16th century Background Hull Castle was built as a consequence of international tensions between England,
France and the
Holy Roman Empire in the final years of the reign of King
Henry VIII. Traditionally
the Crown had left coastal defences to local lords and communities, only taking a modest role in building and maintaining fortifications, and while France and the Empire remained in conflict, maritime raids were common but an actual invasion of England seemed unlikely. Modest defences based around simple
blockhouses and towers existed in the south-west and along the
Sussex coast, with a few more impressive works in the north of England, but in general the fortifications were limited in scale. In 1533, Henry broke with Pope
Paul III over the annulment of his long-standing marriage to
Catherine of Aragon. Catherine was the aunt of
Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, who took the annulment as a personal insult. This resulted in France and the Empire declaring an alliance against Henry in 1538, and the Pope encouraging the two countries to attack England. An invasion of England appeared certain. In response, Henry issued an order, called a "
device", in 1539, giving instructions for the "defence of the realm in time of invasion" and the construction of forts along the English coastline. The immediate threat passed, but resurfaced in 1544, with France threatening an invasion across the
English Channel, backed by her allies in Scotland. Henry therefore issued another device to further improve the country's defences.
Construction Hull Castle was constructed to defend the east side of the town of
Kingston upon Hull against a possible French attack; it was also intended to ensure the loyalty of the population, who had taken part in a
revolt against the King in 1536. Henry had visited Hull in late 1541 and had observed that, although the town had strong walls to the north and west, it lacked adequate defences in the event of an attack from the east, while the harbour was only protected by a "little round brick tower". Henry issued orders for the existing town defences to be repaired and renovated but, before the work could commence, he changed his mind and issued fresh instructions in early 1542. John Rogers, a military engineer previously stationed in
Guînes, was brought back to England to construct a major system of defences on the east bank of the
River Humber, comprising a central castle linked to two large blockhouses. Sir
Richard Long and
Michael Stanhope were instructed to oversee the construction of the defences, with Thomas Aldred acting as the project's paymaster and William Reynolds in the role of master mason. Initial estimates suggested that 530 workers would be needed, including masons, carpenters and plumbers, but more may have been required in practice. At least some of the bricks needed were made in a series of ten kilns beside the site itself. The land needed for the buildings had been seized during the
dissolution of the monasteries. By December 1543, £21,056 had been spent on the project. It had two large, curved
bastions containing chambers on the west and east ends, and a three-storey rectangular
keepin the middle, across, set within an inner courtyard. The outer wall was thick and contained a gallery and ports for
hand-guns, and supported two tiers of artillery. A
moat ran around the outside of the castle. The use of bastions adopted some features from the
Italian-style of defences then popular on the continent, but their design was imperfect and failed to provide flanking cover or interlink with the neighbouring defences. A
crenellated curtain wall, approximately long and high, linked the blockhouses and castle, with a wet moat on the eastward side.
Operation recusant in the North Blockhouse, dying there in 1603 After the construction, Sir Richard Long and Michael Stanhope were placed in command of the castle and blockhouses; the initial garrison may have been substantial, costing around £1,000 a year, but this was mostly demobilised at the end of 1542. Nonetheless, the castle and blockhouses still proved expensive to maintain. As a result, in 1553, an agreement was reached with the corporation of Hull, under which the town would take over responsibility for their maintenance, in exchange for an annual grant of £50 from various local manors. The town provided a bond of £2,000 as a commitment that it would keep its commitments. The mayor of Hull also took over the role of the Governor of Hull, with "keepers" were appointed by the town to run each of the buildings; the pasture land behind the fortifications was rented out to bring in income. Arguments soon broke out between the Crown and the corporation over the deal. The Crown argued that the corporation was not adequately maintaining the castle and blockhouses. The
Earl of Sussex complained in 1569 that they were in need of repair, and a 1576 survey stated that their gun platforms were in poor condition and that the ditches had become clogged with earth, while coastal erosion had undermined the South Blockhouse. Queen
Elizabeth I provided 300 trees to help the repair work and a new
jetty was built to protect the southern end of the defences from the sea. The Crown gave 60 trees to the town to help with further repairs in 1581. The dispute over maintenance between the Crown and the town finally came to court in 1588; the corporation argued that green timber had been used in the original construction work and claimed that they had spent £2,893 between 1552 and 1587 on the defences: the Crown's case failed. The ground-floor of the South Blockhouse was often used for this purpose; the conditions were particularly poor, with contemporary accounts noting that the quarters "have been overflowed with water at high tide, so that they walked, the earth was so raw and moist that their shoes would cleave to the ground".
