Tag: Roger de Leybourne

Leybourne Castle, Kent: a monument to female patronage?

In the second half of 2024, Heneb’s Phil Poucher with the support and expert analysis of Neil Ludlow did the first ever detailed modern survey of the privately owned castle of Leybourne Castle, Kent, which has often intrigued castellologists as a key stepping stone in the development of gatehouses. Here Neil Ludlow explains what they found.

Leybourne Castle gatehouse was introduced to this blog last summer, just before the commencement of a programme of CST funded survey and research. The work is now complete, and really does show the value of in-depth studies like this: a somewhat different, and much more interesting picture has emerged. The Welsh Marches aspects of the gatehouse design had been noted, along with patterns of baronial influence including the close links between Leybourne’s lords and the Valence earls of Pembroke; a start-date between c.1300 and 1310 had also been mooted. However, certain key features revealed by detailed study of the gatehouse allow its dating and affinities to be refined more closely, while pointing fairly persuasively to a female builder.

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Figure 1: Plan of Leybourne Castle copyright Neil Ludlow

With origins as a ringwork castle, Leybourne was later ‘fortified’ in masonry, rather lightly, to become a rectangular courtyard house somewhat awkwardly superimposed upon the earlier earthwork. The masonry comprises a twin-towered gatehouse attached to a large, rectangular storeyed building – now gone – that may have been a chapel or, perhaps more likely, a chamber-block. The latter appears to have been connected by a passage to a third D-shaped tower at the southeast corner. This tower lies opposite a smaller, rectangular building at the southwest corner, that may represent a service-block and overlying chamber, with a Great Hall formerly lying east-west between them. The remaining side of the castle, to the west, was defined by a lowish wall.

Figure 2: Leybourne Castle Gatehouse north elevation copyright Neil Ludlow
Figure 3: Leybourne Castle Gatehouse south elevation copyright Neil Ludlow

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Stylistic evidence suggests all the masonry at the castle belongs to one overall campaign, centering on the years 1305-25 and showing influence from the Welsh borderlands – probably via associations between the Leybourne lords and two Marcher families, the Valences and the Cliffords. The evidence for its dating and affinities is fairly precise, and can be summarised as follows –

  • The gatehouse shows a high outer arch, a feature with origins in the Welsh Marches 1280-1300.
  • It also shows fully-oilletted cruciform loops, which were similarly developed in the Welsh Marches 1280-1300 where they were extensively employed by the Clare lords of Glamorgan, and also by the Valences. One of the Leybourne loops survives unaltered, demonstrating that they are original features, though mostly now rebuilt or modified.
  • The gate-passage lies beneath a quadripartite rib-vault, normally confined to the 1330s onwards but with an early example in the gatehouse built by Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, at Bampton Castle, Oxon., in 1315-24.
  • A ‘letterbox chute’ overlies the entry, as at Caerphilly Castle, Glam. (1270s) and Bampton Castle (1315-24).
  • The entry is deeply recessed between flanking towers, as in Edward I’s Welsh Castles at Rhuddlan, Harlech and Beaumaris (1270s-1300).
  • The windows have double-chamfered rebated surrounds, in a Marches style and similar to windows built by the Valences (1280s-90s) and another Marcher lord, Robert de Clifford (1300-1314), eg. at Goodrich Castle (Herefs.) and Brough Castle (Westmorland).
  • The Southeast Tower shows a doorway with a raised threshold (like a ship’s bulkhead door), as in work from 1300-1310 at Bothwell Castle, Lanarks., and Brougham Castle, Westmorland, by Aymer de Valence and Robert de Clifford respectively. Two more possible raised thresholds have been revealed at Leybourne in service trenches.
  • The portcullis would have been fully-visible when raised, as at Chirk Castle, Denbighs., and Tonbridge Castle in Kent, which itself shows considerable Marches influence; both are probably from the 1290s.
  • The portcullis grooves have ¾ round profiles as in the outer gate at at Corfe Castle (1280s), but their margins are refined with rounded chamfers.
  • The gatehouse is flanked by a D-shaped latrine turret that may be influenced by a similar turret at the Clares’ Llangibby Castle, Mon. (1307-14), at least in function, if not in its precise form: unlike Llangibby, it lies parallel with the axis of the tower.
  • It houses a fireplace with a rounded back, normally characteristic of earlier work but also seen in the Great Hall fireplaces at Pembroke Castle (William de Valence, 1270s) and Haverfordwest Castle, Pembs. (probably Aymer de Valence, 1308-15).
  • Aspects of their design, detail and planning suggest the D-shaped Southeast Tower, the former ?chamber-block and the Southwest Building were all contemporary with the gatehouse.

