Set in the gorgeous scenery of the Peak District, Peveril Castle has an excellent Norman keep and extensive walls despite being in such a remote location.
Visiting Peveril Castle
Peveril Castle is quite a trek to get to but worth a visit if you’re on a day out in the Peak District. The castle is a steep climb up the hillside, probably why they chose to build it there! The facilities are all at the bottom of the hill, other than some picnic benches. It is an English Heritage site but the only car park is council owned and therefore has a cost to park.
My Experience
This was our first stop on a week long tour that took us through Scotland and to the Outer Hebrides, detailed in my travel blog here. My notes from this time (2012) are limited and I really don’t remember much about the castle. It was the first time we’d ever taken Frey dog away and I think we were both focused on that initially. The views from the castle were impressive and you could see the track, that was probably of strategic significance eight hundred years ago, far below at the bottom of the valley.
Peveril Castle Photo Gallery
History
The Hope valley provides an east/west route through the otherwise impenetrable Peak District and was also a location rich in mineral resources. For these reasons fortifications have existed in the area since the Bronze Age. The first was Mam Tor hillfort, built in the north of the valley. This was followed in the first century AD by Hope Roman fort which was specifically constructed to supervise lead mining operations. By the early tenth century the Saxons had founded a Royal manor at Hope which was seized by the Normans following the invasion. Around 1070 William Peveril, a Norman Knight who had fought in the early campaigns of William I, was granted custody of Royal lands in the Hope Valley and was allowed to displace existing Saxon landowners in the area to forge his own estates. He built an earth and timber fortification at Hope to serve as his new administrative centre but soon after he commenced construction of a new stone castle.
The castle was built upon a rock spur protected on the east, south and west sides by sheer drops into Cave Dale and the Cavern Gorge. The structure itself took the form of a triangular enclosure with its walls constructed in stone from the start. The main access into the castle was via the east gate. A west gate provided access to a bridge over the gorge leading to an outer enclosure presumably used for stables and ancillary functions. Concurrently with the castle the adjacent settlement, Castleton, grew up to serve the site. Normally such towns were planned and built in a grid layout but that didn’t happen at Castleton suggesting it evolved over a period of time. The town was surrounded by an earth rampart and ditch.
William Peveril was granted outright ownership of the Royal lands he held by Henry I enabling him to develop Castleton into the economic centre of a vast and valuable Lordship. When he died in 1114 he left his son, also called William, a vast inheritance but thereafter the family’s fortunes waned. William supported Stephen during the Anarchy, the civil war over the English succession, but was captured alongside the King at the Battle of Lincoln (1141). When the war was eventually settled with the accession of Henry II, the new King took control of Peveril. The King visited the castle on numerous occasions including hosting Malcolm IV of Scotland there in 1157.
After years of civil war, Henry II sought to restore the power of the monarchy. He built new castles and substantially upgraded others in order to restrict the power of his senior magnates. Peveril Castle provided a useful base for overseeing the powerful Robert Ferrers, Earl of Derby. However he had married Margaret Peveril, William’s daughter, and hoped to claim the castle for himself. An opportunity arose in 1173 during the rebellion of Henry II’s eldest son, Henry ‘the Young the King’. Robert’s son, William Ferrers, joined the rebellion but Henry II emerged triumphant and William was heavily fined and briefly imprisoned. The King then strengthened the defences at Peveril by building the Keep circa-1176.
The reign of King John (1199-1216) was beset with internal strife and civil war which provided the opportunity for the Ferrers family to make good their long denied inheritance. William Ferrers, fourth Earl of Derby was able to purchase the Peak Lordship in 1199 although the key castles of Bolsover and Peveril were not included. However in 1216 the King, who was now in open conflict with many of his Barons, granted both castles to the Earl. Despite the King’s order the custodian, Brian de Lisle, refused to hand them over and William was required to besiege Bolsover and negotiate the surrender of Peveril. It was 1217 before he had possession of both sites. Ownership was short-lived and he was required to relinquish Peveril to the Crown in 1223.
The castle remained in Royal ownership for the next 150 years with numerous upgrades being made to the buildings within. However, whilst the site remained important for its administrative role overseeing the area’s mining operations, its function as a Royal residence was eliminated when the vast Earldom of Chester passed into Crown control in 1237.
Peveril Castle passed to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster in 1372. He had other substantial residences across the region – including Leicester, Kenilworth, Pontefract and Tutbury – and therefore Peveril was neglected. Lead and other building materials were stripped from the castle whilst the administrative functions were slowly relocated to Tutbury Castle. A survey of 1561 put the condition of the castle as beyond repair. The Duchy of Lancaster placed the castle in the care of the Ministry of Works in 1932.
References
The English Heritage website with full visitor information is here.
The history above is copied from the always excellent castles forts battles site here.