Bodiam Castle is a historic and very important moated castle that dates back to the 14th century, located near the village of Robertsbridge in East Sussex, within the southern part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Set in the heart of a historic landscape, with spiral staircases, battlements, and a portcullis, Bodiam Castle was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, with the permission of Richard II, ostensibly to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years’ War.
As one of Britain’s most picturesque and romantic ancient monuments, it is a quadrangular castle with a roughly square shape. This type of castle, with a central courtyard and buildings against the curtain wall, was characteristic of castle architecture in the 14th century.
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Military historian Cathcart King has described Bodiam Castle as the most complete surviving example of a quadrangular castle. Windows where arrows were once shot, a tower that was once a lookout, and ruins that were once walked upon by knights, there are circular towers at each of the four corners, with square central towers in the south, east, and west walls.
The main entrance is a twin-towered gatehouse in the north face of the castle. There is a second entrance from the south, which goes through a square tower in the middle of the south wall. Although the exterior of Bodiam Castle has largely survived, the interior is ruinous. In the impressive gatehouse is the castle’s original wooden portcullis, an extremely rare example of its kind.
Enough of the interior ruins survive to give an impression of castle life, and gruesome and surprising tales can often be heard from our brewster, forester, and other colourful characters from the past.
The castle is protected as a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Monument, and at the moment it has been owned by The National Trust since 1925, when Lord Curzon donated it on his death. Open to the public, it can offer people a respite from their childhood memories and make their imagination run riot.
