Sandsfoot Castle
Sandsfoot Castle, also known as Weymouth Castle, is a ruined artillery fort built for King Henry VIII in 1539-41, together with Portland Castle, to guard the natural anchorage known as Portland Roads. A ruin since the early 18th century, the castle is now open to the public, following a restoration project in 2011-12.
Sandsfoot Castle became a scheduled monument in March 1953 and also a Grade II* listed building in December 1953. In the castle's listing entry, Historic England note: "Despite some coastal erosion, Sandsfoot Castle survives comparatively well as a ruined structure and associated earthwork remains. The blockhouse represents one of the most substantial examples of this type of Tudor fortification to survive in an unaltered state and it also contrasts with the contemporary Portland Castle."
History
Construction of castle (1539-41)
Sandsfoot Castle was one of a chain of coastal artillery forts built for King Henry VIII between 1539-41 as a result of tensions between England, the Holy Roman Empire and France. In 1534, after Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the King broke from Rome and formed the Church of England. When the Empire and France declared an alliance in 1538, an invasion of England to attempt to re-establish Catholicism and counter the English Reformation was believed to be imminent. The King responded by having a number of artillery forts and blockhouses built along the coastline of England and Wales. In Dorset, the natural anchorage of Portland Roads was identified as a vulnerable spot, and both Portland and Sandsfoot Castles were built to prevent the use of the refuge as an invasion point and protect English ships sheltering and trading there.
Sandsfoot Castle was built at a cost of £3,887 and was completed in 1541, when Maurice Rede was appointed as the gunner for the "house commonly known as the blockhouse of Weymouth". One of the earliest known references to the name "Sandsfoot" dates to June 1545 with documentation from the Privy Council recording that Philip Bonde, the master gunner of "Sandefote Castle", was to receive 24 barrels of sepentine powder to be split equally between the two castles protecting the Roads. During the 1540s, the antiquarian John Leland visited Weymouth and described the castle as "a right goodly, and warlike castle, having an open barbican [gunroom]".
Repair work of the 16th and 17th centuries, and role in the Civil War
From the time it was completed, Sandsfoot Castle suffered from the unstable site on which it was built and coastal erosion. The earliest known repair work was carried out in 1584-86 for a cost of £383, at a time when there were fears of a Spanish invasion. Remedial work was carried out on the east side of the castle, where a "great gulf" was filled in, and a stone wall, 22 feet in height and 60 feet in length, was built. The upper platform was repaired due to some of its timber and lead having been "rent and broken by violence of a culveringe of brasse which brake, being shott and discharged in tyme of an occasion of service". Other work included constructing two new platforms (the lower and higher keeps), repairing the decayed and sunken vaults, laying 33 feet of stone guttering, rebuilding the hall chimney, repairing the stable and the gate of the outer ward, and building a new bridge at the outer gate.
Further repairs were necessary in the decades that followed and work was carried out in 1610-11 for £210, which included pulling down a ruined wall and rebuilding it on a new foundation. Ashlar stone was used to construct a wall and parapet for a new platform and new ashlar added to the "most defective places" of the castle. Lead for the roof, new iron casements and glass for the windows, and timber for the lower platform and bridge were also added.
In 1623, a survey of the castle was carried out by Sir Richard Morryson and two other officers for King James I. At the time, the castle's serviceable iron ordnance was made up of one culverin, five demi-culverins, two sakers, one minion and one fawcon. The garrison was made up of a captain, master gunner, four gunners and three men. The castle had again suffered from the effects of coastal erosion, with the survey noting that "water daily undermines and eats away the ground" on the west side of the gunroom. The higher platform was recorded as being partly decayed and its removal was recommended "to prevent the charge of mending" and "for better service upon the lower battery". To remedy the erosion seen on the west side of the gunroom, where "one corner thereof the water hath undermined", it was proposed to build a 30 feet high wall like the one in existence on the east side.
Further recommendations focused on the landward defences and included making the existing dry moat deeper, adding a parapet to the rampart and erecting a wooden palisade. It was suggested the "ruined and uncovered" brick porch be replaced with an improved one, protected by a portcullis and roofed to provide a sentry post above. The construction of three sentinel houses about the perimeter was also proposed. The entire recommended works made in the survey was given an estimated cost of £459 and it is believed the work was carried out owing to the castle's defensive state during the Civil War. Between August 1643 and June 1644, amid the First English Civil War (1642-46), the castle was held for the King and it is believed to have housed a Royalist mint for part of that time.
