The Gatehouse website record for Astley Castle

In the civil parish of Astley. In the historic county of Warwickshire (Modern Authority of Warwickshire, 1974 county of Warwickshire).

The original fortified manor house was home of Sir Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk and his daughter Lady Jane Grey. The house was dismantled in 1555, but almost immediately rebuilt. The existing house, still moated, is almost entirely C16, but there is evidence of C12 work. There were substantial alterations in C17 and again in 1820 when it was restored. The building is roughly rectangular, of 2 storeys, with embattled parapets throughout. The principal front, in which C17 and C19 inteference is marked, has 5 large stone transomed-mullioned windows, all restored, 2 of them having arched traceried heads of early C19 character. On W side is a little timber framing. The interior is wholly modernised and has no early features except for a Jacobean fireplace. There are only scanty remains, in grey and red sandstone, of the original curtain wall and gatehouse. Some portions appear to be C14, but may date from 1266, when a licence to crenellate was issued. The bailey is level and the present house is on its W side with outbuildings lining the W curtain wall. There was a manor house here from quite early times; the Astleys lived here from the time of Henry II (1154-89). There is no certainty that a castle was built here in 1266. In 1963 it was a hotel. The house was abandoned after a fire in in 1978 and is falling down. The Landmark Trust has announced a project to save the building.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SP31168949

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 335947
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 359 '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.

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.