Odiham Castle

Odiham Castle stands near the village of Odiham in Hampshire, beside the River Whitewater. Built on land bought from Robert the Parker, it occupies twenty acres shaped by the river’s bend. King John ordered the fortress in 1207 and it took seven years to finish. The castle had a three-storey keep, two moated baileys, banking and palisades, and a king’s house. Its total cost reached £1,000 by 1214, a large sum for the time. The site played a part in the Magna Carta story in 1215. During the First Barons’ War the French captured the castle after a two-week siege in 1216. Simon de Montfort married King John’s daughter Eleanor at Odiham in 1238. King David II of Scotland was held prisoner here for eleven years after his capture in 1346. By the 15th century the castle served as a hunting lodge before becoming a ruin by 1605. Visitors today see parts of the octagonal keep and earthworks around the site. The southern corner of the moat survives as a small overgrown pond across the canal. Hampshire County Council restored the shell keep in 2007 with English Heritage advice. Archaeologists dug at the castle in 1953 and again between 1981 and 1985. The Basingstoke Canal cuts through the southern edge of the old bailey.