Militia reorganisation and abandonment of Sandsfoot Castle as a coastal defence
The two castles defending Portland Roads were manned by local men, with Sandsfoot's garrison being provided by Wyke Regis, therefore making the village exempt from militia rates and taxes. In 1663, Charles Stewart, the 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, began planning a reorganisation of Dorset's militia and in June of that year he revealed his intention to incorporate the garrison of Sandsfoot into the militia. In January 1664, residents of Wyke Regis, in protest of the Lord Lieutenant's intended changes, sought the intervention of Humphrey Weld, the Captain of Sandsfoot Castle and Lieutenant Governor of Portland. They feared that the garrison would serve elsewhere in the county, leaving the castle defenceless. Weld's efforts in pursuing the matter led to his dismissal as a Deputy Lieutenant and Sandsfoot being taken into the Lord Lieutenant's possession.
Weld then petitioned to the King in December 1664 regarding his rights and against the actions of the Lord Lieutenant. A committee of the Privy Council, made up of the Duke of Albemarle and three others, was tasked with considering his petition. They concluded on 13 January 1665 that Sandsfoot Castle was "unserviceable to the King" and should be demolished, while Weld should be admitted back as deputy. It was also recommended that Portland be kept independent of Dorset county, but the garrison of Sandsfoot should be transferred to the militia.
Final use as a storehouse, abandonment and ruin
While the order for its destruction was not carried out, Sandsfoot Castle's defensive role effectively came to an end with the Privy Council's decision. The castle was then in use as a storehouse until at least 1691. That year saw "two pieces of ordnance" moved from the castle elsewhere in the borough "to bee again mounted and employed for the defences of the Borough and Towne, and the adjacent countrey, together with tenne rounds of powder and shott to each gun." The castle was abandoned sometime thereafter, and by 1725, it had become a ruin. Despite this, the Crown continued to appoint governors to the castle, the last being Gabriel Tucker Steward in 1795.
In contrast to Sandsfoot, Portland Castle would remain in a defensive state into the early 19th century, primarily protecting trading vessels against potential attack from privateers. On a 1725 plan of Portland Castle, the draughtsman recorded his theory that it was well-suited for this role as the guns were at an appropriate level with the surface of the water, whereas Sandsfoot stood on ground that was too high, thus providing a possible explanation for its abandonment.
Sandsfoot Castle's decline was hastened by the removal of its stonework for use as building material elsewhere in the borough. In 1701, Weymouth's town bridge was in need of repair and, with the cost expected to be "considerable", a petition containing the signatures of 48 inhabitants was submitted for the "walls and stones" of the castle "of no value". Although the Officers of Ordnance initially raised their objection, believing it "ought to be rebuilt for defence of the nation", the petition was granted. Most of the stone removal from the castle was otherwise unauthorised and continued throughout the 18th century.
Sandsfoot as a tourist attraction and continued loss of fabric in the 19th and 20th centuries
In its ruined state, Sandsfoot became a tourist attraction and a regularly drawn and painted feature of the local area. The arms of Queen Elizabeth I are believed to have been removed from the castle in 1825 and fixed in the chancel of All Saints' Church, Wyke Regis. Meanwhile, the castle continued to suffer from the effects of erosion and in April 1835, a large section of the gunroom collapsed into the sea. The Salisbury and Winchester Journal reported at the time: "The event had been for a long time anticipated, as the water, by its constant action at every tide against its base, had washed away the soil, produced a cavernous appearance, and rendered it extremely dangerous to venture underneath. It fell with a tremendous crash, and the huge mass of cemented materials, now lying scattered in the water beneath, present a highly picturesque appearance." The creation of a harbour of refuge at Portland in 1849-72, and in particular the construction of the two northern breakwaters in 1896-1905, slowed the effects of coastal erosion within the region of the castle.
In 1863, a reader of the Dorset County Chronicle urged for a solution to be found to preserve the ruins: "Sandsfoot Castle is in a state of decay and danger that threatens its complete destruction. Within the last two or three years several blocks of its massive walls and foundations have fallen on the beach, and the base of the cliff on which it stands is seriously hollowed out near high water mark. It is a place which has been a delight to all Weymouthians in their boyhood, is a common resort both to inhabitants and visitors in their rambles by land and sea, and is an attraction, a landmark, and a subject for many sketch books."
In 1902, Weymouth Corporation purchased the castle's ruins from the Commissioners of Woods and Forests for £150 and tennis courts were established on the future site of Sandsfoot Gardens. In 1931, Weymouth Council carried out the scheme of laying these gardens, but the castle remained closed off to the public owing to its unstable condition. In 1932, Sandsfoot Castle Halt opened on the line of the Weymouth and Portland Railway to provide easy access to the ruins, gardens and surrounding coastline. Such a scheme had been suggested by a reader of the Southern Times in 1883 as "it would be a very great boon to visitors, who complain very much that Rodwell station is too far from Sandsfoot to be of any convenience."
