Eynsford Castle

Eynsford Castle stands in the village of Eynsford in Kent, beside the River Darent. Built on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon stone burh, it was raised by William de Eynsford between 1085 and 1087 to guard the archbishop’s lands from Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. The castle had an inner and an outer bailey, with the inner protected by a stone curtain wall. In 1130 a large stone hall was added inside the inner bailey and the defences were strengthened with a new gatehouse. The de Eynsford family held the castle until the male line ended in 1261, when it was split between two Kentish families. The castle’s history is marked by disputes among powerful owners. In 1307 William Inge, a royal judge, bought half the castle and soon clashed with Nicholas de Criol, whose family ransacked Eynsford in 1312. After years of legal battles the two men remained joint owners, though the castle was never lived in again. By the 18th century the ruins served as kennels and stables for the local gentry before falling into neglect. Visitors today see the remains of the inner bailey’s curtain wall and the foundations of the great stone hall built in 1130. The outer ditch and rampart, about five metres wide and three metres deep, still trace the original defences. English Heritage manages the site, and the grassy banks and river views give a quiet sense of its strategic past.