Kirtling Towers
British (English) School
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
Unknown
Materials
Watercolour on paper.
Measurements
42 x 59 cm
Order this imageCollection
Westley Bottom (Office), Suffolk
NT 65868
Summary
Watercolour on paper, Kirtling Towers, Cambridgeshire, British (English) School. The Tower is dated 1530. The first documentary records for Kirtling Tower date from 1219, and the 13th century Kirtling Castle was described as having a moat, a ditch and a palisade In 1424 there was a substantial rebuilding of the castle by Richard de Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick, with a hundred oak trees used to create a complex with a parlour, a solar and chambers. Edward North, a successful lawyer, rebuilt the castle in the 1540s and between 1556 to 1558 using the architect Francis Adams, renaming it Kirtling Hall. The earthworks around the castle were considerably altered to provide for a raised platform for the new house, which included contemporary Tudor features such as a gatehouse, gallery, lodgings, a banqueting house and a garden, complete with grand water features and ponds. Queen Elizabeth I stayed at the castle in 1578 during her state procession across Cambridgeshire. The castle continued to develop, and by the 1660s was the largest country house in Cambridgeshire.
Makers and roles
British (English) School, artist