The last section of the gunroom, the south western embrasure, collapsed in March 1952. In 1969, the Sunday Mirror reported that Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Borough Council could not afford to keep the castle and had expressed their wish to see it handed over to a new owner. The newspaper claimed that an estimated £52,000 was required to stabilise the ruins and cliff. In 1970, following public petitioning and requests from the council, a grant was received from the Ministry of Public Building and Works to carry out some repair work, which included erecting stone pillars and installing tension fixings to support vulnerable parts of the ruins. The tops of the surviving walls were also reset using a mortar mix and course aggregate, but the castle remained closed to the public once the work was completed.
With the ongoing risk of the castle collapsing into the sea, the borough council, unable to finance the necessary cliff stabilisation work themselves, sought grants from both the Department of the Environment and Dorset County Council. Both denied their pleas and the county council also refused to take ownership of the castle. In 1979, volunteers received permission from the local authorities to attempt to shore up the cliff and fill in an exposed gap in the castle's foundations with concrete, but they were unable to raise the necessary funds.
Restoration
In 2003, English Heritage added Sandsfoot Castle to their Heritage at Risk register, with the primary vulnerability being that the "soft clays the castle is built on suffer[s] from ongoing erosion and instability". The ruins were also believed to be at risk of collapse, for in addition to the erosion and general weathering, the castle was suffering from structural weakness owing to the loss of stone fabric over the years and the growth of invasive vegetation. The castle's inclusion on the register sparked hopes that funding could be sought for its preservation.
Weymouth and Portland Borough Council (W&PBC) and the Friends of the Rodwell Trail and Sandsfoot Gardens began working in partnership to "stabilise, preserve and monitor the structure of the castle and make it safe for public access". In 2009, the two parties were successful in obtaining a preliminary grant of £23,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which was used to conduct a 3D laser scan survey of the ruins and the cliff to determine the extent of necessary conservation work and the approximate cost to carry out the project. The survey was undertaken by Warner Land Surveys Ltd in 2010.
Meanwhile, W&PBC produced a conservation management plan to assist with the castle's restoration and its future management, and help determine the best option to provide public access to the ruins. The document was also intended to assist in obtaining the necessary consents for the project including from English Heritage and the Local Planning Authority. For the plan, the council commissioned Wessex Archaeology to conduct an archaeological survey of the castle, which included the use of Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and rectified and panoramic photography. Both the findings of the survey and conservation management plan were submitted for the next bidding stage in August 2010, which was successful in obtaining £194,700 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with an additional sum provided by W&PBC.
Levitate Architecture and Design Studio Ltd was contracted as the conservation and general architects for the project, and Paul Carpenter Associates contracted as the structural engineers. Conservation of the existing stonework began in June 2011 when scaffolding was erected and masonry repairs were carried out by Sally Strachey Historic Conservation Ltd. Much of the conservation work used lime mortar, while soft cappings replaced the existing cement ones on the top of the walls. By November 2011, work on the higher parts of the castle was completed and the scaffolding removed as work began at ground level.
In September 2011, planning permission was obtained for the installation of an internal walkway to provide public access within the ruins. The walkway, made up of a galvanised steel frame and oak boards, was designed by Levitate and installed by Bridmet Ltd. The walkway was set at the same height as the castle's original ground floor level and terminates with a viewing area at the archway which led to the gunroom. The walkway was designed to be sensitive to the appearance of the ruins and was largely placed on stonework from the castle which had been recovered from the beach below in September 2011 by sixty personnel of the 10 Field Squadron, Royal Engineers. The walkway's installation was informed in part by an archaeological evaluation of a single trial pit within the ruins which was undertaken by Terrain Archaeology for W&PBC in October-November 2010. In addition to the walkway, Levitate designed the accompanying information boards and the night lighting scheme which uses Terra floodlights on the outside and Focus floodlights internally.
The restoration was completed in June 2012 and the castle was opened to the public on 1 July 2012 as part of a Tudor Fayre event, which was attended by over 1,000 people. The castle's opening was performed by deputy mayor Ray Banham and Thomas Myers, a nine year old pupil of Beechcroft St Paul's Primary School who won the Friends and Council-launched "Painting a Castle" competition, the winner of which received the honour of assisting in opening the castle.
Architecture
Sandsfoot Castle is made up of three distinct sections; the gatetower, blockhouse and gunroom. It was built using Corallian stone for its rubble core, with ashlar facing of Corallian and Portland stone. Much of the facing has since been removed, with most of the surviving ashlar remaining around the upper windows. There are no longer any remains of the gunroom, but both the blockhouse and its attached central gatetower survive as a ruin.
The two-storey, rectangular blockhouse, which also has a basement, was accessed on the landward side by the gatetower, the entrance of which was protected by a portcullis. The blockhouse measures 42 feet by 32 feet (41.5 feet by 16 feet at basement level due to thicker walls) and contains the remains of stairs, fireplaces, privies and a bread oven. It is believed the ground floor was separated by partitions to form four separate rooms. The blockhouse is now roofless; however, its walls retain a number of windows and openings, and parts of the structure remain close to their original height.
