Tonbridge Castle

Tonbridge Castle

Tonbridge Castle is now used as offices for Tonbridge Urban District Council. It represents the survival of substantial medieval fortifications built on a Norman motte and bailey site.

The Norman motte survives as a mound containing a well, now largely filled up. This mound is surrounded by a moat on its north and west sides, which connects with the River Medway to the south.

Of the 13th-century curtain wall that originally surrounded the keep, several sections remain. A portion extends immediately east of the mound, connecting it to the gateway. A small section survives to the south-east of the Council Offices. Most notably, a long section runs along the south front facing the Medway; its top has been made into a walk in the castle grounds due to the difference in ground levels on either side.

The Gate-house, built between 1230 and 1260, stands between the eastern curtain wall section and the Council Offices. It is constructed of sandstone ashlar and forms a large square building with four circular towers at its corners. A wide carriage arch passes through the centre, fronted by a high pointed arch with its head recessed in six grooves. Within this outer arch sits a lower, less pointed arch, and between their heads a wall nearly closes the space, leaving only a small gap for lowering the portcullis, which has a groove below. Three square holes pierce the soffit of the inner arch for dropping hot liquid on attackers. An embattled parapet crowns the building, with loop lights in the flanking towers. On the ground floor of the west outer tower, an oblique shoot leads to dungeons. Pointed doorways within the archway give access to staircases.

The first-floor rooms and the hall above occupy the entire building area. Though the floors have disappeared, fireplaces remain. On the inner side of the gateway, two smaller pointed arches replace the outer arch arrangement, with a portcullis groove between them and three square holes in the soffit of the outer arch. Above the inner arch, the first floor contains three trefoil-headed lights; the second floor has two larger pointed windows with traces of cusped tracery. Loop lights appear in the towers on this side as well.

To the east of the Gate-house stands an L-shaped house constructed in 1793 and now serving as the Council Offices. Built of ashlar using stone taken from various castle ruins, its main front faces south and contains six windows with segmental heads, glazing bars missing in their lower halves. Three hipped dormers with casement windows of two pointed lights each occupy the roofline above a parapet. Immediately adjoining the Gate-house at ground floor level is a large curved bay with parapet containing three large windows, the centre now converted to a door; this room serves as the Council Chamber. Further east, a ground-floor addition, probably originally a conservatory, is set within the thickness of further castle walls. It ends in rough masonry that formed part of the original castle defences and contains large sash windows with pointed heads, the lower part of one converted to a door. Beyond this lies part of the rampart.

The interior of the Council Offices is decorated in 19th-century Gothic style.

Traces of the castle fosse can be identified at various points in the town. It formerly ran between Stafford Road and High Street, then followed the course of Bordyke, with visible remains between Bordyke and East Street, where it now divides the gardens of the Vicarage and the Cedars. Further remains appear south of East Street at the south-east corner of the Lyons garden.