chamber. Two low pointed arches open to the moat, each containing a portcullis groove.

Maidens Tower dates to the 16th century and was altered around 1750 and in 1822. It stands two storeys, with a third storey at lower level to the south, on a plinth. It was formerly gabled and was given battlements around 1750 or in 1822. The roof is hipped. A projecting first-floor corbelled stack stands to the rear left, with an adjacent garderobe projection. The front displays a regular six-window arrangement of hollow-chamfered stone mullioned windows with rounded lights and squared hoodmoulds—one three-light window toward each end, flanked by two-light windows. A four-centred arched doorway with moulded jambs stands on the left, above which is a later three-light window; another three-light window with a rounded hoodmould stands to the right of centre.

The 1822 block is executed in a 16th-century style. It is rectangular with octagonal corner turrets, and a slightly projecting central gateway also fitted with octagonal turrets. The structure stands two storeys with a three-storey gate-tower on a moulded plinth. A moulded string courses above ground and first floor windows, and to the attic of the gateway. The walls are battlemented. Lancet loop lights pierce each stage of the tower. Fenestration is irregular, comprising seven stone mullioned and transomed windows with hollow-chamfered round-headed lights and squared hoodmoulds—two six-light and one central eight-light to the left of the gateway, one eight-light to the gateway itself, and two six-light, one eight-light, and one single-light window to the right. A four-light mullioned window lights the attic of the gateway. Ground-floor windows are taller than those above. Two-storey canted bays project at each gable end. A four-centred arched moulded doorway with hoodmould provides access, and is fitted with a ribbed door. This block replaced a 17th-century building, probably on the site of a medieval hall.

The outer enceinte walls are possibly of early-to-mid 13th-century date with late 13th-century alterations, or may have been built entirely in the late 13th century (accounts record work in 1298–9). They were formerly fitted with five D-shaped turrets or bastions—two to the north-west and three to the south and east sides. These are now truncated and stone-coped, except for the north-east bastion, known as the Ivy Tower, which retains a semi-conical roof. These walls replaced earlier 12th-century inner enceinte walls that had square bastions.

The bridge to the Gloriette is largely of 1822 date. It stands two storeys and is built over two pointed arches, with string courses, battlements, and 16th-century-style stone mullioned windows with squared hoodmoulds.

The Gloriette itself has outer walls and windows possibly of 12th-century date, altered in the late 13th, 14th, 16th centuries, and in 1822. It stands two storeys on a battered plinth. A shallow semi-circular turret projects to the north, and a three-storey bell turret stands at the north end of the bridge, housing a bell dated 1435. String courses run above ground and first-floor windows. The battlements are of 1822. A garderobe projection extends to the north-east, and projecting corbelled first-floor stacks project to each side. Ground-floor windows date from the late 13th and early 14th centuries, including a pair of two-light transomed windows to the west half of the south elevation with Y tracery, moulded architraves, and continuous moulded hoodmould. First-floor windows and a two-storey canted bay window to the west date to around 1520–30.

Interior features, which were only partly inspected, include moulded interior hoods to three of the south windows of the Gloriette. A cellar, possibly of 12th-century date, lies beneath the 1822 block, featuring a low pointed-arched vault with a fragment of narrow stone spiral staircase. A 13th-century doorway with decorative stone chamfer stops is visible within the first floor of the gatehouse. An early 16th-century stone fireplace serves what was formerly a banqueting room in the Gloriette. The gatehouse range formerly contained 17th-century stable fittings with arcaded wooden stalls. Internal decoration from the 1920s onwards includes fittings brought from elsewhere: linenfold panelling in the Gloriette staircase, mid-18th-century chimney-pieces, doorcases and panelling, a chimneypiece of around 1570 from Woodland Manor at Mere, and mid-17th-century panelling from Thorpe Hall, all installed in the 1822 block.

The castle was owned from around 1114 to the mid 1260s by the de Crevecoeur family. It became a royal possession around 1272–1278, forming part of the Queen's dower. It was granted to Sir Anthony St. Leger of Ulcombe in 1552, and was subsequently bought by Sir Thomas Colepepper from the Smyth family in 1632.