Cambridge from castle Mount – G F Sargent mid 19th century

Cambridge Castle (Castle Hill), Cambridge

Norman motte-and-bailey castle on Castle Hill in Cambridge, built soon after the Conquest and still visible as earthworks.

Cambridge Castle was a Norman motte-and-bailey castle built on Castle Hill in Cambridge shortly after the Norman Conquest.

It symbolised royal and civic authority before the rise of the University. Its presence highlights an earlier centre of power that later gave way to the dominance of “Gown” in the city.

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Caroline Biggs interviewed local historian Allan Brigham in 2013 from the top of Castle Mound.

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Roman

The Roman town was known in the Antonine Itineraries as Duroliponte (CAS Vol 1999 Roman Cambridge). It had already been an extensive Iron Age settlement with strong links to the Catuvellaunian and Trinovantian kingdoms to the south, lying across key routes. After the Roman Conquest a series of enclosures were built to protect the crossroads and the river crossing. By AD70 a fort had been built and the road, known later as Akeman Street, ran through it. Another road, known later as the Via Devana, also ran into the site across the river.

Early in the 2nd century further streets were built parallel to Akeman Street. A stone mansio with hypocaust from this time indicates that Cambridge was part of the Hadrianic development of the cursus publicus from Ermine Street to the Fens. There dates from this time a massive subterranean ceremonial site or shrine. There is evidence of burials involving luxury goods and sacrifices of dogs and horses.

By the 4th century there were new buildings and a general reorganisation of the site with new defences. The walled settlement may have lasted into the 5th century and there is no sign of deliberate destruction.

In chapter 7 of CAS 1999 ‘Roman Cambridge’, Alison Taylor draws attention to the debate on what exactly constituted a small town in Roman Britain. She notes that evidence for the shape of the fort is not conclusive; there is little evidence of military equipment.  However, after the rebellion of AD60 a fort at Cambridge could have been a useful point from which to monitor dissidents.

She concludes that there is still relatively little evidence of ordinary commercial life even though areas such as Horningsea, Milton and Waterbeach had huge areas used in pottery production. There is little evidence of shops fronting onto streets. In essence Cambridge seems to have been an existing Iron Age settlement that was developed under Emperor Hadrian as an administrative centre for the local region.

In 1923 Cyril Fox wrote: In the Borough of Cambridge is a four-sided enclosure of some 28 acres the limits of which can fairly accurately be determined and which is almost certainly a Roman fortified town. Two important Roman roads … crossed here, and numerous finds are recorded within the area. … Coin finds range from Nero to Honorius…. Bowtell records the destruction of what was apparently a portion of the Roman wall and gate near Castle Street in 1804.

Early Medieval

The Saxon settlement was originally within the ramparts of the Roman fort. It is known that there was some destruction during the conflicts between the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia. In 634AD the Mercian king Penda conquered the East Anglians at the site. The Venerable Bede mentions the site when he describes the monks from Ely coming in 695 in search of a suitable coffin for the founder of their monastery, St Etheldreda. They are said to have found a coffin at the foot of Castle Hill in ‘a waste chester called Grantacaester’ i.e. the Roman camp next to the Granta, the old name for the River Cam. (Peter Bryan, ‘Cambridge – The Shaping of the City’ 2008, p.12)

The motte is all that remains of the castle built by William the Conqueror in 1068 to control the river crossing. It lay within the stone walls of the Roman town. In the process 27 houses were demolished. A stone bailey was rebuilt in stone by Edward in 1294. It seems to have been surrounded by wet moats.

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CAS 2005 contains the article Cambridge Castle Hill: Excavations of Saxon, medieval and Post-Medieval deposits, Saxon execution site and a Medieval coinhoard by Craig Cessford and Alison Dickens. In this article it states that in 866 Cambridge became part of the Danelaw. This lasted until 917 when the region submitted to Edward of Wessex and a settlement followed in 920.

Later Medieval

See Defending Cambridge, Mike Osborne, (2013) for a detailed description of the Norman castle.

The Norman Castle was the office of the sheriff, with dungeons where he could keep prisoners and where the monthly county court was held. being made of wood, maintenance was cheap and in the century ending 1234 less than 30s a year was spent on repairs. The garrison was small and when it surrendered to the Barons in SKing John’s reign it contained only 20 men.

The castle was not a strong one, even as a prison. Around the year 1260 a woman named Constance was arrested for murder by the constables of Fulbourn. She was brought to Cambridge Castle where Sir William le Moyne was holding a county court. Sir William declined to lock her up but the constables of Fulbourn tried to insist. During this argument Constance escaped and both sheriff and constables were fined. A little later five prisoners escaped and took sanctuary in All Saints’ church.

