Caludon Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

East of Coventry, in the Wyken district, a section of grey sandstone wall stands alone in the middle of a public park: it is all that remains standing of Caludon Castle, a fortified moated manorial residence. Some ten metres high and about two metres thick, this fragment retains two large Gothic windows with multifoil tracery that once lit a great hall of state. The site owes its importance to its successive owners: the Segraves, who obtained permission to fortify it in 1305, and then the Mowbrays, who rebuilt it in the mid-14th century. It was from here that Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, is said to have set out in 1398 for the aborted duel at Gosford Green against Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, which was stopped by Richard II, who exiled both opponents. The Berkeleys then rebuilt the house around 1580, before it was abandoned in the 17th century. Today the island surrounded by dry moats, the former reservoir pond to the north and the ruin form an ensemble protected both as a scheduled monument and as a Grade I listed building. The park, managed by the city of Coventry, is freely accessible.