The one-storey gunroom at the seaward end of the castle had an irregular octagonal shape and has since been lost to coastal erosion, although the archway which connected it to the blockhouse still exists. It had five embrasures for the guns, three facing seaward and two covering each side of the shoreline, along with loopholes for small arms. An upper gun platform was formed on the gunroom's flat roof and was accessed by the blockhouse's second storey and connected to the gunroom by a staircase.
Owing to the nature of the stone used and some of the architectural decoration discovered, it has been suggested that much of the castle was built using stone from recently demolished Abbeys, with Bindon Abbey near Wool often being cited. In the 19th century, fragments of worked and carved stone were recorded, including corbel heads, column shafts and capitols considered to be of the Norman and Early English periods. In 1920, W. C. Norman, writing for the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, noted "two archaic corbel heads which evidently came from some ecclesiastical building".
The castle had limited landward protection. The principal defensive feature was an earthwork, made up of a bank and outer ditch, which survives on the north-west, north-east and south-west sides approximately 100 metres from the castle. The earliest written reference made to the earthwork was in the 1623 survey which described it as "a rampier with two points, bullwarks, enclosed with a dry overgrown moat". The surviving earthwork has a bank measuring 0.7 metres high and 5 metres wide, with an outer ditch, measuring 5 metres wide and approximately 1.5 metres in depth. The north corner has the remains of a projecting and elongated five-sided earth bastion.
Surrounding area
Sandsfoot Gardens remains a popular public space, now under the care of Weymouth Town Council and the Friends of the Rodwell Trail and Sandsfoot Gardens. The gardens include seasonal flowers, herb beds and herb borders, with an ornamental pond at its centre. In recent years, the gardens have been awarded the Green Flag Award.
The road running behind the castle and up to Buxton Road is named Old Castle Road. The Old Castle Hotel at Sudan Road was built for the local brewery Devenish and opened in 1928. Its name and design was influenced by Sandsfoot Castle.
References
The following is an A-Z list of references for this page.
1) BBC News - Restoration hope for castle ruin - 21 December 2009 - website page
2) BBC News - Weymouth's Sandsfoot Castle shut after cracks appear - 20 January 2021 - website page
3) British History Online - An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 2, South East: Weymouth - Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London - 1970 - website page
4) Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, Charles II (1664-1665) - Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green - 1863 - publication
5) Conservation Management Plan for Sandsfoot Castle - Jo Hibbert (for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council) - July 2010 - via Dorset for You Planning - PDF document
6) Dezeen - Oak walkway by Levitate inserted into ruined castle - Olivia Mull - 4 March 2014 - website page
7) Dorset Echo - Historic buildings move is welcomed - 19 July 2003 - website page
8) Dorset Echo - Plea to save Sandsfoot Castle - Ian McDonald - 30 December 2008 - website page
9) Dorset Echo - £23K grant boosts battle to save Sandsfoot Castle - James Tourgout - 22 December 2009 - website page
10) Dorset Echo - £200,000 lottery cash revamp for Sandsfoot Castle - Marttin Lea - 8 January 2011 - website page
11) Dorset Echo - Weymouth: Sandsfoot Castle gets £194k makeover - 6 June 2011 - website page
12) Dorset Echo - Weymouth's Sandsfoot Castle undergoes next stage of restoration project - Martin Lea - 2 October 2011 - website page
13) Dorset Echo - Revamped Sandsfoot Castle will open this weekend - Martin Lea - 29 June 2012 - website page
14) Dorset Echo - Revamped Sandsfoot Castle opens its gates for Tudor fayre - Samantha Harman - 3 July 2012 - website page
15) Dorset for You - Planning Application Details - 11/00683/FUL3 (27 July 2011) - website page
16) GIM International - Recording One of Henry VIII's Castles: Archaeological Survey at Sandsfoot Castle - Paul Cripps (Wessex Archaeology) - September 2012 - website page
17) Historic England - Heritage at Risk Register 2010 / South West - publication
18) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - Sandsfoot Castle - website page
19) Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club - Volume 3 - Notes on Sandsfoot Castle - T. S. Grooves - 1879 - article
20) Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club - Volume 35 - Sandsfoot and Portland Castles - Henry Symonds - 1914 - article
21) Sandsfoot Castle & The Rodwell Trail - Sandsfoot Castle Update - 2 November 2011 - website page
22) Sandsfoot Castle & The Rodwell Trail - Paint a Castle Competition - 27 February 2012 - website page
23) The British Newspaper Archive - contemporary articles from the Dorset County Chronicle, Western Gazette, Southern Times and Salisbury and Winchester Journal - website page
24) The Relationship Between Central and Local Goverment in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, 1660-1688 - P. J. Norrey - University of Bristol - 1988 - thesis
25) Warner Land Surveys Ltd - Sandsfoot Castle, Weymouth, Dorset - 3D Laser Scan Survey - 7 June 2011 - via YouTube - video
26) Weymouth Town Council - Sandsfoot Gardens - website page
Sandsfoot Castle became a scheduled monument in March 1953 and also a Grade II* listed building in December 1953. In the castle's listing entry, Historic England note: "Despite some coastal erosion, Sandsfoot Castle survives comparatively well as a ruined structure and associated earthwork remains. The blockhouse represents one of the most substantial examples of this type of Tudor fortification to survive in an unaltered state and it also contrasts with the contemporary Portland Castle."