A document in the Public Record Office dated 1236 lists twelve landowners in Cambridgeshire who were charged with payments for the upkeep of the castle. Six of these had to pay 6s 8d, a mark.Then, in the reign of Edward I, the castle was rebuilt form c. 1283. In Michaelmas 1286 the Sheriff claimed to have spent £408 on the hall, gate and walls. In 1297 £407 was spent on a new gate, the next year £161 on thatching; in 1299 a new kitchen and bakehouse were built. There were sometimes over 100 men at work on the castle per week.

The first area to be rebuilt by Edward I was the Great Hall. Up to Midsummer 1286, over £100 was spent on the hall. The Curtain Wall was finished in 1287. The Great Gate was built at the same time; this survived until 1840 and took two years to build. In 1288 the roof was covered in lead. (for other details of the rebuilding see W M Palmer, Cambridge Castle, 1928.)

Edward I stayed at the castle 24-25th March, 1293. He was the first king to stay on the site. He didn’t like the smell of the stable under the hall so that was rebuilt. The garrison was enlarged to 30 men  in 1317.

There are numerous records of escapes form the prison, usually in groups.

1346 Four thieves broke their chains and killed a gaoler with a pole-axe, taking sanctuary in the church f All Saints.

1349 A prisoner snatched a knife from a gaoler, stabbed him; four men and one woman escaped to sanctuary.

1359 Sir John de Moleyns were confined with his wife Gilliam for four months. He died and the coroner recorded that he was a great conspirator and died a natural death at the age of 70.

1368 workmen at the castle borrowed a ladder to put two new gargoyles and a leaden spout on the roof of the Great Gate, so they borrowed a long ladder from the Friars Minor (Sidney College later) giving the Friar who bought it 4d. He was given 3d to take it back.

By 1367 the castle was already in a defective state although even in 1585 attempts were made to retain the curtain wall. By 1606 the S.W. gatehouse was the only complete building left because of its use as a prison.

1401 William Thresher of Harborough hung after stealing a smock belonging to William Attreste, vicar of Little Abington, 40s from the house of John Thurgar, the pattens from Ickleton church, Henry Munday’s two brass pots and half a white horse hide,

1418 new stocks were made in the castle yard at the cost of £2 3s 4d (Foreign Roll 9, Henry F)

1439 £3 17s 2d for repairs to wall (Sheriff’s acct., 12/21)

1441 The Great Hall and chamber were without a roof in 1441 and the king used the stones of these buildings for his new College.

1449 the sheriff, William Alyngton, spent £40 on repairs to the gatehouse (Foreign acct. 28, Henry VI.)

1475 Thomas May, yeoman, porter of Cambridge Castle, made a complaint to the Lord Chancellor that Roger atte gate, sergeant-at-arms, constable of the castle, would not suffer him to occupy and use the herbage of the castle ditches

16th century

1528 Philip Paris spent £5 on repairing the castle wall and gaol. (Sheriff’s Accounts, Roll 13)

1580 appointment of Ralph Killingbeck as gaoler. At this time there were six prisoners, two of them debtors belonging to the upper classes. Robert Wray had a debt of £600. the other debtor was Thomas Brakin, lord of the manor of Chesterton. He owed around £1,000. the following year he sold the manor to John Styward, father of lady Jermy.

1585 curtain wall repaired but other buildings pulled down. Emmanuel College bought salvaged stone.

1592 identure dated 7th December: Sir Henry Cromwell, sheriff, appoints William Silvertop, yeoman, to be gaoler of Cambridge castle. the document goes on to list the prisoners: Thomas Gosson and Susan Arthur, condemned and reprieved; William Fawys, John Peepes, Thomas Holmes, Thomas Stukley, for suspicion of felony; William Kisby, John Thow and Mary Bell, for vagrancy; John White (sent in by Thomas Burge, doctor of law, and Ralph Tyrer B.D. delegate judges appointed by the University of Cambridge, for a matter of inquiry between Dr Newcombe and John White until he has satisfied £100 to Dr Newcombe; Thomas Sterne and Daniel Ventrys, outlawed; John Noble for debt of £8 and 16s 8d fees.

1598 the sheriff, Oliver Cromwell, appointed George Robson and his wife gaolers on December 9th. There were 20 prisoners of whom 3 were debtors. One was a recusant, Nicholas Bestwyk, who was later suspected of being concerned in the gunpowder plot. However, George Robson himself became a prisoner at the suit of St John Peyton. Robson’s appointment as gaoler therefor only lasted nine days for on December 18th William Piper was appointed gaoler and Robson no longer appears in the list of prisoners.

