Clifford Tower - York, North Yorkshire (EH)
The site of Clifford's Tower was used by the Romans as a cemetery, and bronze and pottery evidence confirm Saxon and Viking occupation. The first castle was built in 1068 by William the Conqueror, but was burnt down by the Danes, being rebuilt the following year after William's devastating crush of the Northern rebellion. The Domesday Book describes the new castle as protected by the damming of the river Foss to form an extensive fish-pond to the south east. The castle's most tragic event took place in 1190, when half of the city's Jews took refuge from persecution there, and were burned to death. Henry III commenced repairs and rebuilt in stone over the next twenty years.
The stone shell keep at York is the only one of its distinctive quadrilobate design in the country. Perhaps because of the late date of its construction between 1244-64, the design marries together the advantages of a roomy central courtyard with the defensive capabilities of flanking rounded towers.
In 1315 a flood weakened the soil of the tower mound and fourteen buttresses were built to prop up the bailey wall.
In 1322, Edward II had the rebel Lord Robert Clifford hanged in chains from the walls and this is how the tower got its name. In 1360 the keep was cracked and the repair can still be seen on the east side of the tower. Many more repairs were made until by 1596, about the time it became known as Clifford's Tower, the structure had deteriorated to the extent that the gaoler, Robert Redhead, started to demolish the building and sell the stone. The civic pride of York was outraged and his activities were stopped.
A royal army assembled to fight the Scots were already based in York by the start of the Civil War, and Clifford's Tower was once again repaired to support the cannon brought in to defend the site. The city surrendered however after the battle of Marston Moor in 1644 and the victorious Parliamentarians used the Tower as a fortress. To mark the Restoration in 1660, cannon were fired from the Tower and it passed into private ownership, without the garrison being removed however.
The second great fire occurred on St George's Day 1684 when a salute of seven guns had been fired. The Tower lived on as a romantic garden ruin, with shrubs being planted on the mound. The surrounding area, formerly the castle's bailey, was developed in the nineteenth century as a judicial and penal centre.