Saltwood Castle

Saltwood Castle stands one mile north of Hythe in Kent. Built in the 11th century, it was enlarged in the 13th and 14th centuries. The Archbishop of Canterbury Lanfranc took it after the Norman Conquest and held it until Henry VIII took it in 1540. Four knights are said to have plotted Thomas Becket’s murder there in 1170. By the 19th century the castle was largely in ruins before partial restorations in the 1880s and 1930s. The castle’s history includes a Roman site beneath it and Bronze Age finds nearby. Henry Yevele designed gun-ports in the gatehouse between 1385 and 1394. The earthquake of 1580 made the castle uninhabitable, yet it was restored in the 19th century. Kenneth Clark bought it in 1953 and his son Alan Clark later lived there. The castle remains a private home owned by Alan Clark’s widow. Visitors find a Grade I listed gatehouse still used as a residence. The moat surrounds a bungalow called The Garden House built in 1971–72. The grounds contain Alan Clark’s grave. The castle’s medieval chest once stood in the parish church. Views stretch across the Kent countryside from its restored sections.