Sutton Valence Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Perched on the southernmost spur of the Chart Hills, east of the village of Sutton Valence, this ruined keep commands a vast panorama over the Kent Weald. In the Middle Ages it controlled the road linking Maidstone to the Channel ports of Rye and Old Winchelsea. It is a square great tower of ragstone and flint rubble, standing on an artificial terrace. Probably built by Baldwin de Bethune, Count of Aumale, the fortress later passed to Simon de Montfort and then, after his defeat at Evesham in 1265, to William de Valence, half-brother of Henry III. It is from this family that the village takes its present name. Abandoned around 1300 according to Historic England, the castle is now only a fragment of a once larger complex comprising a curtain wall, a secondary tower and a bailey. Restored in the 1980s, the ruins are in State guardianship, managed by English Heritage and freely accessible to the public.