History
Construction of castle (1539-41)
Sandsfoot Castle was one of a chain of coastal artillery forts built for King Henry VIII between 1539-41 as a result of tensions between England, the Holy Roman Empire and France. In 1534, after Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the King broke from Rome and formed the Church of England. When the Empire and France declared an alliance in 1538, an invasion of England to attempt to re-establish Catholicism and counter the English Reformation was believed to be imminent. The King responded by having a number of artillery forts and blockhouses built along the coastline of England and Wales. In Dorset, the natural anchorage of Portland Roads was identified as a vulnerable spot, and both Portland and Sandsfoot Castles were built to prevent the use of the refuge as an invasion point and protect English ships sheltering and trading there.
Sandsfoot Castle was built at a cost of £3,887 and was completed in 1541, when Maurice Rede was appointed as the gunner for the "house commonly known as the blockhouse of Weymouth". One of the earliest known references to the name "Sandsfoot" dates to June 1545 with documentation from the Privy Council recording that Philip Bonde, the master gunner of "Sandefote Castle", was to receive 24 barrels of sepentine powder to be split equally between the two castles protecting the Roads. During the 1540s, the antiquarian John Leland visited Weymouth and described the castle as "a right goodly, and warlike castle, having an open barbican [gunroom]".
Repair work of the 16th and 17th centuries, and role in the Civil War
From the time it was completed, Sandsfoot Castle suffered from the unstable site on which it was built and coastal erosion. The earliest known repair work was carried out in 1584-86 for a cost of £383, at a time when there were fears of a Spanish invasion. Remedial work was carried out on the east side of the castle, where a "great gulf" was filled in, and a stone wall, 22 feet in height and 60 feet in length, was built. The upper platform was repaired due to some of its timber and lead having been "rent and broken by violence of a culveringe of brasse which brake, being shott and discharged in tyme of an occasion of service". Other work included constructing two new platforms (the lower and higher keeps), repairing the decayed and sunken vaults, laying 33 feet of stone guttering, rebuilding the hall chimney, repairing the stable and the gate of the outer ward, and building a new bridge at the outer gate.
Further repairs were necessary in the decades that followed and work was carried out in 1610-11 for £210, which included pulling down a ruined wall and rebuilding it on a new foundation. Ashlar stone was used to construct a wall and parapet for a new platform and new ashlar added to the "most defective places" of the castle. Lead for the roof, new iron casements and glass for the windows, and timber for the lower platform and bridge were also added.
In 1623, a survey of the castle was carried out by Sir Richard Morryson and two other officers for King James I. At the time, the castle's serviceable iron ordnance was made up of one culverin, five demi-culverins, two sakers, one minion and one fawcon. The garrison was made up of a captain, master gunner, four gunners and three men. The castle had again suffered from the effects of coastal erosion, with the survey noting that "water daily undermines and eats away the ground" on the west side of the gunroom. The higher platform was recorded as being partly decayed and its removal was recommended "to prevent the charge of mending" and "for better service upon the lower battery". To remedy the erosion seen on the west side of the gunroom, where "one corner thereof the water hath undermined", it was proposed to build a 30 feet high wall like the one in existence on the east side.
Further recommendations focused on the landward defences and included making the existing dry moat deeper, adding a parapet to the rampart and erecting a wooden palisade. It was suggested the "ruined and uncovered" brick porch be replaced with an improved one, protected by a portcullis and roofed to provide a sentry post above. The construction of three sentinel houses about the perimeter was also proposed. The entire recommended works made in the survey was given an estimated cost of £459 and it is believed the work was carried out owing to the castle's defensive state during the Civil War. Between August 1643 and June 1644, amid the First English Civil War (1642-46), the castle was held for the King and it is believed to have housed a Royalist mint for part of that time.
Militia reorganisation and abandonment of Sandsfoot Castle as a coastal defence
The two castles defending Portland Roads were manned by local men, with Sandsfoot's garrison being provided by Wyke Regis, therefore making the village exempt from militia rates and taxes. In 1663, Charles Stewart, the 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, began planning a reorganisation of Dorset's militia and in June of that year he revealed his intention to incorporate the garrison of Sandsfoot into the militia. In January 1664, residents of Wyke Regis, in protest of the Lord Lieutenant's intended changes, sought the intervention of Humphrey Weld, the Captain of Sandsfoot Castle and Lieutenant Governor of Portland. They feared that the garrison would serve elsewhere in the county, leaving the castle defenceless. Weld's efforts in pursuing the matter led to his dismissal as a Deputy Lieutenant and Sandsfoot being taken into the Lord Lieutenant's possession.
