About six miles north of Rochester, near the village of Cooling, Kent, on the Hoo Peninsula, stands Cooling Castle, a quadrangular castle from the fourteenth century. The Cobham family, the local lords of the manor, constructed it in the 1380s to protect the region from French incursions into the Thames Estuary. The distinctive design of the castle consists with two adjacent walled wards of varying sizes, encircled by ditches and moats. It was the first castle in England built for the use of gun ... (Read More)