Caludon Castle

The remains of Caludon Castle can be found in Caludon park in Wyken, Coventry. The castle was built shortly after the Norman conquest and it's first owners were The Chesters, Hugh De Avranches (1070 - 1101) to Randulf De Blundervil (1181-1232). In 1232 the castle was given to Stephen De segrave after he accompanied Randulf on a trip to the Holy land, at a rent of one sparrowhawk a year. The Chester's are also connected with the legend of Robin Hood.
One of the castle's earliest mentions is from 1279 when the Manor of Wyken included 20 acres of parkland and 2 Carucates of Farmland (a Carucate being the amount a team could plough in one year, roughly 100 to 140 acres), it also boasted 2 water mills and a lake called Franchehay in all the estate boasted some two to three hundred acres of which three acres of farmland were let to one John de Le Hay for an annual rent of three shillings, homage and suit of court. In 1305 under the ownership of john De Segrave Edward I granted a license to crenellate and fortify the manor house "To wall and embattle with lime and stone and so strengthened to hold it for himself and his heirs"..




	Crenellation

A second license to crenellate was granted in 1354 when it was in the hands of John De Mowbray (b. 1329) who had married the heir to the the castle Elizabeth De Segrave (b. 1338). John De Mowbray was summoned to parliament between August 1362 and January 1366 as John De Mowbray of Axholme (Axholme Road leads to the Caludon pub). In 1368 John was killed in battle against the Turks outside Constantinople during the crusades.The eldest son of John and Elizabeth was also John (6th lord Segrave) who died without heirs so the castle passed to his younger brother Thomas De Mowbray (b. 1366) who was created Duke of Norfolk by Richard II. Buildings mentioned as damaged in 1385 included a "tiled building of four bays inside the bridge, a tiled building of seven bays outside the bridge, and a thatched barn of five bays". A house on a bridge in Caludon mentioned at this time was presumably built over the moat



	Thomas De Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk along with Henry Bolingbroke, the Duke of Hereford were immortalised in Shakespeares Richard II after the battle of Gosford Green, a battle which never happened. The story is that while travelling home in the company of Bolingbroke, De Mowbray made treasonous remarks which Bolingbroke challenged De Mowbray to deny. Richard ordered the two men to fight a duel at Gosford Green, just outside the walls of Coventry. On the day of battle Thomas De Mowbray rode from Caludon to meet with Bolingbroke who had stayed at nearby Bagington Castle. As the men prepared to fight the king rode from his camp on Ball Hill and stopped them, ordering both men into exile


			Henry Bolingbroke went to France and returned less than a year later to overthrow Richard II and become King Henry IV. Thomas De Mowbray never returned home and died in exile in 1399. The street names around Gosford Green commemorate the occasion, Kingsway, Bolingbroke Road, King Richard Street and Mowbray street

After Thomas Mowbray was exiled his eldest son was executed by Henry IV for treason in 1405 and the castle passed to John 7th Lord Mowbray who died 1475 leaving a young heiress Anne who was given in marriage (age only 6) to Richard one of the young princes killed in the tower in 1483. Anne died of plague and the Mowbray estates were shared amongst the descendants of Thomas the banished fourth Lord. Caludon passed to Margaret Mowbray who had married Sir John Howard, (b.1432). John Howard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. After the return of Henry and the subsequent death of King Richard the newly crowned Henry IV gave the estate to his supporter Gilbert George Talbot The Earl of Shrewsbury. The Talbot's held the castle until 1491

After the death of Anne Mowbray the castle should have passed to the Berkeley family via the marriage of Isabel Mowbray the last in line. William Berkeley had given everything away and it was up to his son Maurice to petition the King to get back his family possessions. Maurice eventually successfully sued for the return of his estates and on his marriage to Jane Talbot ended a long running feud between the Berkeley's and the Talbots and also secured Caludon. In 1516 Thomas Try sent a letter giving detailed account of the funeral of Maurice's widow, Lady Isobel Berkeley, to her son Maurice 14th Lord Berkeley then constable of Calais.

Henry Lord Berkeley lived at Caludon during the reign of Elizabeth I and in 1584 made many improvements and alterations to the estate. The castle is described as having a chapel, hall, gallery, brewery, bakehouse, kitchen and numerous outbuildings surrounded by strong embattled walls and protected by a moat. The entrance to the East was guarded by a gateway and drawbridge. Lord Berkeley married Lady Katherine Howard and she and her young son lived at the Whitefriars Monastry in Coventry while the alterations took place. Lady Katherine died in 1596 and was buried in the Drapers chapel of St. Michaels church in Coventry, she was described as tall and good looking, fond of shooting with the Long bow and keen on hawks. In her later life she studied Maths and Philosophy and at her funeral was described as a lady never known to dissemble or heard to swear. Lord Henry died aged 80 at Caludon and was buried at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire. The son and heir to Caludon, Sir Thomas was born at Caludon in 1575 and had Queen Elizabeth I, then at Kenilworth Castle, as his Godmother. Sir Thomas was a member of the party that travelled to Scotland to ask James VI of Scotland to become James I of England after the Queens death. Sir Thomas was chosen as alderman for the Gosford Street ward of Coventry. Thomas died aged just 37 and was buried by his mother in St Michaels Church. Sir Thomas's son Lord George a pupil at the old Grammer school in Hales St. Coventry sold Caludon to Thomas Morgan of Weston-Under-Weatherley in 1632.

Thomas Carrier (1616-1643) (Unsure of historical accuracy) from Chester who changed his name to Morgan (meaning Big man in Welsh). Colonel Morgan was involved in the battle of Chepstow during the civil war and welcomed Charles II back to England in 1662. Morgan was killed at the battle of Newbury field and Caludon was destroyed by the parliamentarian forces. Morgan's daughter Jane, Married Sir John Preston of Cartmel, Lancs and his Granddaughter (Anne Preston) passed Caludon to Hugh Clifford, Lord of Chudleigh.

Hugh died in 1730 and the castle passed to his son also Hugh till 1732 when his son, again Hugh owned the castle until 1783 when yet another Hugh owned it until 1793. From 1793 to 1815 the castle was owned by Charles Clifford who sold off the estate piecemeal. In 1846 the house and 200 acres were held by John Brown of Trinity college Cambridge, 83 acres to the South by G. A. Pridmore and 205 acres in the North by T and J StephensAfter the first world war Coventry Corporation acquired it for housing Estates.

At some point the castle seems to be in the hands of the Greene family

The castle has now fallen into disrepair and was partly torn down to provide stone for the building of a farmhouse and barn close by, the farm house itself was taken down by the Clifford family to provide stone for their new house in Shropshire and the remaining barn was demolished by the council in the 1970's.. The surviving wall is the northern wall of the great hall and contains the fireplace and chimney. The moat still exists on three sides of the ground where the castle stood.




		In May 1986 it was listed as a grade 4 building (Slow decay, No solution agreed) in the buildings at risk register by English Heritage