Caludon Castle

Caludon Castle stands in Wyken, a suburb east of Coventry city centre. Once part of a much larger estate, it now forms an urban park managed by Coventry City Council. The site includes a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed ruin. A second moated site 190 metres to the south is also protected. Most of the estate was sold in the early 20th century for housing. The castle’s origins reach back before the Norman Conquest. After 1066 it belonged to the Earl of Chester, then passed to the Segrave family in the 13th century. John de Segrave received a licence to crenellate in 1305, turning the house into a castle. Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, owned it in the 14th century before banishment left it derelict. Rebuilt as a mansion around 1580, it was later ruined again in 1662. Visitors find a single large sandstone wall rising above the park. Two tracery windows in red sandstone mark the remaining structure. A survey in 2008 revealed foundations of a great hall and traces of living quarters. Magnetic anomalies suggest buried cellars and farm buildings. The second moat, a separate Scheduled Ancient Monument, encloses about an acre of land. Footpaths wind through the site, offering glimpses of its layered past.