The first thing that greets you at Baconthorpe Castle is the outer gatehouse, which was built around 1560 by Sir Christopher Heydon I. His lordship of the castle seems to coincide with the high point of the Heydon family. Like the Crawley family in the TV series Downton Abbey, the Heydon family by this time had a large manor house inside the inner castle courtyard, and employed around 80 servants.
At first glance, Sir Christopher Heydon I (1518-1579) seems to have benefitted from a period of relative peace in England, falling between the War of the Roses in the 15th Century and the English Civil War in the 17th Century. But then you have to remember that Henry VIII ruled England during the first half of the 16th Century. His government could have been described as anything but placid.
By 1560, when the outer gatehouse was finished, English Christians had been rocked by the formation of the Church of England and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, ultra-progressive protestant rule of Henry's son Edward, and the ultra-Catholic rule of his daughter Mary. No wonder Sir Christopher decided he needed an outer gatehouse, as well as a larger defensive wall to surround the property.
Oh, and he also decided to crenellate the buildings and walls around this period too, which would give his guards and soldiers better defensive positions.
The stretch of land between the outer and inner gatehouse gives you some scope of what was essentially a manor house and surrounding lands. The area off to the right would have been a large formal garden, completed by Christopher Heydon II (1561-1623). He was a solder, as well as a Member of Parliament and a writer of astrology books.
The second Christopher's militaristic nature got him into trouble in 1601 when he took part in the Essex Rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. Unlike the 100 Years War, and the War of the Roses, the Essex Rebellion was a comparatively small affair of short duration. Nevertheless, he fought on the wrong side, against Elizabeth, and ended up being fined and sent to prison.
Still, even if his warring nature got the better of him, and he proved an unwise estate manager, at least he appreciated the beauty of nature, as he built a mere as well as the formal gardens.
A moat surrounds the castle. You have to walk across what was once a drawbridge, and is now a permanent walking bridge, to access the inner gatehouse and castle interior. The Inner Gatehouse was built by the founding member of the family castle, built by William Baxton around 1460.
At first, you might ask why he built such defenses, as this would have been just after the 100 Years War, which lasted from 1337 to 1453. But then you have to remember that the War of the Roses, which lasted from 1455 to 1485, had already begun. Anyone who had significant assets back then, and wanted to protect their family back then, would have owned a defensible manor or castle like Sir Nigel Loring in Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The White Company.
Although William died rich, and got the castle off to a good start, his son changed the family name to Heydon, as William was a self-made man. Perhaps patrons like William de la Pole, the Duke of Suffolk and a prominent military leader in the 100 Years War, disliked the Baxton name. Or perhaps, John felt that Heydon sounded more prestigious than Baxton in the fifteenth century.
After all, young immigrant Bedrich Polouvicka changed his name to Richard DeVere in the sitcom To The Manor Born, and went on to found a popular UK chain of supermarkets. And the Heydon family would go on to become major players in the wool trade, which was one of England's major industries in medieval times.
Dragon Dave
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