Weld then petitioned to the King in December 1664 regarding his rights and against the actions of the Lord Lieutenant. A committee of the Privy Council, made up of the Duke of Albemarle and three others, was tasked with considering his petition. They concluded on 13 January 1665 that Sandsfoot Castle was "unserviceable to the King" and should be demolished, while Weld should be admitted back as deputy. It was also recommended that Portland be kept independent of Dorset county, but the garrison of Sandsfoot should be transferred to the militia.
Final use as a storehouse, abandonment and ruin
While the order for its destruction was not carried out, Sandsfoot Castle's defensive role effectively came to an end with the Privy Council's decision. The castle was then in use as a storehouse until at least 1691. That year saw "two pieces of ordnance" moved from the castle elsewhere in the borough "to bee again mounted and employed for the defences of the Borough and Towne, and the adjacent countrey, together with tenne rounds of powder and shott to each gun." The castle was abandoned sometime thereafter, and by 1725, it had become a ruin. Despite this, the Crown continued to appoint governors to the castle, the last being Gabriel Tucker Steward in 1795.
In contrast to Sandsfoot, Portland Castle would remain in a defensive state into the early 19th century, primarily protecting trading vessels against potential attack from privateers. On a 1725 plan of Portland Castle, the draughtsman recorded his theory that it was well-suited for this role as the guns were at an appropriate level with the surface of the water, whereas Sandsfoot stood on ground that was too high, thus providing a possible explanation for its abandonment.
Sandsfoot Castle's decline was hastened by the removal of its stonework for use as building material elsewhere in the borough. In 1701, Weymouth's town bridge was in need of repair and, with the cost expected to be "considerable", a petition containing the signatures of 48 inhabitants was submitted for the "walls and stones" of the castle "of no value". Although the Officers of Ordnance initially raised their objection, believing it "ought to be rebuilt for defence of the nation", the petition was granted. Most of the stone removal from the castle was otherwise unauthorised and continued throughout the 18th century.
Sandsfoot as a tourist attraction and continued loss of fabric in the 19th and 20th centuries
In its ruined state, Sandsfoot became a tourist attraction and a regularly drawn and painted feature of the local area. The arms of Queen Elizabeth I are believed to have been removed from the castle in 1825 and fixed in the chancel of All Saints' Church, Wyke Regis. Meanwhile, the castle continued to suffer from the effects of erosion and in April 1835, a large section of the gunroom collapsed into the sea. The Salisbury and Winchester Journal reported at the time: "The event had been for a long time anticipated, as the water, by its constant action at every tide against its base, had washed away the soil, produced a cavernous appearance, and rendered it extremely dangerous to venture underneath. It fell with a tremendous crash, and the huge mass of cemented materials, now lying scattered in the water beneath, present a highly picturesque appearance." The creation of a harbour of refuge at Portland in 1849-72, and in particular the construction of the two northern breakwaters in 1896-1905, slowed the effects of coastal erosion within the region of the castle.
In 1863, a reader of the Dorset County Chronicle urged for a solution to be found to preserve the ruins: "Sandsfoot Castle is in a state of decay and danger that threatens its complete destruction. Within the last two or three years several blocks of its massive walls and foundations have fallen on the beach, and the base of the cliff on which it stands is seriously hollowed out near high water mark. It is a place which has been a delight to all Weymouthians in their boyhood, is a common resort both to inhabitants and visitors in their rambles by land and sea, and is an attraction, a landmark, and a subject for many sketch books."
In 1902, Weymouth Corporation purchased the castle's ruins from the Commissioners of Woods and Forests for £150 and tennis courts were established on the future site of Sandsfoot Gardens. In 1931, Weymouth Council carried out the scheme of laying these gardens, but the castle remained closed off to the public owing to its unstable condition. In 1932, Sandsfoot Castle Halt opened on the line of the Weymouth and Portland Railway to provide easy access to the ruins, gardens and surrounding coastline. Such a scheme had been suggested by a reader of the Southern Times in 1883 as "it would be a very great boon to visitors, who complain very much that Rodwell station is too far from Sandsfoot to be of any convenience."
The last section of the gunroom, the south western embrasure, collapsed in March 1952. In 1969, the Sunday Mirror reported that Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Borough Council could not afford to keep the castle and had expressed their wish to see it handed over to a new owner. The newspaper claimed that an estimated £52,000 was required to stabilise the ruins and cliff. In 1970, following public petitioning and requests from the council, a grant was received from the Ministry of Public Building and Works to carry out some repair work, which included erecting stone pillars and installing tension fixings to support vulnerable parts of the ruins. The tops of the surviving walls were also reset using a mortar mix and course aggregate, but the castle remained closed to the public once the work was completed.