17th century

1606 only gate house remained and a small piece of curtain wall on which Jury House was built. The castle was surveyed by John Cowell, master of Trinity Hall.

In 1643, because of Cambridge being the headquarters of the Eastern Counties Association, the Bailey works were reconstructed as a bastioned trace fort. In 1647 the new defences were slighted but three bastions remained.

For more information about Cambridge and the Civil War fortifications see: Mike Osborne, Defending Cambridgeshire.

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During the reign of Charles I there was a long law suit between a London speculator and the Lord of the Manor of Chesterton concerning the rights to the waste lands about the castle, and in particular the ownership of five small cottages which had been built on ground made by digging down the castle bank into the ditch next to Castle Street. (See Palmer, Cambridge Castle)

This court case and the witness statements provides a great deal of information about the castle in the 16th and 17th centuries. A large number of witnesses were brought by Lady Joan Jermy, owner of Chesterton manor, to prove that the castle was in the manor of Chesterton, even though the town of Cambridge lay on three sides of the castle.

John Gibson of Cottenham, wheelwright, aged 63, said that he knew Goode’s cottage stood on the waste of Chesterton manor because he was apprenticed in that house and went to Chesterton parish church. He said prisoners who died or were excecuted were buried at Chesterton.

John Theaker of Chesterton, shepherd, aged 79, had known the castle since 1558 and had gone with the procession from Chesterton when they beat the boundaries taking in the castle and Goode’s and Stanton’s cottages.

Some of the ages of the witnesses are remarkable. Ursula, wife of Robert Simpkin of Cambridge gave her age as 102. William Clapham of Girton, 80; John Raby of Landbeach, 84; William Moulton of Histon, 92.

The actual situation was that although the castle was in the parish opf Chesterton, it was the private property of the king.

The legal case shows that there was a moat with water around the castle until the end of the 16th century.

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1643 castle defences were remodelled by Parliamentary forces.

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1646 after most soldiers had marched to Newark, garrison consisted of two sergeants and 25 foot soldiers.

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1660 Thomas Sadd, keeper of the castle

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1664/5 March Assizes at Castle

(7/3) Execution of man believed to be Edward Sterne alias Perrey for robbery of Mr Morden. Defendant refused to plea so he was pressed to death. (Samuel Newton diary).

(11/3) Roger Nelson of Foxton hanged for the murder of his wife.

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1688

10th June (Samuel Newton diary):

It is this day further confirmed that the Queens Majestie was yesterday the 10th June 1688 being Sunday delivered of the Prince of Wales about 10 of the clock in the forenoone, this Munday night upon that occasion Great St Maryes Bells rang and a Bonfire was on the Great Hill in Cambridge and the souldiers there mett and gave severall volleys of shott.

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18th century

1718

Simon Ockley, Professor of Arabic, was imprisoned for debt. From the April of 1718 he began to hear constant noises, both day and night. Others witnessed the same noises which included vibrations which nearly threw them off their chairs. He was released in July and went home to Swavesey but continued to be tormented by ‘phantoms’. He died in 1720, a ‘frightened and haunted man’. (see H O Evennett ‘An ancient Cambridge poltergeist‘ British Journal of Psychical Research 2 (1929) pp172-179. (The Cambridge Ghost Book, 2000, Halliday and Murdie).

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1730

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1745 (August)

Henry Footmass and John Jerroms executed for highway robbery.

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1759 account from Cambridge Chronicle where prisoners in the lower gaol filed off their irons, broke 14 locks and a massive iron bar. They were heard by debtors in the upper prison who alerted the gaoler and they were recaptured.

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1763 (April 2)

William Johnson hanged for housebreaking

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1775 (11th August)

Execution of John Stickwood for the murder of Andrew Nunn

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1779 (April 3rd)

Thomas Dellar hanged for stealing sheep

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1782 John Howard reported on the prisons of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire:

Debtors have some relief form legacies and donations paid by several colleges; from Sidney College, each has a shirt every year and a sack of coals. From St John’s sixteen pennyworth of bread every Sunday morning. …

Keeper, Simon Saunders the County Gaoler is attentive and humane. Situated in the castle yard the bridewell building joins to the gaoler’s house. It consists of two work rooms and over them two rooms; one for men with four cages six and a half feet by four and half and the other for women with two cages. No court, no water accessible to prisoners, only one sewer and that very offensive. There is no allowance, the prisoners have the profit of their work, which is beating hemp and making mops.

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1785 (April 2)

Thomas Ashe hanged for highway robbery and John Hopper for burglary.

