Cooling Castle

The castle was originally built on the south bank of the Thames, although the shoreline has since receded as a result of land reclamation; the river is now about 2 mi north of the castle, separated from it by marshes. It was constructed by John de Cobham, 3rd Baron Cobham (d. 1408), of nearby Cobham Hall, whose family had acquired the manor of Cooling in the mid-13th century. In 1379, during the second phase of the Hundred Years' War, a French raid devastated towns and villages along the Thames Estuary. Cobham appealed to the Crown for licence to fortify his manor and received permission in February 1380. The building work was completed by 1385. Surviving records indicate that the prominent…

Cooling Castle has an unusual layout that was perhaps dictated by the marshy ground on which it was constructed. Most quadrangular castles were constructed on a single moated island within which was a system of inner wards or courtyards. Cooling Castle differed in that within its 8 acre perimeter it had two wards of different sizes arranged side by side. Each stood on a mound within a figure of eight-shaped system of moats and ditches. The inner ward, in the western part of the castle, appears to have been surrounded by a moat that may have been up to 20 m wide. The larger outer ward, in the eastern part of the castle, was flanked on its western side by the moat, and a dry ditch up to 6 m…