User:Prioryman/Upnor Castle

Strategic context
The River Medway is a major tributary of the Thames, merging with the latter's estuary about 35 mi east of London. Its upper reaches, between Rochester and the confluence with the Thames at Sheerness, meander between sand and mudbanks for a distance of about 10 mi. The water flows slowly, without strong currents, and is free of rocks, while the surrounding hills provide shelter from the south-west wind. These characteristics made the section of the river below Rochester Bridge a desirable anchorage for large ships, as they could be anchored safely and grounded for repairs. The complexity of the channel's navigation also provided it with defensive advantages.

During Henry VIII's reign, the upper Medway gradually became the principal anchorage for ships of the Royal Navy while they were "in ordinary," or out of commission. They were usually stripped of their sails and rigging while in this state and the opportunity was taken to refit and repair them. Storehouses and servicing facilities were built in the Medway towns of Gillingham and Chatham which eventually became the nucleus of the Chatham Dockyard. By the time Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, most of the royal fleet used this section of the Medway, known as Chatham and Gillingham Reaches, as an anchorage.

Although the Thames had been defended from naval attack since Henry VIII's time, when five blockhouses were built as part of the Device Forts programme of coastal defence, there were no equivalent defences on the Medway. Two medieval castles – Rochester Castle and Queenborough Castle – existed along the river's south bank, but both of these had been intended to defend landward approaches and were of little use for coastal defence. There was thus a pressing need for proper defences to protect the vulnerable ships and shore facilities on the upper Medway.

Construction
Upnor Castle was commissioned in 1559 by order of Queen Elizabeth and her Privy Council. Six "indifferent persons" chose a site opposite St Mary's Creek in Chatham, on 6 acre of land belonging to a Thomas Devinisshe of Frindsbury. It was acquired – possibly compulsorily purchased – by the Crown for the sum of £25 (equivalent to £NaN. The military engineer Sir Richard Lee was tasked with designing the new fortification, but as he appears to have been fully occupied with working on the defences of Berwick-upon-Tweed the project was carried on, to his designs, by others. His deputy Humphrey Locke took the role of overseer, surveyor and chief carpenter, while the former Rochester mayor and victualler to the navy Richard Watts managed the project on a day-to-day basis and handled the accountancy.

The castle's original appearance differed significantly from that of today. The arrow-shaped Water Bastion facing out into the Medway and the main block behind it were part of the original design. There were also towers at either end of the water frontage, though these were subsequently replaced by towers of a different design. The gatehouse and moat were later additions. The buildings were constructed from a combination of great quantities of Kentish ragstone and ashlar blocks – some of which came from derelict buildings in Rochester Castle, Aylesford and Bopley that were pulled down to provide stone – plus red bricks and timber. The main structure had been completed by 1564 but it took another three years, and an infusion of extra funds, to finish the project. The total cost came to £4,349 (equivalent to £NaN.

Improvements and repairs
During the late 16th century tensions grew between Protestant England and Catholic Spain, leading ultimately to the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604. Spain was in a strong position to attack the south of England from its possessions in the Spanish Netherlands. New fortifications were erected along the Medway, including a chain stretched across the width of the river below Upnor Castle. The castle itself was poorly manned until the Lord High Admiral, Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, highlighted this and recommended that the garrison should be increased. By 1596 it consisted of eighty men who were each paid eight pence per day (equivalent to £6 today).

Continued fears of a Spanish incursion led to the castle's defences being strengthened between 1599–1601 at the instigation of Sir John Leveson. An arrowhead-shaped timber palisade was erected in front of the Water Bastion to block any attempted landings there. An enclosing ditch some 5.5 m deep and {{convert|9.8|m|ft}] wide was dug around the castle. Flanking turrets, on the site of the present north and south towers, were constructed to protect the bastion. The bastion itself was raised and a high parapet was added to its edge. A gatehouse and drawbridge were also built to protect the castle's landward side.

A survey conducted in 1603 recorded that Upnor Castle had 20 guns of various calibres, plus another 11 guns split between two sconces or outworks. 18 guns were recorded as being mounted there twenty years later. The garrison's armament included 34 longbows – an indication that even at this late date, archery was still of military value. By this time, however, the castle was in a state of disrepair. The drawbridge and its raising mechanism were broken, the gun platforms needed repairs and the courtyard wall had collapsed. A new curtain wall had to be built to protect the landward side of the castle.

