Lincoln Castle.

 Wednesday 15th January 2025.

Lincoln castle as we see it today goes back to the days of William the Conquerer, roughly a 1000 yrs old. But there has been a fortification on this site going back to the Romans and beyond. With it being a high hill it was perfect for monitoring the surrounding lands. It is also the home of an original Magna Carta, a Victorian Prison and a still working crown court.

Image Courtesy of "Lincoln Pride". 

William had the castle built in 1068 because of the trouble makers from the north and to show everyone that the Normans were now in command after they won the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The Romans built their own fortress here and the stonework from the city then named Lindum Colonia was used in the Norman wall construction. Prior to this a wooden palisade had been constructed. A stone keep was built replacing a wooden one which can be seen today called Lucy Tower. Upper left in the image above now covered with foliage.

The castle has been in the wars over the years.

In 1141 King Stephen was in a war with his cousin Matilda over the English Crown and whilst this was going on it was claimed by Ranulf, the Earl of Chester. Stephen didn't get it back for seven months. This encounter was known as "The Joust of Lincoln".

Whilst under the leadership of Nicola de la Haye, 50 yrs later, the castle withstood a 40day siege by Richard 1st's chancellor, Longchamps, when he demanded the loyalty of supporters of the kings younger brother, Price John.

Nicola de la Haye was quite some lady, she was a wealthy landowner and administrator who had inherited it lands in England and Normandy from her father, Richard de la Haie. She inherited the title of Constable of Lincoln Castle.

She defended the castle once again in 1217, during a civil war caused because King John wouldn't honour the Magna Carta in 1215.

Rebel barons and the French forces allied to Prince Louis seized control of much territory including Lincoln town. However the castle was a Royalist stronghold guided by Nicole de la Haye and held out. If the Royalists had lost then England could have become ruled by the French.

The last battle was in 1644 where the Royalists were defeated by the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War.

Weather wise the day was forecast to be deteriorating so we opted to do the castle walls walk while it was still reasonable. We bought our tickets and made our way through the electric turnstiles and up the many steps of the large spiral staircase leading to the wall.

The route up to the walls.

View of Lincoln Cathedral from the Castle Walls.

Once on the wall we headed in an anticlockwise direction, the first point of interest being Cob Hall.

Cob Hall was a defensive tower in the North East quarter. Built round to deflect barrages. You can enter the "hall" via steep steps and even further into the dungeon cellars. The walls of the dungeons have graffiti scratched into them from prisoners. The arched ceilings suggest that it was possibly used as a chapel as well. From 1817 until 1859, 38 hangings took place on the roof with vast 15,000 crowd watching.

Looking down into the dungeons of Cob Hall.

The last prisoners to be hanged were called Pickett and Carey who were murderers.

The frontage of the Georgian Gaol. Opened 1788. The later Victorian Gaol can just be seen at the rear.

Outside the walls a large Keep like structure draws the eyes. We at first thought it was something to do with the castle but it is actually a water tower called Watergate. It hides a steel tank inside and was built between 1909 and 1911. It holds 3 million gallons of water which is piped 22 miles from Elkesley in Nottinghamshire. You can go into the tower and is probably worth a visit.

Westgate water tower on a murky day.

We passed the Law Courts which is itself a fine building still in use today. It does say outside that the public can enter the courts. However when we tried we were told that it wasn't part of the "Castle Tour". So we left abruptly.

The Law Courts.

In Georgian times there were numerous prisoners held in the Gaol in solitary confinement however this basically made the people into lunatics. So a lunatic asylum was built just outside the castle walls.

The columned frontage of the Lunatic Asylum. Opened 1820.

The asylum also took private patients as well as from the prison. It is documented that the asylum treated patients more humanly than other asylums where inhuman treatments including physical restraints and being locked up for hours took place. Straight jackets in Lincoln were done away with in the 1830's.

When public hangings ceased at Cobb Hall in 1868 the gallows were re-sited to the south wall known as Lucy's Tower. The first prisoner hanged at the new site was a female, Priscilla Biggadike. She was also the first female privately executed in England.

She was wrongfully executed for the murder of her husband when their lodger admitted to the murder a year later.

We made our way downwards before rising again to Lucy Tower. The tower stands on the same site as the first Norman Castle. It used to be a story higher and had the living quarters of The Constable of the castle and was built of wood. The grounds today include a cemetery of those hanged or died of natural causes in the prison.

Lucy Tower

Lucy Tower cemetery

One of the grave markers.

Prior to finishing the wall trek we passed the back of the Victorian prison exercise garden with it's high wall.

The victorian prison and exercise garden. The Observation Tower in the background was not accessible to visitors. I presume it to be unsafe at this time.

In the gloom is the front aspect of the Law Courts.

Walking past the Observation Tower brought us back to the large spiral stairway and the end of the wall.

The prison and the Magna Carta which are within the castle walls will be the subject of a separate post.