Leybourne Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Layborne; Leyborne

In the civil parish of Leybourne. In the historic county of Kent (Modern Authority of Kent, 1974 county of Kent).

The ruins of Leybourne Castle consisting of the remnants of a gatehouse and part of a round angle tower dating from the late C13. The gatehouse has been partly incorporated into a house of C16 date which was rebuilt in the 1931. The shell of a chapel remains but it has been modernised and re-roofed and few original features survive. GATEWAY: random rubble stone. Two broad semicircular bastions with a triple-chamfered depressed arch between with beginnings of opening area. Loop-holes on ground floor with widish square windows above. Portcullis groove and beginnings of rib-vault oriel cut in archway. Internally, evidence of upper floors, and vaulted cupboard in addition to west bastion. Low wall, probably reconstructed in right-angle to west and south, connecting with 2-storey random rubble gabled outbuilding, probably also C14 with arched doorway in north gable end and two- light window arch.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law. This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*. (Images of England number 179376)

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TQ68855891

Air Photo from Air Photo and general mapping	1st edition OS Map from Mid to late 19th century maps
Modern Map from Landscape form and features	Modern Map from General location and route planning

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 412530
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is TQ 65 NE 19 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

• Web site links
  • http://www.ecastles.co.uk/leybourne.html
• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2002, Index and Amendments to Mike Salter's English Castles Books (Malvern) p7
    Salter, Mike, 2000, The Castles of Kent (Malvern) p54
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p122-3
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1
    Guy, John, 1980, Kent Castles (Meresborough Books)
    Smithers, David Waldron, 1980, Castles in Kent (Chatham)
    Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p254
    Newman, John, 1976, The buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald (Harmondsworth) p380
    Toy, Sidney, 1953, The Castles of Great Britain (Heinemann) p240
    Toy, Sidney, 1939, Castles: A short History of Fortifications from 1600 BC to AD 1600 (London) p192-4
    Braun, Hugh, 1936, The English castle (Batsford) p92
    Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
    Chalkley Gould and Downham, 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Kent Vol1 p418-19
    Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol1 p29-30
    Clark, G.T., 1884, Medieval Military Architecture in England  (Wyman and Sons) Vol2 p188-9
    Hasted, Edward, 1798 (2edn), A History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent Vol5 p496-508 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53827
    Grose, F., 1756, Antiquities of England and Wales Vol3 p63-5
• Journal Articles
  • Coulson, C., 1994, 'Freedom to Crenellate by Licence - An Historiographical Revision' Nottingham Medieval Studies Vol38 p128-9
    Clark, G.T., 1866, The Builder Vol24 p818 [reprinted in MMA]
• Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
  • Rickard, John, 2002, The Castle Community. The Personnel of English and Welsh Castles, 1272-1422 (Boydell Press) [lists sources for 1272-1422] p273
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/kenteng.html#kent14]