Upnor Castle fell into Parliamentary hands without a fight when the English Civil War broke out in 1642, and was subsequently used to intern Royalist officers. In May 1648 a Royalist uprising took place in Kent and Essex, with the royalists seizing a number of towns including Gravesend, Rochester, Dover and Maidstone. The Royalists were soon defeated in the Battle of Maidstone on 1 June and the castle was restored to Parliamentary hands. The Parliamentary commander-in-chief, Thomas Fairfax, inspected the castle and ordered further repairs and strengthening the gun platforms. It appears that the height of the gatehouse was also increased at this time and the north and south towers were built up. They appear to have been left open at the back (on the landward side) but this was remedied in 1653 in the course of further repairs, making them usable for troop accommodation.

Raid on the Medway
The castle only saw action once in its history during the Dutch Raid on the Medway in June 1667 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch, under the nominal command of Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, bombarded and captured the town of Sheerness, sailed up the Thames to Gravesend, then up the Medway to Chatham. They made their way past the chain that was supposed to block the river and towed away HMS Royal Charles and Unity as well as burning other ships at anchor. The Duke of Albemarle took charge of the defences and ordered the hasty construction of an eight-gun battery, using guns taken from Chatham, next to Upnor Castle. The castle's guns, the garrison's muskets and the new battery were all used to bombard the Dutch ships anchored in the Medway. Although the Dutch were able to burn some more ships, they were unable to make further progress and had to withdraw.

Contemporary observers considered that the castle had acquitted itself well, despite its inability to prevent the raid, and the dedication of its garrison was praised. The London Gazette reported "they were so warmly entertained by Major Scot, who commanded there [at Upnor], and on the other side by Sir Edward Spragg, from the Battery at the Shoare, that after very much Dammage received by them in the shattering of their ships, in sinking severall of their Long Boats manned out by them, in the great number of their Men kill'd, and some Prisoners taken, they were at the last forced to retire." Samuel Pepys, the then secretary of the Navy Board, wrote in his diary, "I do not see that Upnor Castle hath received any hurt by them though they played long against it; and they themselves shot till they had hardly a gun left upon the carriages, so badly provided they were."

Usage as a magazine and naval facility
The Dutch attack prompted the government to order belatedly that Upnor Castle, which had hitherto been neglected, should be maintained "as a fort and place of strength". In the end, however, the raid proved to be the end of the castle's career as a fortress. New and more powerful forts were built further down the Medway and on the Isle of Grain with the aim of preventing enemies reaching Chatham, thus making the castle redundant. It was converted into "a Place of Stores and Magazines" in 1668 with a new purpose of supplying munitions to naval warships anchored in the Medway or the Swale. Guns, gun carriages, shot and gunpowder was stored in great quantities within the main building of the castle, which had to be increased in height and its floors reinforced to accommodate the weight. By 1691 it was England's leading magazine, with 164 iron guns, 62 standing carriages, 100 ships' carriages, 7,125 pieces of iron shot, over 200 muskets of various types, 77 pikes and 5,206 barrels of powder. This was considerably more than was held at the next largest magazine, the Tower of London.

Upnor Castle ceased to be used as a magazine after 1827 and was converted into an Ordnance Magazine. No gunpowder or explosives were stored there after 1840, though other magazines continued to be built nearby. It was linked to Chattenden Barracks, originally the School of Military Railways, via a 2ft 6in (76 cm) narrow gauge line built for steam locomotives. In 1891 the castle and its associated depot came under the full control of the Admiralty, ending an arrangement in which the War Office had managed the site with the Admiralty providing the funding. It became a Royal Naval Armaments Depot (RNAD), one of a group of such facilities around the country. The castle and magazine were used for a time as a proofyard for testing firearms and explosives.

Although the castle remained in military ownership, it came to be treated more as a museum from the 1920s onwards. During the Second World War the castle was still in service as part of the Magazine Establishment and was damaged by two enemy bombs which fell in 1941. The bombing had the fortuitous effect of dislodging pieces of plaster in the castle's south tower and gatehouse, under which was discovered pieces of graffiti including a drawing of a ship dated to around 1700.

The castle today
Following the end of the war in 1945, the Admiralty gave approval for Upnor Castle to be used as a Departmental Museum and to be opened to the public. It subsequently underwent a degree of restoration. The castle was scheduled as an Ancient Monument in January 1960 and is currently owned by English Heritage, with Medway Council managing it.