Oakham



Oakham appears in the Domesday Book as a royal estate previously held by Queen Edith (d.1075), the widow of Edward the Confessor (d.1066).  Before 1064 she had bequeathed the vill to St Peter's of Westminster on her death.  However, King William I (1066-87) had obviously resumed Oakham in 1075 rather than letting it go to the church.  In the Domesday entry it was noted that there were 2 ploughs ‘at the hall' and room for another 4 to work there.  The vill, which covered nearly a third of all Rutlandshire, also contained a priest and a church.  Of this the only remnant would appear to the Romanesque font in the much later current structure.

It would seem that after 1075 the castle remained in royal control probably until Henry II (1154-89) granted it to Walkelin Ferrers (d.1201), a probable great grandson of Henry Ferrers (d.1089) of Tutbury.  Walkelin was first recorded in September 1161 and by 1165 was recorded as being in Gloucestershire.  This probably indicates that Walkelin was holding Lechlade, a land later associated with Oakham.  In September 1167 there can be no doubt that Walkelin was already lord of Oakham for that year he was fined £1 by Alan Neville as Walchel' de Ferr' de Hocha', Hocham obviously being Oakham.  He was also pardoned 6m (£4) by the king.  In 1170 Walkelin was fined £1 10s in Rutland, again this obviously refers to Oakham although the place isn't actually mentioned this time.

In 1173-74 Walkelin fought, with his distant cousin, Earl William Ferrers of Derby (d.1190), for the young king against Henry II (1154-89) and was consequently fined 100m (£66 13s 4d) in Gloucestershire for his ‘forest misdeeds' in 1176.  Walkelin's caput was obviously in Oakham at this time as, rather than paying in Gloucestershire where he held Lechlade, he paid £16 13s 4d and then £14 in Rutlandshire, leaving a debt of £36.  The lord of Oakham's crimes could not have been that severe for the next year, 1177, he paid the king a further 4m (£2 13s 4d) of the £36 he owed and the king forgave him the remaining 50m (£33 6s 8d).  In 1181 he was pardoned £5 for a waste and assarting fine in Rutland forest and in 1185 paid £2 for some default in Lechlade.  In 1187 Walkelin owed and paid £1 10s for his 1½ fees in Rutland for not appearing on the royal Galloway campaign.  The next year he was said to have been amerced for £100 because of a judicial duel that was badly fought in his court, presumably at Oakham. 

Like many barons who had fallen foul of Henry II (1154-89), Ferrers seems to have got along well with his successor, King Richard (1189-99).  By August 1189 Walkelin was with Count Richard at Barfleur before he sailed to his crowning in England and witnessed again for Richard as king on 7 September.  On 11 April 1190 Richard granted and confirmed to Walkelin and his heirs acquittance of 80 acres of assarts in the forest of Rutland, namely 55 in the plain of Oakham, 20 in Braunceston plain and 5 in Broc plain.  He was also pardoned an assarting fine in Rutland for 36s.  Ferrers then followed his king on Crusade, being with him at Lyon-sur-Rhone on 10 July, Lyon on 11 July and Messina by mid September 1190.  Presumably Walkelin followed Richard to Cyprus and then the Middle East where he took part in first the siege of Acre and then the battle of Arsuf on 7 September 1191.  He is next found on 5 January 1194 when he witnessed a document for his captive king at Speyer.  He was still there in Richard's entourage on 22 January 1194.

In 1195 Walkelin accounted for £140 which he took from Caen treasury to the king in Germany.  He was also recorded as owing £89 8s from the socage of his land, £104 due to a jury verdict against him and £10 for keeping his retainers, which totalled £343 8s.  Of this he paid £100 to the treasury, was pardoned £140 and was left owing £168.  He also witnessed a charter for King Richard on 15 January 1195 at Le Vaudreuil in Normandy.  In 1197 he was charged with £1 10s for the second Norman scutage of which he paid £1.  Interestingly Walkelin and his 2 sons, Hugh and Henry, were that year in Normandy with King Richard in June and thus presumably with the royal army.  The same year in Worcestershire, Walkelin pledged 300m (£200) for Hugh Ferrers (his son) having the daughter and heiress of Hugh Say (d.1196) in marriage.  The next year, 1198, Walkelin was recorded as the father of Hugh when he and the archbishop of Canterbury on behalf of Geoffrey Say, paid money into the treasury to reduce the debt to 200m (£133 6s 8d) owed jointly.  This same year on 17 April 1198, Ferrers witnessed a confirmation for King Richard at his new castle on the Seine, Chateau Gaillard.