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During the period 1305-25, Leybourne Castle appears to have been in the sole possession of a woman – Alice de Leybourne (née de Toeni). She received the castle and manor on the death of her husband Thomas de Leybourne in 1307, and all evidence suggests that she held it, in her own right, until her own death in 1324. She was the only beneficiary when her brother Robert died in 1310, providing the necessary resources. Under her tenure, Leybourne appears to have retained its status as the caput of an extensive Kentish lordship, and it is likely that the gatehouse represented accommodation, and administrative space, for its officials. Alice may therefore join the list, currently very short, of women castle-builders.

A number of other results have emerged from the present study. I suggest that a significant amount of work was undertaken by the Leybourne family at Leeds Castle, Kent, before it was acquired by Edward I’s queen Eleanor in c.1278, that this work included the creation of the lakes for which the site is celebrated, and that they may have been the inspiration for the lakes at Caerphilly Castle. It is also possible that the extensive work from c.1300 at Brough Castle, Westmorland, was undertaken by another woman – Alice’s aunt, Idonea de Leybourne.

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To see the full report please go here: Leybourne, Kent | Castle Studies Trust

Please note Leybourne Castle is privately owned and not open to the public.

Leybourne Castle gatehouse, Kent: patterns of baronial influence

Starting on 8 October 2024, Philip Poucher of Heneb – Dyfed Archaeology (formerly Dyfed Archaeological Trust) will carry out a laser-scan survey of the gatehouse at Leybourne Castle, near Maidstone in Kent. The survey will be supported by a full programme of research by Neil Ludlow who outlines the importance of such a survey.

A small baronial castle, picturesquely sited on a low bluff above the village church, Leybourne has been occupied since it was built in the 11th or 12th century, and is still a private family home. It is not generally open to the public and no structured recording has so far taken place, while no accurate site drawings exist. The work, which is wholly-funded by the Castle Studies Trust, will fill this gap and greatly improve our understanding of this important site.

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Fig. 1: Leybourne Castle – the gatehouse from the exterior. Present house to left,
latrine turret to right. Copyright Neil Ludlow

Beginning as a circular ringwork of around 0.12 hectares, Leybourne was later given stone defences, with a gatehouse that still dominates the castle. Centuries of alteration have masked much of the rest of the surviving stonework, but the present house – heavily restored during the 1930s in the Arts-and-Crafts manner – is built around the core of the medieval hall and chamber-block. A further building is thought to have been the chapel, while there are the remains of at least one other mural tower.

Fig. 2: Leybourne Castle – the gatehouse from the interior. Latrine turret to left,
present house to right. Copyright Neil Ludlow

The date of these works is still uncertain. Our only record is from 1266, when King Henry III granted 4000 freestones to Leybourne’s lord, Roger de Leybourne. They are normally thought to have gone towards the defences, but these are entirely of rubble construction suggesting that the freestone may instead relate to an upgrade of the domestic buildings. So the key to understanding the development of the defences is the gatehouse, which despite alterations through time, and the loss of its rear half, is substantially as built. Nevertheless, its precise form has never been properly established – published accounts are based on drawings produced by Sidney Toy, in 1927, which are somewhat misleading in many important details.

The gatehouse is of unusual design. It has been regarded as transitional between the simple twin-towered gatehouses of the early/mid-13th century and the more complex structures of the late 13th century onwards, but appears to be somewhat later. It is two storeys high, with D-shaped towers flanking a narrow gate-passage that was formerly rib-vaulted. The entry lies beneath a high outer arch and is deeply set back between the towers, characteristics that were both introduced, in Wales, during the 1280s. And the entrance arch lies beneath a horizontal chute outlet, somewhat like a letterbox in outline. This is a feature of debatable function, but which was notably employed at Caerphilly Castle by Gilbert de Clare in the 1270s. In addition, the gatehouse towers are of unequal size and projection, as in the Clare’s gatehouse at Llangibby Castle (Monmouthshire), probably built c.1307-14, while both gatehouses show a D-shaped flanking latrine turret. Incorrectly shown by Sidney Toy, it lies parallel to the towers at Leybourne, unlike Llangibby where it projects at right-angles. And while the arrowloops at Leybourne were restored as fully-oilletted ‘Clare-style’ cross-loops in Toy’s drawings, alteration during the 18th and 19th centuries has in fact masked their original form and the evidence for any original oillets is questionable.

Fig. 3: Leybourne Castle gatehouse – the ‘letterbox’ chute.

So the gatehouse has a highly individual design, which is of international significance. While it may largely be down to personal choice by its patron and master-mason, at least some influence from the Clares is unquestionable. This may have emanated directly from the Clares’ nearby centre at Tonbridge, but Welsh aspects of the Leybourne design may point towards additional input via an intermediate lord such as William de Valence, who also used ‘Clare’ motifs and was very powerful both in Wales and in this part of Kent. At any rate, the combination of features suggests a date long after 1266 and probably in the early 14th century – perhaps under Roger de Leybourne’s son William, or his grandson Thomas, between c.1300 and 1310. However, on current evidence much of this is speculative: these are the key questions the project will seek to answer, in addition to producing survey data.

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Please note Leybourne is a privately owned house and is not accessible to the public.