Cooling Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Cowling, Coulyng; Couling

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

Seat of the de Cobham family after 1214, the capital messuage mentioned 1300. After a French raid in 1379 a licence to crenelate was granted in 1380-1, building completed by 1385. The building covered nearly eight acres. The defences consisted chiefly of stone walls, some loopholed for guns, and water moats but the extreme east was fortified with a rampart and ditch. There were several enclosures. A shell keep of masonry defended by a moat. A large courtyard on the east, also defended by a stone wall with corner towers and outside ditch probably once containing water and a court on the north west defended by water only. The water is supplied by springs and at times the sea may have washed around the moats. Henry Yevele was engaged as Surveyor with Thomas Wrek and William Sharnhale as masons. Ragstone. Rectangular enclosure, moated, with round angle-turrets originally machicolated. Turretted gateway near centre of east wall. 3-bay vaulted undercroft with quadripartite vaults and chamfered ribs on short wall-shafts. Wall faced externally at this point in knapped flint with some stone chequer work. Cooling Castle was the seat of the de Cobham family after 1214 but the licence to crenellate was only granted in 1381, partly as a defence for the sea-access to London, commemmorated on a copper plate in the east tower, formerly on the gate-house, which reads: 'Knouwyth that heth and schul be/ That I am mad in help of the cuntre/ In knowyng of whyche thyng/ Thys is chartre and wytnessyng.' The Castle was abandoned after Wyatt's rebellion in 1554, when the family left for Cobham. The gateway flanked by twin drum towers can he seen from the road.

This site has been described as a;
Masonry Castle.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This site is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*. (Images of England number 172856, 172857)

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TQ75357595

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 416574

Books

Salter, Mike, 2000, The Castles of Kent (Malvern) p26-7
Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p113-14
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p229
Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p213
Guy, John, 1980, Kent Castles (Meresborough Books)
Smithers, David Waldron, 1980, Castles in Kent (Chatham)
Bennett, D., 1977, A handbook of Kent's defences from 1540 until 1945 p12
Newman, John, 1976, The buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald (Harmondsworth) p239-240
O’Neil, B.H.St.J., 1960, Castles and Cannon: A Study of Early Artillery Fortifications in England (Oxford: Claredon Press) p9 plates 4, 5
Braun, Hugh, 1936, The English castle (Batsford) p4, 95, 103, 109
Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol1 p9-13
Chalkley Gould and Downham, 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Kent Vol1 p429-30
Scott Robertson, W.A. , 1877, Kentish Archaeology Vol2 (London) p1-17
Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol3 pt2 p303, 418
Hasted, Edward, 1778-99, A History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent Vol1 p538-40 [history]
Buck, Samuel and Nathenial, 1774, Buck’s Antiquities (London) Vol1 p124
Grose, F., 1756, Antiquities of England and Wales Vol3 p24-6

Journal Articles

Clark, Ross, 2000 Feb 19, 'Castles in despair' Daily Telegraph
Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' Archaeological Journal Vol138 p207
Tatton-Brown, T., 1977, Archaeologia Cantiana Vol93 p221
Knoop, D., Jones, G.P. and Lewis, N.B., 1934, 'Some new documents concerning the building of Cowling (Cooling) Castle and Cobham College' Archaeologia Cantiana Vol46 p52-56
Vallence, A., 1927, 'The Engraved Plate at Cooling Castle' Archaeologia Cantiana Vol39 p176-80
Cope, B., 1927, 'Sir Thomas Wyatt's Assault on Cooling Castle, 30th January, 1554' Archaeologia Cantiana Vol39 p167-76
Scott Robertson, W.A. , 1877, 'Coulyng (Cooling) Castle' Archaeologia Cantiana Vol11 p128-44
Larking, 1859, 'Cowling Castle' Archaeologia Cantiana Vol2 p95-103 [history only]

Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)

Calendar of Patent Rolls (1377-81) p596

Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)

William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/kenteng.html#kent9]

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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.

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