With the ongoing risk of the castle collapsing into the sea, the borough council, unable to finance the necessary cliff stabilisation work themselves, sought grants from both the Department of the Environment and Dorset County Council. Both denied their pleas and the county council also refused to take ownership of the castle. In 1979, volunteers received permission from the local authorities to attempt to shore up the cliff and fill in an exposed gap in the castle's foundations with concrete, but they were unable to raise the necessary funds.
Restoration
In 2003, English Heritage added Sandsfoot Castle to their Heritage at Risk register, with the primary vulnerability being that the "soft clays the castle is built on suffer[s] from ongoing erosion and instability". The ruins were also believed to be at risk of collapse, for in addition to the erosion and general weathering, the castle was suffering from structural weakness owing to the loss of stone fabric over the years and the growth of invasive vegetation. The castle's inclusion on the register sparked hopes that funding could be sought for its preservation.
Weymouth and Portland Borough Council (W&PBC) and the Friends of the Rodwell Trail and Sandsfoot Gardens began working in partnership to "stabilise, preserve and monitor the structure of the castle and make it safe for public access". In 2009, the two parties were successful in obtaining a preliminary grant of £23,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which was used to conduct a 3D laser scan survey of the ruins and the cliff to determine the extent of necessary conservation work and the approximate cost to carry out the project. The survey was undertaken by Warner Land Surveys Ltd in 2010.
Meanwhile, W&PBC produced a conservation management plan to assist with the castle's restoration and its future management, and help determine the best option to provide public access to the ruins. The document was also intended to assist in obtaining the necessary consents for the project including from English Heritage and the Local Planning Authority. For the plan, the council commissioned Wessex Archaeology to conduct an archaeological survey of the castle, which included the use of Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and rectified and panoramic photography. Both the findings of the survey and conservation management plan were submitted for the next bidding stage in August 2010, which was successful in obtaining £194,700 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with an additional sum provided by W&PBC.
Levitate Architecture and Design Studio Ltd was contracted as the conservation and general architects for the project, and Paul Carpenter Associates contracted as the structural engineers. Conservation of the existing stonework began in June 2011 when scaffolding was erected and masonry repairs were carried out by Sally Strachey Historic Conservation Ltd. Much of the conservation work used lime mortar, while soft cappings replaced the existing cement ones on the top of the walls. By November 2011, work on the higher parts of the castle was completed and the scaffolding removed as work began at ground level.
In September 2011, planning permission was obtained for the installation of an internal walkway to provide public access within the ruins. The walkway, made up of a galvanised steel frame and oak boards, was designed by Levitate and installed by Bridmet Ltd. The walkway was set at the same height as the castle's original ground floor level and terminates with a viewing area at the archway which led to the gunroom. The walkway was designed to be sensitive to the appearance of the ruins and was largely placed on stonework from the castle which had been recovered from the beach below in September 2011 by sixty personnel of the 10 Field Squadron, Royal Engineers. The walkway's installation was informed in part by an archaeological evaluation of a single trial pit within the ruins which was undertaken by Terrain Archaeology for W&PBC in October-November 2010. In addition to the walkway, Levitate designed the accompanying information boards and the night lighting scheme which uses Terra floodlights on the outside and Focus floodlights internally.
The restoration was completed in June 2012 and the castle was opened to the public on 1 July 2012 as part of a Tudor Fayre event, which was attended by over 1,000 people. The castle's opening was performed by deputy mayor Ray Banham and Thomas Myers, a nine year old pupil of Beechcroft St Paul's Primary School who won the Friends and Council-launched "Painting a Castle" competition, the winner of which received the honour of assisting in opening the castle.
Architecture
Sandsfoot Castle is made up of three distinct sections; the gatetower, blockhouse and gunroom. It was built using Corallian stone for its rubble core, with ashlar facing of Corallian and Portland stone. Much of the facing has since been removed, with most of the surviving ashlar remaining around the upper windows. There are no longer any remains of the gunroom, but both the blockhouse and its attached central gatetower survive as a ruin.
The two-storey, rectangular blockhouse, which also has a basement, was accessed on the landward side by the gatetower, the entrance of which was protected by a portcullis. The blockhouse measures 42 feet by 32 feet (41.5 feet by 16 feet at basement level due to thicker walls) and contains the remains of stairs, fireplaces, privies and a bread oven. It is believed the ground floor was separated by partitions to form four separate rooms. The blockhouse is now roofless; however, its walls retain a number of windows and openings, and parts of the structure remain close to their original height.
