Getting its name from Robert de Tattershall who
constructed the first structure in about 1231, the red brick building that we
see today was started by Ralph, 3rd Lord Cromwell between 1430 and
1450.
He was at the time the Lord Treasurer
of England. Its brick appearance has earned it the title "the finest piece
of medieval brick-work in England", and such a construction was normally
completed for aesthetic reasons, or because of fashionable ideas at the time.
Cromwell must have chosen the design for one of these two reasons as there
appears to have been plenty of stone around as an alternative and more common
building material.
The castle had a chequered history of seizure and
forfeiture, as well as a period of about 140 years prior to 1693 when it was in
the ownership of the Earls of Lincoln. It passed to the Fortesque family but
then fell into neglect.
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| The National Trust manages Tattershall Castle |
There were large medieval fireplaces in situ when
the property was sold to an American in 1910, and these were in the process of
being removed and packaged for shipping, when Lord Curzon of Kedleston stepped
in to buy the castle, and eventually track the fireplaces down to London.
They
were returned and Lord Curzon then set about restoring the castle, between 1911
and 1914.
It was passed to the National Trust in 1925 upon his
death, and experts say that it remains “one of the three most important
surviving brick castles of the mid-fifteenth century”. Of Cromwell’s original,
only the moat and Great Tower remain, but it is still a most impressive sight.
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