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Between 1802 and 1847 a new octagonal County gaol designed by G Byfield was built. In 1842 the SW gatehouse was pulled down to make way for the Court House, itself demolished in 1954. In 1932 the new Shire Hall was built on the site freed by the demolition of the County gaol.

See Enid Porter’s article: Crime and Punishment

Documents about the castle’s role as a prison can be found here:

Cambridge County Gaol and House of Correction

There is a Wikipedia entry.

The following map from 1895 shows the probable line of the Roman wall and ditch. Peter Bryan’s map in ‘Cambridge – The Shaping of the City’ 2008 places the Roman Military Fort within the area formed by Castle Road at the SE, Castle Street at the NE and Shelley Row at the SW.

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1780 17th March

Elizabeth Butchell hung for concealing the birth of a child

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1786 5th August

George Miller hung for the murder of Elizabeth Hunt. His body was given for dissection.

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1792 (August)

Edward Course executed for rape of Sarah Ellis

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1782 – 1804

William Gregory was keeper of the gaol. He married Rachel Phipps. According to family history, this William Gregory III was baptised at St Giles, Cambridge in 1728, grandson of William Gregory I (died 1713), an innkeeper, and son of William Gregory II (1695-1771) and his wife Elizabeth. The family appear to have had a long connection with St Bene’t’s church parish where they were baptised and buried. William III was married in 1760 at Holy Trinity, Ely to Rachel Phipps of Mepal. Up until 1781 he held parish office at St Bene’t including Overseer of the Poor. in 1782 he was appointed Keeper of the Gaol and Bridewell at the Castle where there were 15 debtors and 3 felons. His salary was £90 per year but he also had to pay for a turnkey – £18.in 1782, John Howard, the prison reformer, commended the Keeper as attentive and humane. in 1796 William was fined £20 for allowing Edward Scott to escape as he crossed the yard for divine service, the yard being insecure.Scott was recaptured and the fine rescinded. In 1802 there were 6 debtors and 1 felon in the gaol, and 7 men and 2 women in the Bridewell. Food consisted of bread with potatoes and stewed vegetables, and on Sunday a strong soup made of ox-cheek or beef. While he was Gaoler there were 19 executions by hired hangmen, for crimes such as forging bank notes, rape, highway robbery, murder sheep theft and stealing silver plate from an Alderman. He died in 1804 having been Keeper of the Gaol for 22 years.

19th century

1801 March 28th

William Grimshaw (a chimney sweep) hung for housebreaking

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1802 April 3rd

William Wright and John Bullock hung forging bank notes

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1805

William Gregory died December 1804.

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1812

March 28th: William Nightingale alias Bird hung for forgery. In 1999 Mike Petty wrote that Nightingale was a 29 year old whose business as a carpenter in London had failed. He started forging bank notes. He’d gone to the Black Lion in Silver Street and paid for dinner with a £5 note. Mortlock’s Bank said it was a forgery and Nightingale was arrrested in Godmanchester.

August 8th: Daniel Dawson hung for crime of poisoning a horse at Newmarket. The Cambridge Chronicle 23.8.1811 explains that Daniel was originally a groom and one of the best judges of the capabilities of race horses. He was charged with poisoning two horses at the Newmarket Spring Meeting in 1809. The poison was alleged to have been prepared for Mr Willson’s Wizard, the winner of the 2000 guineas stake, but which fell to the lot of two others.

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1819 6th August

Execution of Thomas Weems for murder of his wife.

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1824 3rd April

John Lane executed for crime of rape committed  in the parish of Cheveley.

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1829 April 11

William Osborne was hung for murder

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1830 April 3rd

Execution of David Howard, William Reader and William Turner for arson. This is reported in the Morning Advertiser 7th April 1830. Turner (of Bartlow) and Reader had set fire to the farm yard of Mr Chalk of Linton, and Howard to a farm in Badlingham.

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1833

March 30th: Execution by hanging of William Westnott and Charles Carter for attempted murder of a gamekeeper. The Execution is described in the Cambridgeshire Chronicle and Journal 5th April 1833. The account of the trial follows:

William Kidd 1833

December 7th: Execution by hanging of John Stallon, the Great Shelford incendiary (arsonist)

John Stallan – Shelford Arsonist – 1833

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1850 13th April

Elias Lucas and Mary Reeder of Castle Camps were hanged for the murder of Mary’s sister, Susan Lucas. Susan was married to Elias and it was alleged that Mary, while living with the couple, had committed adultery with Elias and then killed her sister with arsenic. It was a public execution;  Josiah Chater did not attend but recorded in his diary:

I went up at 9 o’clock this morning to see the gallows prepared for the two poor souls condemned to die at 12. They were hung at that time and thousands of people were there to witness the sight. The town has been full all day and hundreds have been rolling about Market Street drunk, proving what a demoralizing effect public executions have upon the people.