Walkelin probably continued to hold Oakham until his death, which probably occurred around 1201.  The castle, with Lechlade, then passed to his son Hugh (d.1204), followed in 1207 by Roger Mortimer (d.1214) of Wigmore and his wife, Isabella Ferrers, Hugh's sister who had acquired Lechlade in 1204.  On Mortimer's death in 1214 the castle seems to have reverted to Margaret Say (d.1230), the widow of Hugh Ferrers (d.1204).  She was in possession on 12 November 1219, after her husband, Robert Mortimer of Richards Castle, died.  This is suggested by the king ordering Oakham to be taken into his own hands on 15 February 1219.  The castle then seems to have reverted to Isabella, for on 28 September 1228, Peter Fitz Herbert
(d.1235) of Blaenllyfni was holding Oakham in right of his wife, the same Isabella.  On 12 December 1229 King Henry III dated letters from Ocham, so presumably he was staying at the castle.  Again on 7 June 1232, the fee of Oakham was recorded as in the hands of Peter Fitz Herbert (d.1235) and his wife Isabel Ferrers.

When Isabella Ferrers
died in 1252 the castle was presumably seized by the Crown.  On 26 January 1252 King Henry III (1216-72) sealed a letter here, while on 9 February 1253 there was mention of the king's jail of Oakham.  However the manor and castle came into the possession of Earl Richard of Cornwall as was recorded in his inquest post mortem of 1272.  Then, on 28 April 1272, Oakham castle was among those fortresses passed on to Richard's son and heir, Earl Edmund.  On his death in 1300 the fortress reverted to the Crown when it was regardless as profitless, although in its enclosure (the outer ward) was a garden the fruit and herbage of which brought in 8s a year.  There were also fishponds, a wind and a water mill, all worth £8 pa.  Despite this low valuation, the castle and manor were valued at £112 18s 11d when handed over to Edmund's widow the next year.  In 1308 King Edward II ordered this fortress, amongst others, to be fortified.  In 1340 it was recorded that:

The castle is walled and within are a hall, 4 chambers, a chapel, a kitchen, 2 stables, a grange for hay, a prison house, a chamber for the gatekeeper and a drawbridge with iron chains.

Also recorded were  some 2 acres of land within the walls and without as well as a garden preserved with a dyke, these being worth 8s pa.

By 1521 the castle, apart from the hall, appears to have been in ruins.  An engraving of 1684 shows the hall and castle bailey pretty much as they are today.  In 1989 an archaeological evaluation of Cutts Close, the outer bailey to the north, indicated that the south-west bank was pre Norman and that the area had probably been occupied since the Roman era.

Within the hall is a collection of some 230 horseshoes, allegedly given by royalty and aristocracy who have visited the castle since the fifteenth century.


Description
The castle originally consisted of a motte and bailey, which probably dates to the reign of William I (1066-87).  The remains of the 20' high motte lay in the south-east angle of the
460' square inner ward which has the hall placed close to its west side.  This bears some similarity to the motte at Caerwent in Gwent.  Quite likely this was part of an old Saxon burgh which once included the church within its defences.  Upon the bailey bank are the ruined remnants of a curtain wall with the remains of 2 towers on the west side.  This ward was surrounded by a moat 35' wide and 20' deep.  To the north was an outer bailey known as Cutts Close which is still defended by a bank up to 6' high and fishponds.

The pride of the castle is undoubtedly the hall, although the foundations of its associated buildings can still be traced around it.  The hall is aisled, 65' by 42' internally, with
4' thick walls built of ironstone rubble.  Within the structure are north and south aisles some 9' wide and divided from the nave by 4 decorative Romanesque arches, one of which has a purported bust of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.  The identification is based on the guess that the structure was built in their reign.  The hall has a dias to the west and screens to the east as well as 3 blocked doorways.  The smallest of these is Romanesque, the latter, larger 2, pointed Early English.  The entrance to the south is in the place of a former window.  Originally the entrance was towards the east.  There windows are Romanesque in style and bear some similarity to those in the upper ward tower at Chepstow castle.



 

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