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Hartlebury Castle

Nr Kidderminster, Worcestershire

Hartlebury Castle
Hartlebury
Nr Kidderminster
Worcestershire
DY11 7XZ

Approx 4.4 miles from Brockencote Hall Hotel

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Hartlebury Castle and its surrounding landscape have belonged to the See of Worcester since circa 860 A.D. and a mansion has been at the centre of this landscape from circa.1260 when the site was moated.

The surviving western arm of this moat is divided by a causeway from the mill pond. Hartlebury was turned into a fortified residence for the Bishop of Worcester before the end of the 13th century and its defences were completed around 1450 with the addition of a gatehouse by the east arm of the moat. Worcestershire once had numerous moated residences and the Bishop of Worcester possessed another at Alvechurch which is no longer.

Birtsmorton Court is the most relevant survivor of a moated manor house in Worcestershire as an idea of Hartlebury Castle around 1500 when it was at its zenith.  Most of the castle was destroyed or “slighted” following the surrender by the Royalist garrison during the English Civil War circa 1650 and the surviving medieval structure is hidden within the new works of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Today, Hartlebury can only allude to its history as a fortification through the playful additions of castellation to the main building and principally through the crenellated walls and bastions that Bishop Maddox placed round the filled-in south arm of the moat around 1750. Hartlebury as seen from the west and south thus survives as a recognisable castle, a relative rarity in Worcestershire.

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Nearby Eden Hotels

Brockencote Hall Hotel, Near Kidderminster, Worcestershire (approx 4.4 miles)

Categories

Historic Towns & Landmarks