The case is described in John Bell’s Cambridgeshire Crimes.

The report of the Cambridge Independent Press 20.4.1850:

Lucas Reeder 1850

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1859

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1861

Augustus Hilton of Parson Drove was hung here on 10th August for the murder of his wife.

Cambridge County Gaol as described in 1861

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1863

The hanging of John Green for the murder of Elizabeth Brown at Whittlesey in 1862

Cambridge’s last public hanging at Castle Hill

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1870

On how prisoners were treated in Cambridgeshire County Gaol in 1870

Edwin Bays (1843 – 1909) was the Clerk of Works and the apprentice to Mr William Milner Fawcett, the architect, for the renovation works between 1868 and 1870.

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1878 became a state prison

Manchester Evening News, 19 June 1878

**ESCAPE OF A PRISONER.—**A prisoner named John Jones ingeniously escaped from the Cambridge County Prison on Monday night. He had loosened some bricks in his cell, and made a hole large enough to get through. By this means he got to the top corridor, and then let himself down into the road. Before escaping he broke off the lock of the store-room, and got a suit of clothes in order to avoid detection.

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1898 Execution of Water Horsford 28th June. See East Street, St Neots.

20th century

Back row from left: A Hills, W Collins, H Dobbs, J Collinge, H Bentley, F Pullen

Middle row: H Andrews, E taylor, Miss Mapston. Miss Woods (Matron), Miss Anderson, C Styles, E Carter

Front row: Mr Pead (Chief Warden), Mr Croxall (Clark and Schoolmaster), Rev F Hird (Chaplain), Dr Ezard (Medical Officer), Rev. H Whitehead (Deputy Chaplain)

4.11.1913 the last person to be executed at the gaol, Frederick Seekings, was hung by T W Pierrepoint.

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1908 05 16 — Death of a baby in Cambridge Gaol
Location: Cambridge County Gaol, Castle Hill

A single mother and her baby were placed in a small reception cell and slept together on a narrow plank bed with a mattress. The baby died after apparently being overlaid during the night. The jury recommended that a cot be provided for prisoners with babies.

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Castle End Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, MP0147, ref. 1908 05 16.

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1916 ceased to be prison and used to store documents.

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1928 01 23

An interesting discussion in regard to the future of Cambridge Prison and the Castle Mound took place at a meeting of the County Council. The Home Secretary would convey it to them for £4,812. The County did not want the mound, which was more closely connected with Cambridge than the rest of the county. All persons interested, including the Borough Council and the Cambridge Antiquarian Society would be consulted when its future was settled. Something was also said about the possibility of removing the County Hall in Hobson Street to the Shire Hall site.

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Castle End Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, ref. 1928 01 2

1928 County Council took over the premises

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1930

It was demolished in 1931.

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24 March 1951 — Easter ceremony on Castle Mound
The annual ceremony on top of Cambridge castle mound at 7.30 am on Eastern Sunday morning is becoming traditional. The company sings ‘Christ the Lord is Risen Today’ and then asks for God’s blessing on Cambridge and its people. The event originated with Victoria Road Congregational Church and was intended to be a simple act of cheerful witness to the Easter message. Now it is attended by people from many churches. It has been held annually for the past five years and attracts around 50 people. It is strangely impressive to look over the quiet town in the light of early morning and to hear the words of Christian faith lifting from the hilltop to be carried far and wide.

Credit: Mike Petty, 1951 03 24.

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1956 – 1986 Much of the housing on Castle Hill was demolished allowing access for archaeological investigation to take place. The results of this were published in CAS 1999 report: Roman Cambridge: excavation on Castle Hill 1956 – 1988 by John Alexander and Joyce Pullinger.

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1957 05 15

A revolutionary—even fantastic—scheme has been proposed to convert Cambridge Castle Mound into a multi-storey car park. Tunnels would be driven into the mound to provide spaces for hundreds of cars, with entrances from Chesterton Lane, Huntingdon Road and Magrath Avenue. Excavated material could be used to fill the Coldham’s Lane pit, creating further parking spaces or building land. There will undoubtedly be many objections. 57 05 15

Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Huntingdon Road Scrapbook.

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1968

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For plans of buildings that never happened on Castle Hill see:

The Castle Hill Folly – Cambridge’s unbuilt law courts

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Sources include:

Cambridge Castle by W M Palmer, 1928