Located in the town of Tamworth, Staffordshire, England, Tamworth fortress is a Norman fortress with Grade I status that commands a view of the mouth of the River Anker into the Tame. However, prior to boundary adjustments in 1889, the majority of the town belonged to Staffordshire, while the castle was located on the border of Warwickshire. During the Anglo-Saxon era, the location was the home of the Mercian kings; however, it was abandoned during the Viking incursions. One of best-preserved motte-and-bailey castles of England, the structure was reinforced by the Normans and then expanded. Offa, the king of the Mercian kingdom, established a palace in Tamworth when it became his principal home. From this palace, he issued many charters known as sedens in palatio regali in Tamoworthige, the first of which was issued in 781. Almost nothing remained of its previous splendor after the Viking invasion in 874. Subsequently, in 913, Æthelflaed, the Mercian Lady, rebuilt Tamworth and strengthened it with an earthen burh. However, when the location was once more raided by the Danes in 943, this did little to protect it. Status of Tamworth as a royal palace vanishes during the ensuing decades, despite the fact that a mint there produced coins for successive Anglo-Saxon monarchs and, eventually, for William the Conqueror, the new Norman king. The land was later given to Robert Despenser, stewardof William, who constructed a timber castle in the style of a Norman motte and bailey in the 1080s. This was the ancestor of the current edifice, taking up the southwest corner of the former burh (burg). Robert died childless, leaving his nieces, one of whom married Robert Marmion, to inherit the castle. From approximately 1100 to 1294, the Marmion family, who were heir apparent to the Dukes of Normandy and thereafter the new English Kings, occupied the castle for six generations. The castle started to be remodeled in stone during their tenure, though there was a point when it looked like it might be completely destroyed. Over the ages, the castle saw several expansions, particularly during the Jacobean era, when the family of the Ferrers and their intermarried relatives began to dominate the inside. The shell keep has a gate tower from the 12th century and later residential space with a H layout that connects a three-story Jacobean south range from the 17th century and a 13th-century north range with oak timbers from the Great Hall from the 15th century. The diagonally placed masonry in the shape of a herringbone from the foot of the causeway to the gate tower is a noteworthy exterior feature that has survived from earlier periods
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Monuments and Architecture
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