Description
Scotney Castle was situated on an island in a lake-like moat which was separated from the river Bewl to the south by a narrow embankment. Entrance to it was from the north by a drawbridge first to another island and then by a defended bridge connecting the two islands. The castle was reduced to ruins about 1840 and only one of four corner towers (dating from 1377), of the enceinte wall, the doorway of another, the lower part of the entrance gateway, and some fragments of old walls, remain. There are also the ruins of a house said to have been built by Inigo Jones. The uninhabited parts of Scotney Castle are scheduled as an ancient monument. The castle is of the same type as its neighbour Bodiam, being a fortified house surrounded by a large moat. The old castle itself was pulled down in the Elizabethan period and an Elizabethan House was built on the site. This again has fallen into ruins, except for a small fragment which is lived in by the bailiff (1969) Single surviving Medieval round tower has an Elizabethan dwelling house built on to it. Much of this is roofed and furnished, but it is not occupied. Adjoining is a completely roofless ruined area, maintained as a sort of garden feature. Base of stone curtain and trace of towers also survive but part of the circuit has a later brick wall built on top of it. To the south of the principal moated area are two further islands. The more northerly one still has stone abutments for the original wooden bridge and there are two fragments of ivy covered stonework still standing. The island is otherwise grass covered with a few conifers etc. (1).
The monument includes three adjacent islands set in a moat within a former loop of the River Bewl. On the more northerly island are the remains of a quadrangular castle built around 1377-80 for Roger Ashburnham, of which one, round, corner tower (roofed and incorporated within the 16th century wing of a manor house), sections of the curtain wall and the base of the gatehouse are still standing. These remains are Listed Grade I (see below). The second island lies to the south west and was originally connected to the main island by a defensible bridge. This ancillary island supported stables and other service buildings, now surviving as ruins and buried remains. Nothing is recorded on the third island, apart from some recent statuary, however it is suggested that this island may be more recent. Old Scotney Castle has an unusual arrangement, because most castles of this type were constructed on a single moated, island.
The castle was extensively remodelled in the late 16th and early 17th centuries to form a stone and half-timbered manorial residence, of which the south wing survives as a roofed building and is in use as a museum. The remainder of the castle and its outbuildings on the second island were landscaped into ruins and gardens when the new Scotney Castle was built on an overlooking hillsides to the north west for Edward Hussey (III) in c.1840. At this time, parts of the manor house range were taken down in such a way as to retain features of decorative interest and to increase the romantic character of the scene. Some brick-built, garden walling survives from this phase, and the third, small island, on which a Henry Moore sculpture is now sited, may also originate from the 19th century landscaping.
In recent years, the gatehouse has been rebuilt, and a modern brick buttress inserted inside the north west corner of the ruined wing of the manor house. A lean-to, one-storey store has also been built against a freestanding wall of the ruined portion of the manor house; the surfaces of the modern paths and the imported well-head ornament and other imported statuary; the Henry Moore sculpture and its plinth on the most south westerly island is also excluded, although the ground beneath all these features is included.
Old Scotney Castle is a good example of an earlier, medieval monument adapted as a manorial residence in the Tudor period, and as landscaped ruins in the Victorian period. Despite some disturbance by modern gardening and landscaping, it survives well. Although a few of the buildings of the quadrangular castle remain upstanding, much of their original extent will survive below ground in buried form. These remains will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. More of the manor house remains upstanding, and one wing, a Grde I Listed Building, survives almost intact. The adaptation of the typical manor house form of the Tudor period to fit within the confines of the quadrangular castle is of architectural interest. The transformation of the old castle remains and Tudor manor house in the early Victorian period into a picturesque ruin within a landscape garden visible from the new country house, is also of interest. It offers a good and late example of the widespread 18th and ealry 19th century phenomenon of Romantic Antiquarianism - the creation of an attarctive, managed 'wilderness' around the focus of a deliberately ruined building (2).
Castle, now partly ruinous. 1378, altered C16 and early C17. Sandstone, timber farming, rendered, and red brick, largely in English bond. Plain tiled roofs. The ruins lie on the innermost of two islands in the River Teise (no the River Bewl], and are reached by a stone causeway, the whole island bordered by red brick and stone walls, all of whicha re included in this item. Castle founded by Roger Ashburnham 1378-80, the principal remnant of this phase is the round machicolated tower, attached to C16 domestic building, with good interior features, especailly enriched C17 stair. Ruins to east of large and ambitious extension of c.1635, and showing advanced, if crude use of classical motifs and proportions. The castle, and especially the C17 wing, was carefully partly dismantled by Edward Hussey (III) in the building of his new house overlooking this site, creating one the last and greatest picturesque landscaped gardens (3).
Well head. Unknown date and provenance. Stone, in the form of a hollow capital on a clamped plinth on circular stone base, with billeted arcaded frieze to rope twist rim. The corners are enriched with large acanthus leaves, the sides with fabulous beasts and plants. Originally with metal canopy over, the morticed bases of the supports survive. Still with water inside, (3).
Causeway and walls. C14 origin, reconstructed c.1840. Sandstone. The causeway is to the outer of the two islands in the River Teise (no the River Bewl) on which the Castle was built. The side walls are some 3 feet in height, about 10 metres in length, and continue on the west side about another 10 metres; also returned along the inner bank of the moat to the west forming an embankment wall, and terminating in ruinous gate piers about 20 metres from the causeway (3).