The one-storey gunroom at the seaward end of the castle had an irregular octagonal shape and has since been lost to coastal erosion, although the archway which connected it to the blockhouse still exists. It had five embrasures for the guns, three facing seaward and two covering each side of the shoreline, along with loopholes for small arms. An upper gun platform was formed on the gunroom's flat roof and was accessed by the blockhouse's second storey and connected to the gunroom by a staircase.
Owing to the nature of the stone used and some of the architectural decoration discovered, it has been suggested that much of the castle was built using stone from recently demolished Abbeys, with Bindon Abbey near Wool often being cited. In the 19th century, fragments of worked and carved stone were recorded, including corbel heads, column shafts and capitols considered to be of the Norman and Early English periods. In 1920, W. C. Norman, writing for the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, noted "two archaic corbel heads which evidently came from some ecclesiastical building".
The castle had limited landward protection. The principal defensive feature was an earthwork, made up of a bank and outer ditch, which survives on the north-west, north-east and south-west sides approximately 100 metres from the castle. The earliest written reference made to the earthwork was in the 1623 survey which described it as "a rampier with two points, bullwarks, enclosed with a dry overgrown moat". The surviving earthwork has a bank measuring 0.7 metres high and 5 metres wide, with an outer ditch, measuring 5 metres wide and approximately 1.5 metres in depth. The north corner has the remains of a projecting and elongated five-sided earth bastion.
Surrounding area
Sandsfoot Gardens remains a popular public space, now under the care of Weymouth Town Council and the Friends of the Rodwell Trail and Sandsfoot Gardens. The gardens include seasonal flowers, herb beds and herb borders, with an ornamental pond at its centre. In recent years, the gardens have been awarded the Green Flag Award.
The road running behind the castle and up to Buxton Road is named Old Castle Road. The Old Castle Hotel at Sudan Road was built for the local brewery Devenish and opened in 1928. Its name and design was influenced by Sandsfoot Castle.
References
The following is an A-Z list of references for this page.
1) BBC News - Restoration hope for castle ruin - 21 December 2009 - website page
2) BBC News - Weymouth's Sandsfoot Castle shut after cracks appear - 20 January 2021 - website page
3) British History Online - An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 2, South East: Weymouth - Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London - 1970 - website page
4) Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, Charles II (1664-1665) - Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green - 1863 - publication
5) Conservation Management Plan for Sandsfoot Castle - Jo Hibbert (for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council) - July 2010 - via Dorset for You Planning - PDF document
6) Dezeen - Oak walkway by Levitate inserted into ruined castle - Olivia Mull - 4 March 2014 - website page
7) Dorset Echo - Historic buildings move is welcomed - 19 July 2003 - website page
8) Dorset Echo - Plea to save Sandsfoot Castle - Ian McDonald - 30 December 2008 - website page
9) Dorset Echo - £23K grant boosts battle to save Sandsfoot Castle - James Tourgout - 22 December 2009 - website page
10) Dorset Echo - £200,000 lottery cash revamp for Sandsfoot Castle - Marttin Lea - 8 January 2011 - website page
11) Dorset Echo - Weymouth: Sandsfoot Castle gets £194k makeover - 6 June 2011 - website page
12) Dorset Echo - Weymouth's Sandsfoot Castle undergoes next stage of restoration project - Martin Lea - 2 October 2011 - website page
13) Dorset Echo - Revamped Sandsfoot Castle will open this weekend - Martin Lea - 29 June 2012 - website page
14) Dorset Echo - Revamped Sandsfoot Castle opens its gates for Tudor fayre - Samantha Harman - 3 July 2012 - website page
15) Dorset for You - Planning Application Details - 11/00683/FUL3 (27 July 2011) - website page
16) GIM International - Recording One of Henry VIII's Castles: Archaeological Survey at Sandsfoot Castle - Paul Cripps (Wessex Archaeology) - September 2012 - website page
17) Historic England - Heritage at Risk Register 2010 / South West - publication
18) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - Sandsfoot Castle - website page
19) Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club - Volume 3 - Notes on Sandsfoot Castle - T. S. Grooves - 1879 - article
20) Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club - Volume 35 - Sandsfoot and Portland Castles - Henry Symonds - 1914 - article
21) Sandsfoot Castle & The Rodwell Trail - Sandsfoot Castle Update - 2 November 2011 - website page
22) Sandsfoot Castle & The Rodwell Trail - Paint a Castle Competition - 27 February 2012 - website page
23) The British Newspaper Archive - contemporary articles from the Dorset County Chronicle, Western Gazette, Southern Times and Salisbury and Winchester Journal - website page
24) The Relationship Between Central and Local Goverment in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, 1660-1688 - P. J. Norrey - University of Bristol - 1988 - thesis
25) Warner Land Surveys Ltd - Sandsfoot Castle, Weymouth, Dorset - 3D Laser Scan Survey - 7 June 2011 - via YouTube - video
26) Weymouth Town Council - Sandsfoot Gardens - website page
