Inspiration – Maxstoke Castle

Maxstoke Castle is a privately owned moated castle dating from medieval times situated to the north of Maxstoke, Warwickshire. It was built by Sir William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, in 1345 to a rectangular plan, with octagonal towers at each angle, a gatehouse on the east, and a residential range on the west, the whole surrounded by a broad moat. Additions were made by Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham who acquired it in 1437 by exchanging it for other manors in Northamptonshire. The castle is unusual in that it has survived largely intact. Amongst the antiquities, there is a 15th-century chair upon which Henry VII was crowned after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, a table owned by Sir Everard Digby (cousin to the Digbys of Coleshill) around which the Gunpowder Plot was planned in 1605, and a ‘Whispering Door’ (two doors with a common jamb) brought from Kenilworth Castle.   read more