Torksey Castle

Torksey Castle is located in the centre of Torksey village, on the East bank of the River Trent. Lying 12 miles North-West of Lincoln, on the A156. It is 7 miles to the North is Gainsborough Old Hall and 10 miles South-East is Lincoln Castle.

The Castle is an impressive 16th century Tudor stone-built Fortified Manor House, founded by the Jermyn family, of Suffolk. The site is strictly private, with no public access and is only visible from the A156 road and a public footpath, on the west bank of the River Trent.

History

It was built in the middle of the sixteenth century, by the wealthy Jermyn family of Suffolk, some have said it built as a gift to an elder son, or maybe as a convenient resting place on the road to York. Whatever the reason for its commission, it was to be a home for less than 100 years before, it's almost complete destruction. The West front and part of the kitchen range is all that remains of this once impressive country house. The present structure never was a Castle, nor could it have coped practically with any sort of attack, being architecturally and structurally unsuitable as a fortress. One posibility given for, it having taken the name "Torksey Castle"(rather than "Torksey Hall"), is that later on, out of the Romantic movements, the with it's angular projecting towers, crow stepped gables(giving it the crenellated apearance of a castle), in may well have been mistaken as such. Alternatively it was possibly built on the site of an earlier medieval castle.

Construction of the Hall

It is odvious from the materials, and arhitectural features of the remaining structure, that the building was constructed, atleast in layout if not in ornament to the latest Renaisance fashion. The lower or Ground floor level is built of thin limestone blocks, is very plain and has small mullion windows, meaning it was probably used as the domestic area of the house, where the servants would have worked, if not possibly slept. Whilst the upper level is built in brick and most probably constitutes, a piano nobile, a principal, still very much new in Northern Europe at the time. Brick at the time, although having been used previously, had rarely been in use, in British secular architecture before this period. Brick was widely considered at this time, a lavish building material, due to their handmade nature, and the cost of the labour involved, plus with the scarecety of brick and it's manufacture, it was often a case that the kilns used to fire the bricks, where constructed afresh on the building site. All of which added to the expense.

Also that it consists of a planned series of ranges around a symetricaly square courtyard, and the symetrical nature of the surviving main facade, all make it a great departure, form the ussual ad-hoc nature, which preceded, and indeed continued up until the mid-Seventeenth Century.

It's location by the River

The River Trent at this point near Torksey used to be very busy, as it linked the then thriving port of Boston with the Midlands, and ancient laws allowed the Lords of Torksey to collect tolls from passing ships and passengers using the nearby ferry.

So most likely the decision to locate there could have been a commercial one; not to mention the Trent, was no-doubt part of the Jermyns' route between York and London, as it would have been quicker by boat than carriage at the time, but it was also an important strategic position from a military point of view, (and this was; in the end, to be Torksey Hall's downfall).

Slighting

The English Civil War broke out in 1642, setting brother against brother and scarring the landscape. By the summer of 1645, the Hall at Torksey built by the Royalist Jermyn family, had fallen into Parliaments hands. Newark, some sixteen miles south, still held for the King and it was from there that a unit of some two hundred soldiers surprised the garrison at Torksey. The men stationed there were, as legend has it, "taking the opportunity to drink heavily on account of their Captain being away in Lincoln on business". According to reports issued at the time, 140 prisoners were taken and the house was put to the torch.

It was never rebuilt. Thomas, the head of the Jermyn family, died before the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II. The estate surrounding the slighted house was passed between several different owners for next 300 years, and what remained of the house itself continued to be used, as a readily available source of building material by local residents.

The Hall quickly deteriorated into a ruin. A flood bank was built in the mid-Eighteenth century, leaving the Hall on the wrong side to be protected. The bank was raised further, by the River Trent Board in 1961, covering for evermore the square floor-plan and the possibility of finding definitive proof of the main entrance. The West wing and kitchen range still stand at their full Elevation.

"Today, Torksey Castle stands alone in a damp field, a forlorn monument to a bygone age". The fabric of the building was stabilised by English Heritage in the early 1990's, but it is only a matter of time before this once proud family home is lost to us forever. The building is on the Buildings at Risk Register.

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