Returning to Queenborough Castle
A new Lottery-funded project at Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey is seeking to learn more about the town’s medieval origins and at the same time offer opportunities for local volunteers to research, dig and interpret the castle site.
During the fourteenth century, the small fishing settlement of Binney was chosen by Edward III as the site of his new castle. Alongside it was founded the planned new town of Queenborough, named after the king’s wife, Queen Philippa of Hainault. The castle seems to have been built as a refuge from the Black Death for the ageing king, but its technologically advanced concentric circular design embodied the most up-to-date military thinking, responding to the new threat from artillery. Its complement of cannon suggests that it also had a defensive role. There are few other large round structures known from the medieval period, though Edward’s own abandoned building of 1344 at Windsor to house his round table, and the slightly earlier Majorcan Castle Bellver in Spain, are both interesting parallels.
The new town was granted the wool staple for ten years to encourage its growth but soon declined once the right to export wool reverted to Sandwich in 1377. The medieval street and tenement plot layout, focused on Queenborough Creek and the Swale, is still visible in the town today.
In the end, the castle only saw military action during the Cade rebellion, when the garrison repelled a small attack, but it continued in use until the seventeenth century. In 1650, deemed to be no longer suited to the warfare of the day, it was demolished by Parliament. Affected in parts by the neighbouring railway and Queenborough’s Victorian development, the castle site received little archaeological attention until it became the subject of an episode of Time Team in 2005. Their geophysical survey and trenching work identified the castle layout and walls for the first time and enabled an estimate of the structure’s size to be made. Time Team also found masonry remains and a Second World War air raid shelter built to serve the nearby school.
Now a public open space, the castle mound is to be brought to life again with new planting to mark the walls and gates, alongside a programme of fieldwork, research and education involving the whole community.
There will be numerous opportunities for everyone who wants to get involved. We’ll be digging deep in the archives to uncover Queenborough’s history on a training day at the Centre for Kentish Studies. Then, we’ll be putting that information to good use when we dig for real at the site, excavating the sites of the new tree pits and monitoring the creation of new flower beds. The trees are located over Time Team’s locations for the castle gates and our fieldwork will help refine, or perhaps even challenge, their conclusions.
Local people will also be researching, designing and creating artwork for new permanent information boards at the site, telling the story of life in the castle. Finally, there will be a guided walk taking in all the sights of historic Queenborough, looking to appreciate the setting of the town and the castle as well as teasing out its medieval roots. Queenborough Primary School will also be involved in the project with visits and activities from a community archaeologist.
For more information and to register your interest, you can visit www.kentarchaeology.org.uk.