Woodcroft Castle

Woodcroft Castle stands beside a wide moat in the flat fenland east of Peterborough. Built late in the 13th century, its oldest parts are the front range, a round tower and the gatehouse. Early in the 15th century Tudor builders kept these medieval shapes while adding new windows and chimneys. The castle once formed part of the Soke of Peterborough, a district ruled by the abbey until the Reformation. After the abbey’s lands passed to secular owners, the FitzWilliam family became the local lords. The castle’s brief but dramatic moment in history came in June 1648. Royalist troops under Michael Hudson took shelter inside after failing to raise more men in Stamford. Parliament’s Colonel Thomas Waite surrounded the moat and demanded surrender. When Hudson refused, a two-day siege followed. The defenders were overwhelmed and Hudson died defending the main tower. The Parliamentarian victory left the castle scarred but intact. Today the castle is a private home, its medieval walls still rising from the water. Visitors can walk the grassy bank that once carried the moat’s outer wall. Inside, the Tudor fireplaces show how the castle was lived in centuries ago. The 18th-century barn and stables beside the gatehouse add a later layer to the scene. From the gatehouse arch the flat fields stretch away, giving a sense of how the castle once commanded the surrounding countryside.