17th century 's 1611 map of Hull, depicting the castle and blockhouses (right) The arguments over the maintenance of the castle and blockhouses continued in early 1600s. The town of Hull argued that since the revenues of £50 granted in 1553 were insufficient to maintain these defences, they should be allowed to use royal
customs duties to assist in the work, particularly in protecting the east bank of the river from erosion. As a result, another court case was brought by the Crown in 1601. The commission's report led to the town carrying repairs to the earthwork defences over the coming year. The Crown dropped its law case, but a third case was brought in 1634, only to see the Crown pull out of the proceedings once again. By now, the corporation argued it had spent £11,367 on the defences. The South End Fort was built on the other side of the river from the South Blockhouse at the same time, provided supporting
crossfire. At the outbreak of the
English Civil War in 1642, Hull sided with
Parliament against King
Charles I. Hull was
besieged by the Royalists in July 1642, and the South Blockhouse may have been used to drive off a Royalist naval vessel approaching the estuary. In 1643, the mayor, Thomas Raikes, and the Parliamentarians in Hull concluded that the governor, Sir
John Hotham, was planning to seize the castle and the wider town for the King. In a pre-emptive strike in June, Captain Moyer landed 100 troops from the Parliamentary warship the
Hercules and took the castle and blockhouses, while Raikes seized the town itself. In September, the south bastion of the North Blockhouse was accidentally blown up by one of the defenders, killing five men. The North Blockhouse needed work costing £1,500, Hull Castle, £300, and the South Blockhouse, £220.
Henry Slingsby, for example, was held at the castle before his trial in London. When
Charles II was
restored to the throne in 1660, the interregnum army was demobilised; a guard-force remained in Hull to protect the arsenal there, being officially referred to as the "Hull Blockhouse" garrison. All three sites were garrisoned: surveys reported that the South Blockhouse was in a good condition and held 21 guns, the castle was in a poor condition and held only 8 light guns, and the North Blockhouse was in a "ruinous" condition and held 10 guns. An order was taken to strip the most ruined parts of the North Blockhouse of its timber, bricks and lead to help improve the remainder, supplemented by additional supplies of timber and bricks donated by the Crown, but the material was misappropriated and used, in part, for construction work on the houses of the Governor and his deputy. The defences were neglected for several decades, despite calls for improvements and when the military engineer Sir
Martin Beckman visited the sites in 1681, he concluded that they were "very much out of repair": the North Blockhouse was "altogether dismantled", the South Blockhouse needed extensive repairs and the moat had been left to entirely silt up. Recusants continued to be detained in the castle, which was regarded by the national authorities as a particularly suitable prison for this class of prisoner. The Crown decided to construct a new, triangular fortification called the
Hull Citadel on the eastern side of the river, incorporating the castle and the South Blockhouse. The South Blockhouse was repaired and strengthened with a water bastion, and formed the south-west corner of the Citadel; the castle was integrated into the north corner and protected by a new bastion. The intervening curtain wall was partially demolished to make way for the new works, while the last remains of the moat were filled in with clay. By 1699, the castle itself no longer held any guns, although the South Bastion was equipped with three
demi-culverins and four
sakers, all which were inoperable due to poor maintenance and the effect of the sea. The new fortifications were protected by a combination of soldiers from the regular Army, from Independent Companies under the control of the governor, and the "Castle Guard" of local soldiers.
18th–21st centuries , showing the castle (top) and the South Blockhouse (bottom left) in red The castle and the South Blockhouse continued in use within the Citadel during the 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1746, the South Blockhouse was redesigned with new embrasures, but the fortifications were largely neglected. During the
Napoleonic Wars, the Citadel was extensively repaired; the South Blockhouse was extensively altered to allow it to hold naval ordnance stores and the castle became an
armoury, each wing able to hold 20,000 stands of infantry weapons and 3,000 cavalry arms. The North Blockhouse and the remnants of the curtain wall beyond the Citadel were in ruins by 1766; the blockhouse was let to private contractors, and then demolished altogether between 1801 and 1802. By the 19th century, extensive docks had grown up around the Citadel and in 1802 the surrounding land was granted to the
Hull Dock Company. The Citadel remained in military use until 1848, by when developments in
military technology had made the fortification obsolete. In 1858 there were proposals to turn the site into a public park, but instead the Citadel, including Hull Castle and the South Blockhouse, was demolished in 1864 to make way for an expansion of the docks. The foundations of the Citadel, which had been too substantial to dismantle in the 19th century, were uncovered during urban regeneration works in 1987, and archaeological digs have occurred on both the castle and the South Blockhouse sites. The foundations of these two buildings, along with the southern end of the Citadel remains, are protected under UK law as an
Ancient Monument. During excavations in 1997, an iron
portpiece was discovered on the site of the South Blockhouse. The weapon, now known as "Henry's Gun", is one of only four such guns in the world to have survived from the period and is displayed at the Hull Museums. It was either made by Henry VIII's gun-maker or acquired from the
Low Countries. By 1681 it would have been obsolete and was disposed of in 1681 during the construction of the Citadel. ==Notes==