Historic Places in Staffordshire

Tamworth Castle is set in the town centre of Tamworth next to the River Tame in a public park, 16 miles from Birmingham in the centre of England. The castle is surrounded by a curtain wall built with herringbone masonry and a 13th century twin towered gatehouse. The site consists of a well preserved shell keep with its 13th century arched doorways built over three floors, a 15th century Great Hall and range of Jacobean chambers, Victorian reception rooms and Tudor buildings set around a courtyard. Facilities The castle is open to the public between midday and 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday from April until September and during the weekends October to March. Inside the castle there is a museum with displays of how the castle would have been used in different periods throughout history as well as one of the rooms which is used as a 'haunting' re-enactment. The original Norman motte and bailey castle was replaced with a stone building in the 12th century. A stone keep was built on top of the motte which was protected by a square tower gateway. Tamworth Castle was originally home to the Marmion family, descendents of the crown and was handed down though many generations and following the Civil War was under the ownership of the 5th Earl of Northampton. The castle then fell into disrepair until 1781 when it was transformed into a residence for the Townshend family. The castle was then rented out during the 19th century with two of its famous occupants being Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister for Great Britain and one of the founders of the Police force and Thomas Cooke. On the death of Thomas Cooke the castle was put up for sale and purchased by the Tamworth Corporation, now Tamworth Town Council. The Arts The castle was the subject of a painting entitled 'Tamworth Castle' By J.M.W Turner.

Alton Castle is located off Castle Hill Road in the village of Alton, Staffordshire - about 15 miles east of Stoke-on-Trent . The castle is also known as Alverton Castle or Aulton Castle. The castle was protected to the north by a cliff and to the south by a rock-cut ditch and curtain wall. The twin-tower gatehouse was at the west end of the south curtain and there were two large wall towers towards the centre of the curtain wall. The Eastern Wall Tower is a square open backed tower with a battered base, and tower corners are chamfered. The angle between tower and curtain wall is corbelled at parapet level. The 13th century Western Wall Tower is D-shaped and only the foundations remain. The early 13the century Gatehouse towers survive to a height of about ten feet. There was originally a portcullis in the gatehouse and the lower part of a portcullis groove of square section survives. Alton Castle was originally a medieval castle, built in about 1175 by Bertram de Verdun, the founder of Croxden Abbey. Alton Castle was founded by Bertram de Verdon and built on a hill overlooking the River Churnet in the 12th century. It was remodeled during the 15th century and subsequently was damaged during the Civil War. The Castle was rebuilt as a large Gothic-style house between 1847 and 1852 by A.W.N. Pugin as country house for the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury. The school on the site was taken over by the Sisters of Mercy in 1855 and the presbytery became their convent. The castle remained a private residence until 1919 when the Sisters of Mercy brought it to extend their boarding school. The school closed in 1989 and the castle was left empty until the Archdiocese of Birmingham purchased the building in 1995 and opened it as a Catholic Youth Retreat Centre in 1996. The remains of the castle are a Grade I listed building, and a scheduled ancient monument.

Chartley Castle is located north of the village of Stowe-by-Chartley in Staffordshire (between Stafford and Uttoxeter). The motte and bailey castle is in ruins, but substantial remains stand including an unusual cylindrical keep, a curtain wall flanked by two D-shaped towers, a twin-towered gatehouse and an angled tower. The motte and bailey castle was built by one of the early Earls of Chester around 1100. It was rebuilt in 1220 by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester, and a curtain wall was added. It passed by marriage to William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby and remained in the Ferrers family until 1453, when it passed to Walter Devereux through his wife, Elizabeth Ferrers. Walter was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The castle was then abandoned as a residence and Chartley Manor was built nearby. Chartley Manor was one of the last stops for Mary Queen of Scots before her execution. She was moved from Tutbury Castle a few miles to the east to Chartley in December 1585, and was imprisoned at Chartley for almost a year. She was then taken from Chartley to Fotheringay Castle in September 1586 where she was beheaded on 8 February 1587.

Thor's Cave is one of the most impressive natural cave entrances in England, a vast limestone arch set high in a cliff above the Manifold Valley in Staffordshire within the Peak District. The cave's enormous triangular entrance, approximately 10 metres high, commands a sweeping view down the valley and has made it a recognised landmark of the limestone country of the Staffordshire Moorlands for millennia. The approach up a steep rocky path from the valley floor is demanding but rewarding, with the scale of the entrance growing more imposing with every step of the ascent. The cave penetrates the limestone cliff to a depth of about 75 metres and connects with a smaller secondary entrance on the eastern face of the crag. The interior is a single large chamber rather than an extensive cave system, with a floor that slopes steeply toward the rear of the cave and walls of pale grey limestone showing the characteristic bedding planes and solution features of calcium carbonate rock that has been slowly dissolved by mildly acidic groundwater over millions of years. Archaeological excavation of the cave during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries revealed evidence of human occupation extending from the earliest prehistoric periods through to the Iron Age. Artefacts recovered include stone tools dating to the Palaeolithic period, confirming that people sought shelter here during the last Ice Age, when the climate of this region would have been extremely cold and the cave a relatively warm and defensible refuge. Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery, bone objects and animal remains from later periods provide evidence of continuing human use across tens of thousands of years. The Manifold Valley below the cave provides one of the most beautiful cycling and walking routes in the Peak District, the former railway trackbed having been converted to a traffic-free trail that follows the river through the limestone gorge. The valley is particularly notable for the way the River Manifold disappears underground through the porous limestone in dry summer conditions and re-emerges several kilometres downstream near Ilam.

Tutbury Castle near Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire is a ruined medieval castle with a long and dramatic history, most notably as one of the principal places of captivity for Mary Queen of Scots during her long imprisonment in England between 1568 and 1587. Mary was held at Tutbury on four separate occasions, and the castle's association with the Scottish queen who was finally executed at Fotheringhay in 1587 gives it a particular resonance in the history of the Tudor period. The castle dates from the Norman Conquest and was developed over several centuries as the seat of the de Ferrers earls and later the Duchy of Lancaster. The site is managed as a visitor attraction with guided tours, costumed interpretation and events exploring the castle's history. The surrounding South Derbyshire landscape and the nearby town of Burton upon Trent with its brewing heritage provide additional visitor interest.