Boathouse. C.1840. Timber framed and clad with vertical half-timbers and plain tiled roof. Pierced bargeboarded gables with pendants and finials on both land and water sides, and boarded door to landside. Small landing stage inside (3).
In 1987 an archaeological survey of the Castle and its environs was undertaken including a certain amount of geophysical analysis (4)
The old castle was not included in the Historic and Archaeologcial Landscape Survey (2001), however it was noted that in 1285 Sir Peter de Scotney had 80 acres of land and a mill in Curtehope (alias Scotney) (5) and in 1321 John de Grofhurst was granted a licence to build a private chapel in his Manor of Scotney (6).
Geophysical survey (0.25 hectares of detailed resistance and magnetometry) was carried out by ASC Ltd (2008) on three islands within The National Trusts’ Scotney Castle Estate. The resistance survey has suggested that sub-surface structural remains are present on all three islands although medieval/post medieval structural features associated with the old castle and its outbuildings are more confidently identified on the two islands at the north of the survey area. The magnetometer survey has supported the results of the resistance survey and allowed a more holistic interpretation.
The Old Castle at Scotney is an extremely complex site, the interpretation of which is not helped by the fact that only a fragment now survives, and even this is largely in ruins. Anything more than a cursory understanding of the building’s form would have been impossible had it not been for plans of the ground and first floor prepared by Edward Hussey immediately prior to demolition in 1837 (both re-drawn by him subsequently). A third plan showing the second-floor layout was subsequently prepared by him based upon memory, but the details are less certain. Furnished with this data, augmented by a series of late 18th-century and early 19th-century illustrations, and an inspection of parts of the structure not normally accessible, the sequence of the building’s development can be reconstructed with reasonable certainty. The sequence is summarized below. The 14th-century (Period A) castle sits on the northern of three islands contained within a single moated enclosure. At this period the smallest, southernmost of the trio may not have had buildings upon it, but the central island did and almost certainly served as an outer court. It was via this that the main house was approached, across a bridge and though a gatehouse. The main enclosure itself was surrounded by a low curtain wall with drum towers at the corners, of which the Ashburnham Tower survives. Across the centre of the island extended the medieval house and its associated service building(s), dividing the site into a forecourt and a back service yard, probably with lesser outbuildings against the wall of the service yard, and perhaps with other buildings at the front.
The sequence of medieval buildings may not have been developed at a single date, and no doubt continued to be modified through the 15th century, though the next discernible alterations date from the middle years of the 16th century (Period B) when the present western range was constructed against the southern curtain wall. It infills the space between a kitchen building to the south of the main house and the Ashburnham Tower, dwarfing the tower itself. The lower side walls of the new range are of stone, but the upper walls were of exposed timber framing, with a brick end gable containing a projecting chimney. The steeply-pitched 16th-century roof survives.
It was probably late in the 16th century (Period C) that the southern end of the kitchen area was rebuilt with its southern wall projecting into the moat in order to give a structure of regular plan. Built of stone and brick, the first-floor apartments must have been of some status, for the storey height at this level was lofty. The work is of two phases (Periods C1 and C2) the first phase of which was incomplete when the design was modified slightly. An earlier single-flue kitchen chimney sited between this new section and the period-B west range was modified in order to form a first-floor passage bridging the flue, a smoking chamber, and a complex secret compartment, perhaps purpose designed to hide the celebrated Jesuit priest, Father Richard Blount. Although apparently originally detached from the main house, either by or at this period the kitchen complex and west range were joined to the medieval house, giving a large building extending continuously across the full width of the island.
During the 1630s (Period D) a major campaign of reconstruction was embarked upon which, if completed, would have converted the house into a lofty and impressive three-storeyed mansion, complete with piano nobile housing state apartments. The reconstruction is noteworthy for the Palladian design of its garden front. Tragically, the builder — William Darell — died prematurely before anything more than the first phase of the reconstruction was complete. The scheme was abandoned, leaving the medieval hall and west range intact. In order to compensate for the uncompleted scheme, a new staircase (Period D2) was inserted into the west range. By the middle years of the 18th century the house had been sized down: the medieval hall and what is thought to have been a high-end range of accommodation at its northern end had been demolished, replaced by a small service outshut. The demolition work seriously compromised access to the principal rooms of the house on the first floor.
An attempt to overcome this problem was made between 1758 and 1783 (probably in the mid 1770s (Period E)) by adding a front porch incorporating a flight of external steps rising to the first floor. Part of the front elevation was stone clad at the same time and other, more minor alterations were made. The late 18th- and early 19th-century illustrations of the house indicate further minor adjustments after period E, including the addition of front parapets and of a bell turret.
However, the next (and final) major phase came in 1837 (Period F) when the then owner, Edward Hussey III, moved to a new house overlooking the castle and pulled down much of the main range, deliberately ruinating it to form a picturesque landscape feature. The west range was retained, but adjusted internally in order to serve as accommodation for an employee on the estate. Since that time alterations have been restricted to repairs, most notably the construction in 1986 of a buttress to strengthen the ruined garden façade.